Data Loss Prevention

A data loss prevention tool flags keywords that lead to the discovery of a possible conspiracy to commit a crime.

With serious data breaches occurring on almost a daily basis, concerns about data protection have skyrocketed. While some experts believe endpoint breaches may no longer comprise the majority of data leaks, the intentional or unintentional release of sensitive data from endpoints within an organization, whether by employees, contractors or guests, remains a serious problem that data loss prevention (DLP) products seek to address.

Traditionally there have been two ways to host a data loss prevention security service: An on-premise application managed by the customer, or an on-premise application managed by the DLP supplier. BEW Global, a managed security service provider, has a third way: Through the cloud.

Positioned as a data loss prevention tool, the app and server software focus on enforcing SharePoint content policies on iOS devices

“OpenDLP is a free and open source, agent-based, centrally managed, massively distributable data loss prevention tool.” This is how creator Andrew Gavin defines OpenDLP. While this tool could be used to monitor sensitive data on hundreds of systems simultaneously, it could also be used to steal massive amounts of data very quickly.

Sony is aggressively investigating the breaches that lost it data on 100 million customers; so far it hasn't done much to make up the loss to them, though. Shouldn't that come first?

Using a grossly insecure Skype client and new exploit for illustration, IT can show its value even to phone users who scoff at musty ideas of how to keep data secure.

Verizon admitted in emails directly to customers that its data was among that stolen from email service company Epsilon, presumably widening the pool of potential victims.

Symantec plans to have an updated version of its data-loss prevention suite out by mid-2011 that will add advanced machine-learning capability to simplify data classification and keyword definitions of documents to ease administrative chores associated with properly setting up DLP controls.

Real data-loss prevention is a political as much as a technical problem; the WikiLeaks example and its threat to dish on corporations makes a good case to help IT address both.

Web security vendor Websense Inc. is now offering a full-featured downloadable version of its data loss prevention (DLP) technology that IT admins should be able to download and install in less than an hour. But one industry expert warns that DLP is one of those unsolvable problems.

Data Leak Protection products (DLP) are designed to help organizations keep tabs on and protect sensitive data that, if lost, could create legal liability, loss of profit, safety or security risks, and so on.