Understanding Endpoint DLP: The Importance and Necessity

In this fast-paced world, individuals and corporations need to store data on digital devices for instant sharing and access. Data security is essential for individuals and businesses, but its implementation can differ.

Common security threats that can lead to data loss are security vulnerabilities, weak credentials, malware, insider threats, physical device theft threats, and social engineering.

For businesses, it is crucial to prevent data loss to win the trust and ensure the privacy of confidential information. Data breaches have increased massively in recent years, and we can control them using endpoint data loss prevention.

1What is Endpoint Data Loss Prevention(DLP)?

Endpoint data loss prevention is a modern technology with preventive measures to ensure data safety. Endpoint DLP detects, prevents, and fights against cyber threats that can lead to data breaches.

DLP can be categorized into three categories, i.e., network DLP, endpoint DLP, and cloud DLP. Network DLP is limited to a specific network to protect sensitive device data. Businesses mostly prefer endpoint DLP solutions that update and regularly maintain every endpoint from the client or agent side.

They typically involve customizing and implementing security policies and controls to monitor, manage, detect, and prevent unauthorized access to the company's sensitive data.

2What Capabilities Does An Endpoint DLP Tool Have?

Device Control

DLP enables admins to decide which devices can download or upload data from external sources and access company files. Data classification helps to manage sensitive data. App allowlist and blocklist features play a significant role in ensuring access to the safest apps.

Website Blocking

Endpoint DLP verifies each website and analyzes the traffic from a website. It helps to provide browser protection by blocking malicious website access on enterprise devices.

File Protection

Endpoint DLP safeguards the data on corporate devices by notifying admins about file sharing. By enabling DLP, admins are notified when data is shared on an external USB drive or copied from the system. 

Email Security

Endpoint DLP scans every file attached to the email message, so it is detected if any malicious file is shared through email. DLP notifies admins about the file and blocks its access to download.

Data Monitoring

With modern endpoint DLP solutions, businesses can detect suspicious activities inside the organization and threats from the external environment. It helps to monitor activities on enterprise devices and can manage tasks to restrict unprotected activities like sharing files and uploading data on external websites and social media platforms. Endpoint DLP also alerts administrators when sensitive data is in motion.

Policies and procedures

Enterprises can efficiently manage company policies and procedures using endpoint DLP and quickly identify how to protect the company's data. Policies are rules and some restrictions implemented on the enterprise's devices to ensure data security. It protects the network from every aspect. For example, you can prohibit external data sharing from corporate devices.

Rapid Threat Detection

Endpoint DLP provides instant actions against security threats. It is crucial to resolve security issues timely because they get more critical with time and damage the company. Real-time detection helps to identify threats at early stages and remove them.

3Top 3 Endpoint DLP Tools Reviews

3.1Top 1. Forcepoint DLP

Forcepoint is an endpoint DLP software solution that helps you discover, categorize, monitor, and protect sensitive data across the network, email, cloud, and endpoints.

3.2Top 2. McAfee Total Protection

McAfee streamlines your online presence and keeps you safe from threats so you can freely use the internet. It is easy-to-use software with advanced monitoring tools.

3.3Top 3. Microsoft Purview DLP

Microsoft Purview DLP secures your data on the cloud, devices, apps, and other platforms. It helps to manage regulatory requirements to comply with industry standards. 

4Endpoint DLP vs. Network DLP vs. Cloud DLP, Which Solution Should You Choose?

Endpoint DLP

Endpoint DLP solutions monitor all the business endpoints, including computers, mobile devices, tablets, cloud storage, servers, and other digital gadgets, to ensure data privacy and security. It also helps to track the data stored on the endpoints. Endpoint DLP also helps classify data to ensure compliance with specific regulatory requirements. The reporting feature helps to investigate several incidents and improve security for future processes. Large enterprises use it for broader security management on whole business entities.

Network DLP

Network DLP helps explicitly to manage network activities. Admins can track and analyze the traffic and activities like sending and receiving emails, file transferring, and text messaging. Network NLP diagnoses suspicious activities on the network, like sharing data from the devices, which is against the set security policies. It provides deep insights into data accessibility, like who accesses it and on which network it is being shared. Organizations who want to secure their data on a network use network DLP.

