DLP-system in 2021 and its tasks

What if everyone has an access to any company’s data? Its value will be lost as well as your monopoly on it. Everyone could use it in order to enhance their product. Moreover, some bits of information could damage company’s reputation. Every CEO understands that data have to be safeguarded. Leaks happen both accidently and purposely, that is why there has to be a way to prevent them. One of such ways is to set up DLP-system (Data Leak Prevention).

There are several reasons the CEO decides to implement the system: it prevents data leaks, shows employees’ working process, and it is recommended by authorities indirectly.

There are different types of DLP-systems, and you have to be extremely serious while choosing one. The best way to understand whether the system is convenient in use and effective in work is to test it.

Fortunately, many vendors give potential customers such an opportunity. It helps to assess product’s advantages objectively. Consequently, you can make an informed decision on purchase.

The Analytical Department of Falcongaze conducted a survey among companies that used Falcongaze SecureTower in 2020 and analyzed what benefits they had had using it. The clients also shared problems caused at first stages of working with the system.

In 2020, the DLP-system functions provided the solutions to the following tasks:

1. Controlling employees’ working process during the pandemic.

In 2020, the companies all around the world transferred their employees to work remotely. Due to these conditions, it became difficult to control employees’ working process. That is why the demand for DLP-systems increased.

At home, the environment is less secure and less controlling, so the risk of data leak is increasing.

In its turn, the company Falcongaze met market demands updating the system. The release has an improved functionality of controlling stored data, wider coverage of messengers for tracking, print banning, larger amount of information processing etc. The system became more protected from the information leakage and such situations as power outage.

2. Improving the efficiency of personnel.

Many respondents agreed that informing employees of the DLP-system setup impacted on their effectiveness. Personnel stopped wasting time on extraneous issues to work more.

However, there were incidents when a company had to lay off part of the staff, because the DLP-system review showed that some of employees wasted time on watching movies, reading articles not related to work, playing games, chatting. The implementation of the system and informing the staff about it led to increase in personnel’s efficiency and decrease of time wasting.

3. Assistance for HR-managers.

HR-managers also appreciated system’s functionality. SecureTower provides them with the opportunity to analyze and enhance the relationships among colleagues. It became possible to reveal those who influence on employees negatively and distract them from working.

4. Personnel’s loyalty.

Personnel’s loyalty is also necessary for information security of the company. SecureTower intercepts employees’ correspondence in messengers and e-mail services.

Security officers note that it takes far less time to investigate an incident of data leak. There are cases when it took several hours for the system to show its effectiveness: they initiated analysis and quickly figured out those employees, who had been sending sensitive information to unknown e-mails on purpose.

5. Copy of all correspondence.

The system stores all sent and received data: messages, attachments, audio records, and video records. In case information is removed from a computer, the system permits restoring it. Finding previously sent letters is not difficult, because the functionality gives such an opportunity.

The same concerns the workstations disconnected from central server. An agent intercepts data and stores them on a computer. It happens, for instance, when an employee has gone on business trip and took their work laptop. When they connect back to the server, the agent will transmit all intercepted information to the central server.

In the next part of our investigation we, the Analytical Department of Falcongaze, listed the most common prejudices against DLP-system.

1. DLP-system must eliminate leaks.

Some consider DLP-system to be kind of a shield which eliminates sensitive data leaks. But that is not true. The system minimizes the risk of leakage. It tracks them and informs security officials of incidents. It provides with function to forbid, for instance, printing documents, copying texts or opening records. However, it is not a panacea, because ways to bypass the system still exist.

Nevertheless, the system’s ability to intercept sent and received data minimizes the risk of leaks. Security officials can create “investigations” within SecureTower. There they can place all data that confirm employees’ participation in an incident.

2. DLP-system is wasteful.

Some of the CEOs are convinced that DLP-system is some kind of antivirus, that is why its cost must be appropriate. This confirmation is wrong, because any system for data protection is a tool which minimizes data leaks.

By the way, you can find a system at a reasonable price. But do not forget that data leakage or employees’ disloyalty might cost much higher.

3. Ethical and legal issues of DLP-system.

Many people can say that using DLP-system is not ethical, because it invades personal correspondence of employees, intercepts their audio and video messages, search requests. It is okay to ask questions. Every person has a right to privacy of correspondence.

But do not forget that an employee works on the territory of an enterprise, uses its resources. That is why there is no place for personal correspondence within work accounts. Employers notify employees that their working process will be tracked. They also provide them with agreement to the data processing.

But the law deals with the situations of general character. The rest of the questions are regulated basing on the peculiarities of a sphere. When an employee works at an enterprise, they accept an employer’s rules. There is no place for personal issues.

4. To implement DLP-system, it is necessary to reorganize the whole corporate network.

It is a mistake to think so.

Modern DLP-systems are embedded easily and do not require additional changes. Falcongaze tech support team configures the functionality according to business tasks of a certain company. So, setup process does not cause any problems.

In 2020, there were completely new tasks for DLP-systems. Storing sensitive information during the pandemic was difficult but still very important. SecureTower managed to cope with all challenges. The updated functionality allowed to transfer employees to remote work without any problems of controlling and securing data.