Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Strategies for Enhanced Security

Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a security strategy that monitors, detects, and prevents the loss or leakage of sensitive data in cloud environments. Such strategies generally include security measures like encryption, access controls, and activity monitoring to protect data at rest, in transit, and in use. Beyond protection from data breaches and outsider threats, however, Cloud DLP holds critical importance for several additional reasons:

• Enhanced Data Privacy: Cloud DLP tools can help protect sensitive information like personal identifiable information (PII), financial records, and intellectual property from being incorrectly exposed or accessed.
• Compliance: Many industries require compliance with specific regulatory standards (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA), which mandate stringent safeguards for sensitive data. Cloud DLP helps organizations maintain compliance by managing data in line with these standards.
• Increased Use of Cloud Storage: As businesses increasingly turn to cloud storage solutions for scalability and flexibility, the risk of data exposure or leaks becomes more acute. This heightens the need for the robust security features that Cloud DLP provides.
• Cost Savings: Data breaches can be costly due to the associated regulatory fines, remediation efforts, and reputational damage. Having Cloud DLP can help prevent these breaches, leading to substantial cost savings.
• Insider Threat Mitigation: Cloud DLP solutions can help mitigate insider threats, both malicious and accidental, by monitoring for aberrant behavior and implementing effective data controls.

How Does Cloud DLP Differ From Traditional Data Loss Prevention?

Traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Cloud DLP both aim to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and data breaches, but they differ in several ways:

Deployment

Traditional DLP systems are typically deployed on-premises, meaning they are limited to the organization's internal network. On the other hand, Cloud DLP systems are deployed via the cloud and can protect data anywhere it's stored or used, including cloud storage, web servers, and cloud-based applications.

Scalability

Cloud DLP solutions are more scalable since they leverage cloud resources. They can easily accommodate increased data volumes and users with minimal impact on performance. Traditional DLP systems may require additional physical resources to scale, which can be expensive and time-consuming.

Integration

Cloud DLP solutions are designed with cloud services in mind, so they can often integrate more seamlessly with various cloud platforms. Traditional DLP solutions may lack this level of integration, making it harder to protect data outside of the internal network.

Maintenance and updates

With Cloud DLP, the service provider usually handles maintenance and updates, ensuring the system is always up-to-date with the latest security measures. With traditional DLP, the responsibility of maintaining and updating the system often falls to the organization's IT department.

Cost

Traditional DLP systems often involve upfront hardware and software costs and ongoing maintenance costs. Cloud DLP, however, typically operates on a subscription-based pricing model, which can be more cost-effective for some organizations.

Speed of Implementation

Cloud DLP solutions offer a range of advantages over traditional data loss prevention methods. One of the most significant benefits is the speed of deployment. Because cloud DLP solutions are often delivered as a service, they can be implemented much more quickly than traditional on-premises DLP systems that require extensive configuration and customization.

This rapid deployment associated with Cloud DLP allows organizations to quickly address data security risks and compliance requirements without requiring lengthy procurement and implementation processes.  

Overall, while both types of DLP aim to protect sensitive information, Cloud DLP often offers a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution for data protection, particularly for organizations relying heavily on cloud services.

The Key Components of An Effective Cloud DLP Strategy

Deploying a DLP software solution, be it SaaS or an on-premises appliance, can help organizations monitor and control data transfers, making the tool an important component of protecting sensitive data against malicious and accidental breaches alike. But a broader data loss prevention strategy requires several other important considerations and approaches, including:

Data Identification: This includes identifying data that needs protection, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), or financial data.

Data Classification: After identifying the sensitive data, it must be classified based on its sensitivity level. Complementary data classification tools can help implement appropriate security controls for different data types.

Policy Creation: Organizations must create DLP policies that outline the rules for handling and sharing sensitive information, which the deployed DLP software solution can then use to maintain regulatory compliance and prevent breaches.

Monitoring and Incident Response: Continuously monitoring data movement can help detect potential breaches or leakages. It's also necessary to have an incident response plan to handle any security incidents that occur.

Regular Audits and Reporting: By conducting regular audits, organizations can ensure that the DLP policies are followed correctly. Reporting also helps to keep all stakeholders informed.

Employee Training: Humans can often be the weakest link in security. Therefore, providing training on how to handle sensitive data and cyber threats is essential.

Scalability: The ability to scale is crucial as the amount of data organizations handle can grow rapidly. The DLP solution should be able to handle increasing volumes of data without compromising performance.

Regular Updates and Upgrades: Since threats constantly evolve, so should the DLP solutions. Therefore, regular updates and upgrades ensure the system remains effective against new and emerging threats.

