As work from home becomes the new normal, organizations are rushing to keep up with data privacy and compliance regulations. This is the second post in a three-part series about how HDLP (Host Data Loss Prevention) can help your organization for remote working employees. You can read the first part here, and the third part here.
The New Normal: Data Loss Prevention when organizations go remote
As discussed in the first part here, working from home for all employees has become a necessity in the face of the global crisis. Though challenging, it is possible to face these problems with a clear framework that addresses all the issues with data leakages and data loss prevention. Especially cloud-native organizations that create and share data in the cloud, and between clouds have to ensure that user access is completely regulated without any gaps whatsoever.
What is Host Data Loss Prevention?
Data loss prevention (DLP) is an approach to prevent organizational sensitive information from being moved outside. By enabling the organization to monitor data accessed and shared by end users, DLP ensures data security and regulatory compliance. Some of the common features of HDLP are: Monitoring: HDLP solutions monitor host devices for data and system access to ensure that it is completely within organizational and regulatory policies Filtering: tools to filter data streams to prevent unauthorized or suspicious activity Reporting: HDLP tools to provide complete system logging and regular reports for incident response and auditing Analysis: to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities to alert the security teams
Host Vulnerabilities in Remote Working
Data loss prevention can be achieved only by understanding the leakages, where they happen and how to manage them. This is why security teams are given control over the IT infrastructure to identify and respond in a timely manner. When the entire organizations are allowed to work from home, the IT systems can have serious troubles such as 'data spills' through a lot of ways such as:
- Email clients and personal email accounts
- FTP/RDP Servers
- Personal drives such as Google Drive and Dropbox
- CMS platforms like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal (Free CMSs are highly vulnerable to such attacks)
- Social media platforms
- Browsers
- Removable media like USBs and CDs
Host DLP - Endpoint Data Protection
Organizations typically have a wide range of endpoints, such as workstations, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. Each of them is an endpoint, including standalone devices such as USBs and external hard drives, which are vulnerable to data leakage. Endpoint (host device)-based technology systems address internal as well as external communications to control flow of data between users and even groups of users. They monitor email and instant messenger applications to access information before encryption (in some cases), and analyze in the right context. HDLP software classifies and protects confidential and critical information so there is no unauthorized sharing of data. For example, if an employee tries to forward a business mail outside the corporate domain, permission would be denied. If they tried to upload a corporate file to consumer cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox, they would be denied permission.
The Cloud4C Framework
Cybersecurity is built around the core principle of data integrity. As threats grow in sophistication, it is not just about stealing information, but also manipulation. Organizations today collect data from partners, customers, and vendors, and it is crucial to keep it secure. The size of the organization is immaterial to the vigilance they have to embrace at every single endpoint. Cloud4C has a robust framework that guides organizations to put in place an approach to secure their confidential data even when all their employees are working out of their home in their own networks.
Why CLoud4C is the right solution for your Host DLP?
Cloud4C provides cutting edge HDLP solutions using the best products in the market. We bring our decades of understanding of providing enterprise security to help define, deploy and maintain these solutions.
Our cutting-edge HDLP solutions leverage our expertise in enterprise security to define, deploy, and maintain solutions. Here are the major features that we deliver to ensure that your organizational data is completely secure:
- Limit employee ability to transfer sensitive data
Cloud4C’s robust HDLP solution ensures that your employees cannot move data away from your environment by copying to devices, to the clipboard, or even to through applications, online services and even screen captures. Attempts to do so can also be monitored so your security team is aware of them.
- Control user’s capability to send information to other domains via various communication tools including email
The HDLP enables your security team to have real-time reporting on the remote devices and users so their compliance is completely monitored and ensured.
- Arrest data transfer to employee’s personal cloud drives
Employee content and network activity is monitored and apply the DLP policy in place for the organization. Even attempts to transfer data to employee drives are prevented completely.
- Arrest data transfer through SSH, FTP, and RDP
Even when using encrypted protocols such as Secure Shell (SSH) or File Transfer Protocol, their encryption usually renders DLP inadequate. Given the sophistication of the threats today, traditional DLP would not be able to handle the multiple protocols, approaches and technologies they would deploy.
Cloud4C’s HDLP solutions are capable of extending their reach into the encrypted protocols as well, in a completely non-disruptive transparent manner.
- Continuous monitoring of user desktop through periodic screenshots
When employees are working on their own networks, it becomes difficult to ensure that they are not accessing unauthorized software or tools to complete their tasks. Even with training, they may just ignore or become careless when they have your organizational data open. Through regular, unscheduled screenshots of the user devices, organizational security teams can monitor such activity.
- Restrain employee from accessing predefined category of websites like social media or gambling
Social media is a major threat since employees can be tricked into sharing information by impersonating friends, or even peers in the organization. This is called social engineering, and can be very dangerous for any employee when they are working on your confidential data. Cloud4C’s HDLP solution ensures that remote devices do not access social media sites or other gambling sites which can compromise your security practices.
In the next and the final post of the series, we shall explore what makes Cloud4C’s Host DLP the right solution for your organization.
Contact us today for a comprehensive Host DLP solution for your organization
