Choosing The Right DLP Vendor: Key Considerations

We live in a time when data breaches are increasingly common. An Apple-sponsored report stated that data breaches reached an all-time high in the first 9 months of 2023. The same report indicated that in a 2 year period from 2022-2023, over 2.6 billion personal records were leaked through these breaches. 

So in this current scenario, where the trend is only going one way, a data loss prevention (DLP) solution becomes a critical line of defense. A recent report by IBM indicated that it takes an average of 277 days for teams to contain a data breach, and an effective DLP solution holds the key to drastically reducing that time.

Here are all the aspects that are present in an optimized DLP solution:

• Monitoring, detection & remediation of potential data exfiltration attempts
• Maintaining complete control over valuable company data (PII, PHI, IP)
• Conducting seamless, ongoing identification & classification of data, ideally with the help of automation
• Adherence and enforcement of industry & location-specific compliance requirements

You can read more about all the elements of a DLP solution here. It helps mitigate the financial & reputational loss that comes with data breaches, which is the primary reason why companies choose to adopt it. However, the ideal DLP solution can bring so much more to your organization. Through broader & more secure access to data, it can increase the productivity of your employees and ultimately lead to a better bottom line.

But how does one find the ideal enterprise-grade DLP solution? The reality is, most don’t. Most go with brand names, or get swayed by flashy marketing campaigns and discounted prices. 

This is the wrong approach – the right one starts with acknowledging at the outset that this is not going to be a one-size-fits-all process. Every company has different priorities in terms of their data, and it is important to identify that through careful re-evaluation before you decide on vendors. 

This blog aims to shed light on all the wrong approaches companies take during the entire DLP vendor selection process, and the right approaches to take instead. Let’s get started, right at the outset:

Wrong Approach #1: “I’m going to get a comprehensive DLP solution, all in one go!”

Many companies think that one magical day, they’ll decide to go with a DLP solution and the entirety of it will be instantly implemented. This is a fallacy – you cannot simply overhaul your existing systems and integrate a new one. This strategy will lead to a lot of teething woes, which may impact productivity and bottom line. Therefore, DLP integration with existing infrastructure becomes a key consideration.

Right Approach #1: “I will integrate my DLP solution in a piece-meal way, starting with protecting my most sensitive & important data.”

This approach recognizes that an effective DLP solution cannot be integrated in one day because of the logistical and financial challenges associated with it. That approach also completely devalues the legacy systems you have put in place over the years. 

A better approach begins with a strong risk management strategy that helps you identify your primary data protection objective. Are you trying, first and foremost, to protect your IP or sensitive customer data? Are you having problems with the myriad data compliance requirements in your field and looking for a solution to streamline it? Are you looking to gain more visibility into your data? The answers to these questions will help determine the core architecture of your DLP.

Wrong Approach #2: “Data is being accessed in my company through multiple mediums, and I need to have separate, watertight strategies for each.”

Before we delve further, let’s look at the types of DLP solutions provided. A clear demarcation starts with reflecting on the origin of the DLP:

1. On-Premises DLP: This is the traditional deployment option, where the solution protects data in the hardware sitting in your office and prevents users from taking the data outside.
2. Cloud-Native DLP: Due to the advent of remote working, this cloud-based solution gives admins better flexibility in terms of configuration, and, if configured properly, leads to better performance. Our DLP, in partnership with Forcepoint, falls in this category.

After this particular demarcation, we move onto 4 others that are focused on the medium the DLP solution will secure:

1. Endpoint DLP: This monitors and controls data on devices, blocking unauthorized data interactions on unsecured channels.
2. Cloud DLP: This is different from no. 2, because this focuses on protecting data in your cloud and controlling data in services like IaaS and SaaS.
3. Network DLP: This examines every bit of data that is present across your network, and can block or quarantine it depending on incident severity.
4. Email DLP: This monitors both in-transit and at-rest emails to prevent data leaving the organization through this medium.

