Data is a mainstream and integral part of the information-based business, and any interruption to the data systems could be impacting the businesses in terms of business continuity plans.
With the emergence of cloud-based applications, more businesses are depending on SaaS (Software as a Service), and cloud-based information systems for managing their business process.
In such cases, the control over the data is limited internally, and thus the need for data loss prevention (DLP) is high.
With reputed service providers offering cloud-based applications for office productivity management, the scope of team collaboration, remote work environments, and its relative practices are increasing rapidly, and the vulnerability for data loss prevails around.
The harsh reality often ignored in the cloud applications like Office 365 or Google Workspace etc is that the service providers agree for securing the applications back up and to offer uninterrupted services.
But in the case of any disaster to their systems recovery, the recovery commitments to the user’s data loss prevention are limited.
Thus, technically, in case of any breach or disaster to any of the cloud services, the scope of complete backup for your data is remote and one needs to have custom-specific backup measures in place for data loss prevention.
As discussed in a published report from the HIPAA journal, around 70% of the companies witnessed public cloud data breach in the recent past, and considering such implications, the need for data loss prevention solutions has become an integral need for businesses.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data loss prevention aka information leakage prevention is a systematic and combinational application of technology solutions, strategies, and processes integral to ensuring the prevention of unauthorized access, intrusion detections, and mitigating any attempts of a data breach.
Thus, the objective is to secure the sensitive information of the business from any kind of data leakage.
Data loss prevention (DLP) as a process also refers to the tools and techniques integrated used to support the network administrators for monitoring and managing the data flow between the organizational internal systems, and any kind of unauthorized access to sensitive data from the non-authorized staff too.
Also, some of the physical security practices like blocking the external storage device ports, preventing users to carry any kind of storage or other digital devices into the server rooms, or sensitive work environments is a protocol practices in the data loss prevention program to secure the systems from data leakage.
Some of the common data leakage occurrence scenarios are:
1. Human Error
Accidental data erasing is one of the common mistakes that lead to data loss prevention among the systems.
Though there is no intended approach to such data deletion, or documents getting mismanaged, the scope for such errors exists, and often businesses encounter such challenges.
Even in the case of cloud-based applications like Microsoft 365, if the account configurations do not always tick backup a file in the cloud, any deletion in the system automatically deletes the file in the cloud too and there is no kind of data loss prevention process.
However, in some cloud solutions, there is scope for retrieval of data up to some limited timeframe in covering any kind of data loss prevention, but it is not practical to rely on such practices for information leakage prevention.
2. Maligning Attempts
More often the data breach conditions have resulted from the internal sources targeting the data loss.
This could be attributed to various reasons like the feud between employee-employer or group conflicts, team issues, or personal vengeance leading to data leakage.
The systems breach could with the intent for data leakage led to significant challenges.
To avoid such conditions, data loss prevention programs are imperative, and one must ensure there are safe practices followed for information leakage prevention.
3. Intrusions or Unintended Access Gains
Both the possibilities of intrusions and unintended access gains are possible in the information systems, and any such attempts could lead to a massive breach in the security, leading to data loss.
Complying with regulatory practices and for the goodwill of the business, if the systems get vulnerable and such reports of data leakage to occur, it could harm the reputation and business of the organization.
These intrusions could be of any form like malware attacks, physical intrusions into data systems leading to data loss, or poor network security wherein the data leakage take place during data transmissions, etc.
On the other way, unintended access gains could lead to corruption or deletion, or unintended use of data in the wrong hands leading to data leakage.
To avoid such challenges, need for data loss prevention programs are to be widely practiced.
Even the instances of employees or users accessing the information systems from public computers, not logging out from the sign-in emails or applications or leaving copies of digital files in the public computers is a form of data loss and such information leakage prevention can be practiced only at the users end by being cautious about such practices.
If the users religiously practice the data leakage prevention processes during the working routine, it can help in information leakage prevention.
There are many comprehensive solutions available in the public domain as tools and technology, managed service providers offering the scope of data loss and information leakage prevention process.
Modern solutions for data loss prevention programs help in 360-degree management, wherein all the incoming emails are screened, any intrusion detections are prevented, inconsistent patterns of data access are identified, and tracking the email communications or messaging communication tools for information leakage prevention.
Also, such service applications and service providers help in controlling the data flow among the internal groups and how the data is being shared among the external environments.
However, in the prevention of data leakage, the role of all internal stakeholders like employees, system admins, and service providers is very important for effective management.
For more information on data leakage and loss prevention process and to have support services to manage the data leakage prevention in your business, reach out to Exabytes Singapore teams for more information, and good offers.
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