Why Data Loss Prevention is Critical To Company Success

Every day, billions of companies worldwide contribute to the collection of a ridiculous amount of data. We collect so much data now. Before 2012, the zettabyte, which is one sextillion bytes or 1021 or a trillion gigabytes, did not exist. Currently, there are more than 40 zettabytes or 40 trillion gigabytes of data in the world.

Every time you load a web browser, you contribute to the collection of more and more zettabytes. In the wrong hands, most kinds of shared data can be used for malicious purposes. That is why businesses, and especially those who collect sensitive data, must go through any means possible of protecting the data they collect. 

Data loss prevention is one of the ways that a business can protect its sensitive data. Here is our overview of data loss prevention and why it is critical to company success. 

What is Data Loss Prevention?

Data loss prevention (DLP) is a set of practices, tools, or systems designed to prevent and detect acts related to data loss in an organization. Data loss refers to when an organization losses data, either permanently or temporarily. This data usually includes sensitive information and can be used for malicious purposes, or it can damage the organization, its clients, and its reputation. 

Typical forms of data loss include ransomware attacks, insider threats, and data breaches. 

Data loss can occur because of data breaches, exfiltration, or the unwanted destruction of sensitive data. Human error, faulty hard drives, and systems vulnerabilities all contribute to data loss as well. However, setting up a data loss prevention technology can allow a company to:

• Keep personally identifiable information (PII) or confidential data safe
• Improve organizational compliance with relevant regulations around the sensitive data they collect
• Achieve data visibility
• Secure mobile devices in the workforce, remote workforce, or bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments
• Secure remote cloud applications

Because so many people might access a network through various endpoints, like a website, USB, mobile, email, or chat, for example, DLP systems need to be set up so that the organization can monitor all of these sources. 

The Importance of Data Loss Prevention for Any Size Company

It is argued that almost every business will experience data loss at some time in its existence. Data loss can be negligent, accidental, or malicious. 

Data losses of any size can be devastating. It is estimated that approximately 40-60% of every business that experiences a major data loss won’t reopen. Statistics show that the average cost of downtime due to data loss was $4,500 per minute or roughly $8,000 per hour. For large enterprises, the cost of downtime can be up to $11,600 per minute. 

On top of that, data breaches, on average, last around 206 days. This can total to an amount of $3.86 million in data breaches. With over 2,013 data breaches occurring in 2019 alone, there is a lot of money in the data loss business. 

Research suggests that a large portion of reasons for data loss is hardware failure (40%) and human error.  

By taking steps to prevent data loss in the first place or mitigate its damage, you could save your organization a lot of money, downtime, and negative press. The only way to do this is to use data loss prevention tools or data loss prevention software. 

4 Reasons Why Data Loss Prevention is Critical to Company Success

Data losses can cost companies a lot of money. Here are some ways that DLP software, in action, can be critical to company success. 

1. Adds Barriers Against Malicious Threats

Malicious threats, either from a data breach or an insider threat, are a constant worry for most organizations, especially large ones that collect a lot of sensitive data. A DLP strategy will add a layer of data security against malicious insiders and external threats so that your team can monitor large amounts of sensitive data. The solution can trigger alerts when data is moved when it shouldn’t be or moved in the wrong way. 

By adding this layer of data security, your business can mitigate data losses from insider threats and malicious data attacks. 

2. Protects Against Accidental Data Loss

Accidental data loss due to either human error or hard drive malfunction is widespread. With a DLP solution in place, administrators would have a track record to identify who may have accidentally deleted the customer data or if there is a reserve file in place. 

Additionally, a comprehensive DLP program may restrict that action from occurring in the first place (without high-level admin approval). 

3. Alleviates Concerns For Liability, Negative Exposure, Fines, Lost Revenue Due To Data Breaches

Certain types of data require regulatory compliance. CCPA and GDPR are the two most common types of data protection laws. And some industries require more security than others. However, in every industry, certain regulations must be met around data security. 

Within these industries and legislations, companies must prove liability through audits. Failing audits can cost a company fines. This likely means a data vulnerability in place, resulting in lost revenue due to data breaches, harmful exposure, and lawsuits.

4. Provides Security Against BYOD and IoT Security Threats

Organizations are increasingly experiencing more security endpoints and threats than ever before. With the rise of bring-your-own-device workplaces, remote workplaces, work-from-home, and the Internet of Things (IoT), there is an increasing number of security and cybersecurity gaps that present themselves each day. 

It is unrealistic to implement the right security measures in time to prevent data breaches in all areas. The only way to do this is to increase data visibility through a secure DLP solution. This will allow you to monitor the data through your network and act on weird behavior or behavior that breaches policy. 

Data Monitoring Solutions With SoftActivity

As you can see, having a DLP plan is critical to company success. With DLP implementation, you’ll need features to perform the following actions:

• Technology installed on a network to secure critical data when it is being moved. This technology detects actions around sensitive data that violate security policies.
• Endpoint-based agents control the information between external parties, users, and user groups. These agents might attempt to block communications in real-time. 
• Access controls, encryption, and retention policies in place around organizational data to secure data at rest.
• Software that flags or monitors unauthorized data activities at rest, such as intentionally or unintentionally deleted data, removing it, modifying it, or copying it. 
• Data classification services can determine what data needs protecting (sensitive) and which does not.  
• Data leak detection identifies when data transfers are suspicious, off DLP policy, or anomalous. IDS, IPS, and SIEM systems are useful for data loss detection. 

With a data loss prevention solution through SoftActivity, you will be able to monitor the activity that happens on your company network. SoftActivity is a data monitoring solution that enables admin to watch user companies from a single console. This console can monitor all activities through screen monitoring, keystroke logging software, and User Behavior Analytics (UBA) technology to catch anomalous behavior. 
SoftActivity monitoring is the perfect DLP system for any size company because it can keep you connected to the data in your business. See today why the robust user monitoring solution is right for you.

By SoftActivity Team