Endpoint DLP is More Important Than Ever. Here's Why.

The average cost of a data breach has skyrocketed, reaching $4.45M in 2023, with the average ransomware payment reaching $2M. These numbers underscore the immense value that data holds for both companies and cybercriminals. Companies derive financial gains by extracting insights the data provides, while cybercriminals profit by holding data ransom or reselling it. Protecting data is a priority for companies, and data loss protection (DLP) solutions have mushroomed to meet the need.

There are two main approaches to DLP — network DLP and endpoint DLP. Network DLP focuses on preventing data breaches from external and outbound traffic by monitoring and protecting sensitive data as it moves across a network. The downside to applying DLP at the network layer is that it requires redirecting all network traffic for inspection, and it limits the options for user feedback.

Endpoint DLP, on the other hand, helps manage insider threats and secure mobile devices by preventing data loss at endpoints, which include devices such as laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. Endpoint DLP monitors and controls data usage on these devices and prevents unauthorized data transfers through removable media, email, and cloud services. 

With 68% of companies reporting that they experienced data loss from attacks that originated at the endpoint, preventing data loss at the endpoint is top of mind for everyone. The focus on endpoint DLPs has intensified in response to the rise of a distributed and mobile workforce, which has pushed employees outside of the safe cocoon of the corporate IT network. Endpoint DLP solutions help organizations to regain control by offering them the ability to extend the periphery of their security to monitor and control the edges of their attack surface.

Benefits of Endpoint DLP

Endpoint DLP provides enterprises with security, manageability, and reputational benefits.

Granular Monitoring and Control

Endpoint DLP provides granular visibility into data interactions on individual devices, such as laptops, desktops, and mobile phones. This detailed view of data activity enables organizations to closely monitor how sensitive data is accessed, used, and transferred. This includes tracking the movement of files, application usage, and data transfers across devices. 

The real-time monitoring, detailed logging, and real-time alert capabilities of endpoint DLPs help organizations gain deep insights into user behavior and data flow patterns. Instant alerts can be triggered when suspicious or unauthorized actions are detected, which help companies maintain compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements and identify and address potential security breaches before they occur.

Preventing Unauthorized Data Transfers

One key feature that helps an endpoint DLP solution combat insider threats is its ability to prevent unauthorized data transfers. This feature can be implemented through centralized policies that can easily be deployed company-wide. To accomplish this ability, endpoint DLP solutions employ content inspection techniques to analyze the content of data being accessed or transferred and enforce data policies based on the predetermined criteria set by the security and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) teams. 

By controlling the movement of data, endpoint DLPs prevent unauthorized transfers of sensitive information. This includes blocking attempts to copy data to USB drives, sending confidential information via personal email, or uploading files to cloud services that aren’t approved.

Enhancing Security for Remote and Mobile Workforces

The rise of remote work and the increased usage of mobile devices in the work environment have expanded the periphery of enterprise networks, making data protection more challenging. These trends have complicated device management and visibility and made secure remote access more challenging. 

Endpoint DLP solutions have emerged to address these challenges. They provide central management capabilities to oversee and control remote employees' devices, allowing administrators to monitor device activities, enforce security policies, and ensure compliance with organizational standards. They also enable secure access to the corporate resources and data that are required for remote workers to perform their responsibilities by enforcing authentication and authorization protocols. These include multi-factor authentication (MFA), virtual private network (VPN) connectivity, and secure tunneling to protect data that is in transit between remote devices and corporate networks.

Enforcing Encryption and Data Security

One of the foundational tenets of data security is encryption. Encoding plain text as ciphertext helps organizations protect their data against a range of cyberattacks by ensuring that attackers cannot easily use it. 

Endpoint DLP can help organizations to enforce encryption policies for data stored on devices, ensuring that the data remains secure even if a device is lost or stolen. This is especially important for laptops and mobile devices, which can be easily stolen. Data encryption policies can be created to specify which types of data require encryption (i.e., PII, financial records) and to establish encryption standards (i.e., AES-256) to ensure robust protection.

Mitigating Insider Threats

Insider threats, whether malicious or accidental, pose significant risks to data security. Endpoint DLP helps detect and prevent these threats by monitoring user activities, identifying suspicious behavior, and providing policy-based controls to restrict access to data. Endpoint DLP solutions continuously monitor user behavior and their interactions with data to establish a baseline pattern of behavior for each user. When they detect deviations from that pattern or observe anomalous behavior, they can flag these activities as suspicious. 

Endpoint DLP solutions also limit data exposure by enforcing strict access controls and data handling policies to limit access to sensitive data only to authorized users. The policies can be set up to define who has access to specific types of data, under what conditions they have access to it, and for what purposes they can access it. 

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Endpoint DLP solutions can help ensure compliance with strict data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA by managing and protecting sensitive data in accordance with these standards. They do so by helping companies identify and classify data types automatically, and simplify auditing and reporting. Data can be identified and classified based on its type, sensitivity level, and regulatory requirements. Once classified, the appropriate security controls can be applied to the data, and detailed audit logs can capture data interactions, policy violations, user activities, and security incidents, providing a comprehensive record of data protection measures to simplify the reporting process.

Safeguarding Organizational Reputation

Data breaches can have devastating effects on an organization’s reputation, leading to diminished customer trust and potential financial losses. To underscore the potential severity of the financial impact, IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report states that the average lost business cost of a data breach in 2022/2023 was $1.3M. 

A proactive approach to data security is crucial to stave off attacks, and endpoint DLP is a solution to that challenge. They help prevent data breaches and loss by enabling robust security controls and monitoring data activity to encrypt sensitive information, restrict unauthorized access, and prevent data exfiltration. They also mitigate operational risks by preventing data loss, minimizing downtime associated with security incidents, and ensuring business continuity.

A New Approach: Endpoint DLP with an Enterprise Browser

Today, work happens outside the office, performed on unmanaged devices and networks, using an ever-expanding list of SaaS and web applications. Legacy DLP platforms simply weren’t designed for this work environment. But an enterprise browser — a browser that embeds advanced security, IT, network controls, data protections and application access into the browsing experience users expect — incorporates data loss protection capabilities into its core design to deliver a more effective and efficient way to protect data. Its approach is to protect sensitive data before it leaves or enters the browser by providing several features: 

• Application and data boundaries keep sensitive data within defined enterprise applications and prevent leakage across all means of egress
• Data masking hides sensitive data from view until it’s actually needed
• DLP detectors flag sensitive data to stop leakage, regardless of which application it originates from

As the value of sensitive data increases, remote work becomes more commonplace, and attacks become more sophisticated, the need for a DLP solution that can keep up with an evolving set of demands will become more critical. Enterprise browsers simplify the deployment of an endpoint DLP solution by integrating it into the most commonly used application at work: the browser. Injected with enterprise features that not only ensure DLP protections but also other security, manageability, and productivity enhancements, enterprise browsers help to ensure that endpoint DLP is full-featured, robust, and easy to deploy.