Data loss prevention (DLP) is a method to alleviate activities of data breaches, accidental destruction, and ransomware attacks on crucial and sensitive data. Moreover, this method also saves organizations’ data from leaking. The key use cases of data loss prevention techniques include securing data on remote cloud servers and securing backups of important data.
The data loss prevention technique uses tools and software to detect any type of threat on the device. These tools reject the transferring activity of the sensitive data to any other external device or server if the transfer is against the companies’ rules and policies. With these advantageous features of data loss prevention tools, the global DLP market is expected to grow by 22.4% during the forecast period of 2022–2028, as per the OMR Research analysis. Moreover, the growth of DLP tools has increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. Many businesses were forced to adapt to the work-from-home or remote work strategy. Due to this, data prevention has become a necessity for private organizations. The reason behind that is that every employee doesn’t have the DLP tool on their device, which increases cyber-attacks on remote workers’ devices. For instance, in companies’ sensitive video conferences, if the caller’s device is not secure, then the company can face a cyber-attack on their sensitive information, which can be leaked by attackers.
Types of Data Loss Prevention Tools
DLP software or tools are widely used in every private or public organization. Whether to secure the conversations done through emails or to secure the websites that transfer sensitive data from one end to another, these tools play a crucial role in providing security. There are mainly three types of data loss prevention tools, including:
Network DLP
Network data loss prevention tools are used in shielding or securing companies’ communication modes such as emails, file transfer protocols, web applications, websites, and others. These DLP tools are useful in monitoring HTTPS, FTPS, TCP/IP, and other communication networks within the organization. Network DLP tools automatically encrypt emails and notify administrators if any suspicious activity is found, among many other features.
Endpoint DLP
Endpoint means communication between computer devices. Endpoint DLP tools aid in the security of data transferred to or from any computer device or Windows or macOS software. These DLP tools are significant due to the hackers who constantly look for devices with no security to attack and hack the data. The methods these attackers use include malware, ransomware, and trackers, among others. Some of the examples of endpoint DLP software include the Digital Guardian Endpoint Data Loss Prevention tool, ENDPOINT PROTECTOR, and so on.
Cloud DLP
Cloud-based software and platforms such as Microsoft Office Live, Dropbox, Google App Engine, IBM Cloudburst, and others are used by almost every private and public organisation and company, as well as by medical professionals and educational institutes. These platforms store sensitive information related to the public and other documents that can be hacked by cyber attackers. For this, cloud DLP tools come to aid in securing and monitoring the data.
Recent Developments in the DLP Market
Many companies are contributing to the data loss prevention market through their new and existing DLP tools, including Comcast, Broadcom Inc., McAfee, LLC, GTB Technologies, Inc., CoSoSys Ltd., Fidelis Cybersecurity, Inc., Digital Guardian, Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Code42 Software, Inc., and others. Some recent developments by new and existing companies in the DLP market include:
• In July 2022, Cato Networks introduced a data prevention tool to its SSE 360 service to provide more security to enterprises. This tool profiles sensitive data and sets and then enforces policies. This system stores data related to SSNs, bank accounts, credit and debit card details, and others.
• In July 2022, Darktrace, a global cyber security provider, launched PREVENT, an advanced AI solution that assists organizations in anticipating future cyber-attacks. This DPI solution monitors the organization’s network and finds discrepancies in it by finding pathways to the organization’s critical and sensitive data. With this, the tool then sets new security in the system and saves the data from future cyber-attacks.
• In August 2022, Seraphic Security launched a unique browser security agent that assists in safe browsing on all devices. This browser security guard works on browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and others.
• In 2022, Google launched a data safety tool for the users of BigQuery—a cloud-based serverless data warehouse—to discover and divide important data such as emails and other documents, and set new safety policies for the data.
• In 2022, Comcast, a global media and technology company, announced a collaboration with Fortinet, a cybersecurity expert, to deliver to organizations a SASE (security access service edge) solution for increased security and flexible choices of DLP tools. Moreover, the SASE market is expected to increase by over $13 billion by 2026. This growth will assist in making both the companies’ combined SASE solution a success.
Conclusion
The internet and removable storage devices such as optical discs, USB flash drives, and others pose major threats to data security. To solve this issue, data loss prevention tools are assisting organizations in securing their sensitive data. Many private and government organizations face the issue of data breaches and leaks due to cyber-attacks. For instance, in June 2022, Flagstar Bank, situated in Michigan, US, discovered a data breach that happened in December 2021. In this cyber-attack, hackers stole the social security numbers of approximately 1.5 million customers. Another cyber-attack happened in June 2021, in which the data related to 700 million LinkedIn users was posted for sale on the Dark Web. Incidents like this are helping the growth of the data loss prevention market tremendously.