How Organizations Can Protect Sensitive Data In the Cloud

It's relatively straightforward to slate an overarching data loss prevention strategy, but organizations often fall short in executing that strategy. Successfully implementing a cloud DLP strategy—that is, identifying and protecting sensitive data being stored in cloud repositories or being handled via cloud applications—means ensuring all of the following:

1. Enforced Policies: After establishing data governance and handling policies, organizations must ensure their DLP tools can then effectively enforce those policies. Based on those policies, and by using context and sensitivity labels applied by data classification software, a comprehensive DLP tool can dictate who can access data, how that data is handled, where it can be sent and stored, and how it should be protected.
2. Encrypted Data: Encrypting data ensures it is unreadable to anyone without the encryption key. Data should be encrypted at all stages—at rest, in transit, and in use.
3. Use of Access Controls: Implement role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure only authorized personnel can access data. Also, the principle of least privilege (i.e., Zero Trust) should be used, where users are given minimum levels of access necessary to complete their tasks.
4. Data Backup and Recovery: Backup sensitive data regularly and have a recovery plan in place to mitigate the impact of data loss.
5. Uninterrupted Compliance: Compliance with laws and regulations is essential to maintain the integrity of your data along with your organization's reputation. Along with performing regular audits, compliance monitoring tools can help identify data handling patterns and discrepancies while ensuring continuous compliance.

While cloud service and/or infrastructure providers often recognize that protecting sensitive data in the cloud is a shared responsibility between them and the organization using the services, organizations shouldn't necessarily expect such services to be delivered with security top of mind.

The Best Practices For Implementing DLP Policies In Cloud Environments

• Understand Your Data: To implement a DLP policy in a cloud environment effectively, the initial step is to identify and classify data based on its sensitivity and importance to your business.
• Set Clear Policies: DLP policies should be easy to understand and enforce. Define what sensitive data is, who should have access to it, and what actions are permitted when handling the data.
• Apply Principle of Zero Trust: Provide access rights only to employees that require it, minimizing the chances of sensitive information landing in the wrong hands.
• Regular Monitoring and Fine-Tuning: Continually review and update your DLP policies, and regularly monitor and audit your cloud environment to ensure data security measures are working as expected.
• Employee Training: It's important to educate your employees about the significance of data security, privacy laws, and compliance with DLP policies.
• Integrate with Existing Systems: Ensure your DLP solution integrates well with your existing systems that store and process data and your security incident and event management (SIEM) systems.
• Use Automated Tools: DLP solutions that automate the scanning and flagging of sensitive data, alert system users when they violate DLP policies, or even block specific actions can significantly enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
• Work with Reputable Cloud Service Providers: Choose a provider who demonstrates a strong commitment to security, offers encryption services, conducts regular backups, and provides strong access control mechanisms.
• Incident Response Plan: In case of an incident, have a ready response plan outlining the steps to take to mitigate the impact. 

Since implementing DLP policies in a cloud environment is an ongoing process as opposed to a one-time event, continuously monitor your cloud environment for potential data loss, respond to incidents promptly, and adapt your policies accordingly.

How Cloud DLP Supports Regulatory Compliance and Data Privacy

Employees will sometimes think of DLP as tools that hurt, or at least act as obstacles, more than they help. In reality, however, an effective Cloud DLP tool will not only integrate into employees' normal workflows but also support regulatory compliance and data privacy in the process. More specifically, the best DLP tools should:

• Enforce Access Control: Cloud DLP controls who can access sensitive data and ensures only authorized personnel can view sensitive information, in line with many regulatory standards.
• Support Encryption: Encryption is generally a required standard for compliance with certain laws such as HIPAA and GDPR, meaning sound Cloud DLP tools must support data encryption and maintain visibility over encrypted data in the cloud or being transferred over networks.
• Facilitate Monitoring and Reporting: Any sound Cloud DLP tool should provide continuous data monitoring in the cloud environment. Any unusual or suspicious activity, like a sudden spike in data transfer, should be immediately detected. Additionally, they should provide actionable insights for incident response and generate reports on data usage, which help in audits and prove compliance with regulatory standards.
• Prevent Data Breaches: By automatically identifying risk and applying protections in real time, Cloud DLP solutions should prevent data breaches before they're allowed to happen. This not only maintains users' data privacy by stopping unauthorized data access but also helps organizations avoid hefty non-compliance fines.
• Enforce Policies: DLP tools can enforce policies if a potential policy violation is discovered, ensuring that companies adhere to regulatory standards. Policy enforcement can take the form of blocked actions, event logging, prompting/warning users, and more.

Digital Guardian DLP Is a Top Tool for Cloud Data Protection

Cloud DLP is an essential piece of a comprehensive data security strategy, meaning finding the best tool to meet your organization's current and future needs is paramount.

Fortra's Digital Guardian has a proven track record of helping organizations meet regulatory obligations, protecting sensitive data, maintaining their brands' reputations, and keeping users productive, making for one of the most powerful DLP solutions on the market.

Contact us today to speak with one of our experts and learn more.