Now, you may look at these demarcations and realize that actually, you need all 6 of these. Then, thinking about how to implement all of these individually will probably make your head spin. Fear not – the right DLP solution streamlines all this.

Right Approach #2: “I will look for a unified DLP solution with overlapping functionalities.”

This approach makes a lot more sense, because it eliminates redundancies while expanding security to cover all attack surfaces.

There are two keys to making this work. The first key consists of extendable policies. Our DLP solution with Forcepoint has over 1,700 pre-defined, easily configurable policies that can easily span across multiple channels.

But the more mediums you cover, the more complicated it gets to keep track of it all. That’s why the second key is complete oversight, which can be achieved through a unified dashboard that simplifies and contextualizes the data coming from all these streams. We provide this in our solution, as well.

Wrong Approach #3: “I want a DLP solution that focuses on events.”

The problem faced by legacy DLP solutions was finding that balance between fortifying security and empowering employees. Focus too much on the former, and your people will often sidestep and use shadow IT to do their work faster. 

This places importance on moving past an event-based approach, because that lacks context and can lead to your security teams having to potentially go through many false positives. But what can streamline all this and give these events context?

Right Approach #3: “I want a DLP solution that focuses on behavior.”

Focusing on behavior is the key to optimizing your DLP and making sure only relevant alerts are dealt with. That’s why our DLP solution has risk adaptive protection (RAP), which continuously monitors every action your users have with your data, and decides the response based on contextualization of past actions. 

Wrong Approach #4: “My security strategy is sorted by getting a DLP solution.”

Here are all the capabilities of an ideal DLP solution:

• Data discovery & classification
• Policy enforcement
• User activity monitoring
• Incident Response
• Integration with existing infrastructure

While the solution and all its components will form a key part of your security strategy, it cannot be the be all and end all.

Right Approach #4: “DLP will be one of the pillars of my security strategy.”

Such an approach recognizes that DLP is an essential cog in the machine, and works best with other optimized tools. Therefore, you should look for seamless DLP integration with security tools like these:

• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
• IAM (Identity & Access Management) and Access Control, which should ideally involve MFA and the principle of least privilege to ensure data is available only to those that require it
• Firewalls and Antivirus software

Additionally, DLP should be supplemented with employee awareness education and periodic audits of the DLP software’s performance. It is important to note here that you should look for scalability and performance in terms of how your DLP handles large amounts of data or highly complex environments. 

Wrong Approach #5: “I am going to check as many reviews as I can before making my decision.”

They can help, but only to an extent. You need to be cognizant of the fact that a DLP is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Right Approach #5: “I am going to rely on referrals from similar organizations and reports from independent sources to make my decision.”

To that end, our DLP in partnership with Forcepoint has the highest vendor rating on Gartner.

A few parting points en route to your final decision:

• Do a demo: When you boil it down to 2-3 vendors you like, do a 30 day demo with each to see if the live solution can meet your data protection requirements.
• Negotiate a contract: Make sure it covers all aspects important to you, like customer service, SLAs, maintenance, updates and payment structure. You should definitely seek legal advice before signing any contract. 

To wrap up what we’ve discussed, here are 10 questions we think you should ideally know the answer to while conducting your security vendor evaluation:

1. Are all my compliance requirements met with this solution?
2. Does the solution cover all the mediums my data interacts in? (Network? Endpoint? Cloud?)
3. Does it support all platforms with complete feature parity? (Windows, Linux, OS)
4. Are the deployment options (on-premises, managed options) suited to my architecture?
5. What are the policies incorporated for both internal & external threats?
6. What type of data are you most looking to protect? Is it unstructured or structured? What are the vendor policies for each?
7. Are the vendor policies event-based or behavior-based?
8. What is the data inspection & classification process? Is automation involved?
9. What additional staffing and training will the solution require?
10. What is the timeline for deployment?

We promise the answers you’re looking for lie in our industry-leading DLP solution in association with Forcepoint. Click here to get started.