Cloud DLP

It is primarily concerned with data security on the cloud. Cloud DLP helps to monitor data-sharing activities on the cloud. It provides clear visibility to the data stored on the cloud. Cloud DLP also notifies of policy violations, allows admins to manage access policies, and enlists authorized users to access the confidential files saved on the cloud. Companies that used to protect data on the cloud prefer cloud DLP.

5Why Endpoint DLP is Necessary?

The importance of data security

Data is a fundamental resource and asset of a company that it stores and shares with others as required. Whether it is financial and healthcare data or official documentation, enterprises are bound to incorporate high-security controls to prevent data breaches. Data security acts as a shield against unauthorized access and data theft.

Every enterprise needs to implement high-security measures to prevent internal and external threats to safeguard them from potential financial loss and reputational damages, ultimately leading to losing customer trust. It also extends to mitigating the risks associated with legal consequences and fines.

How is the data leaked?

There are numerous possibilities for data leakage. Some significant reasons are explained below:

How does Endpoint DLP protect your data?

Endpoint DLP helps protect data by streamlining the classification of sensitive data as confidential, sensitive, private, identifiable, and financial. It also allows regular monitoring of endpoints to ensure data security. By applying strong security policies using DLP, enterprises also provide data protection. It also notifies admins of unnatural activities to take immediate action against them.

6Use Cases of Endpoint DLP

To prevent the illegal use of USB drives

Copying data in USB drives is the most convenient and safest way to access and leak official data. Endpoint DLP allows admins to turn off USB ports so no employee can connect to the USB to copy the files.

To prohibit printouts of data

Endpoint DLP allows businesses to manage printer access on specific devices. It helps them ensure that only authorized and responsible persons can take prints of the data.

Email Contacts Whitelisting 

By whitelisting the emails with specific domains using DLP, admins can ensure that data is shared with the official and concerned persons.

Restricting web browsers

Providing unnecessary web browser access can result in high risks of data security. Businesses can ensure limiting employees' access to only one or two known web browsers to avoid data leakage.

Cloud sharing

Sometimes, data is too large to be shared through email. The user tries to share data on a third-party cloud service to access it later easily. With endpoint DLP, businesses can restrict the devices from performing such activity.

Containerization

Classification of data on BYOD devices is essential to ensure data privacy. It is straightforward for employees to share official data from such devices. Admins can manage enterprise apps and data in containers with enhanced security policies restricting data sharing from them.

7Final Words

Data security includes protecting confidential information, including official documentation, identity, and financial information. With a more dispersed and remote workforce, managing data security has become challenging for enterprises. Data loss prevention is a primary and optimized solution to ensure data security. DLP can be categorized into three basic types, and endpoint data loss prevention is the broader one among them. It helps organizations secure all their endpoints by incorporating various security features like firewalls, anti-virus, and containerization. You can use endpoint DLP to restrict multiple applications, file sharing, and web browsing on corporate devices, enhancing privacy.

Learn More about Endpoint DLP

How do I create an endpoint DLP policy?

First, you must select a software solution supporting endpoint DLP. Identify clear objectives, classify the data, and configure policies to integrate them. Then, create an incident response plan to handle security issues. 

How Does Endpoint DLP Work?

Endpoint DLP works by classifying the data, establishing the confidentiality levels, linking protection efficiently, deploying the policies, and monitoring them to respond. It controls the security of endpoint devices and enables immediate actions to prevent data breaches. 

What is the difference between DLP and endpoint protection?

Data loss prevention (DLP) prioritizes sensitive data security by preventing unauthorized access. It enforces policies to detect and respond to malicious activities. It is precisely for data protection. On the other hand, endpoint protection secures all the business security endpoints, including data security. It includes firewalls, anti-virus software, and DLP.

What is an endpoint server in DLP?

It is a central server that allows admins to manage DLP policies and control endpoint device activities seamlessly. These servers facilitate devices with incident responses on each endpoint, ensuring continuity of work with security. It also enforces DLP policies across the organization's network of devices.