Three Best Uses of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for SMBs

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions can help small and medium businesses (SMBs) not only in protecting their intellectual property, but in achieving compliance with different regulations as well. Digital security issues threaten businesses of all sizes; while larger companies have more data to steal, smaller businesses have less secure networks and thus usually they become quick and easy targets in the eyes of cybercriminals.

Hacking several small or medium sized businesses successfully can be more profitable than trying to hack a major company. Besides risks related to malicious outsiders, internal threats are also among the top cybersecurity concerns – whether these occur due to malevolent intentions, or as a result of carelessness or ignorance of appropriate security precautions. Nowadays more companies are paying attention to the risks that insiders can pose to the company’s data security than in the past.

Recent studies has shown that both the number of cyber-attacks and data breaches among SMBs have increased from 2018 to 2019. Although small and medium businesses increasingly confront the same cybersecurity risks as bigger companies, only 28 percent rate their ability to mitigate threats, vulnerabilities and attacks as “highly effective.”

Let’s find out how the best data loss prevention (DLP) solutions can help small and medium sized businesses in providing defense against threats – and not only.

1. Keep Sensitive Data Safe

For businesses of every size, it is becoming critical to prevent sensitive data and customer information from leaving the organization. Thus the misconception that many SMBs share – that they don’t really have information worth of losing or stealing – is proved wrong. Although big companies are the ones who get the most attention in headlines in case of a data breach, the rate among smaller businesses who suffer data leaks is also high. Besides customers’ sensitive information like names, credit card numbers and email addresses, intellectual property (IP) is another type of sensitive data that SMBs must protect. This includes patents, trade secrets or employee know-how.

Data loss prevention solutions can locate sensitive documents and monitor how they are being used and by whom. Furthermore, these solutions are able to monitor, control and block confidential data transfers through different endpoints such as e-mails, cloud solutions and other applications.

2. Comply with Regulations

Just like large enterprises, small or mid-size business need to comply with different national, international and industry regulations, like GDPR, PIPEDA or PCI DSS. Failing to meet the standards implies costs both on the short and long-term, including penalties, diminished customer trust and risks related to lost data.

Data loss prevention (DLP) technologies can help SMBs in the process of compliance with identifying, monitoring and protecting confidential information

3. Reduce Threats for Mobility

Along with the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture and remote working opportunities being embraced by SMBs, all sorts of challenges appear from a security perspective. Mobility involves a higher chance of a device being lost or stolen, as well as a greater risk of the company’s sensitive data that is stored or accessed on the device being compromised.

With complete endpoint monitoring, data loss prevention solutions can prevent employees and contractors from intentionally or unintentionally leaking data. They can also provide access – as and when required – to a device without leaving sensitive data vulnerable, as well as automatically encrypt confidential data transferred to USB storage devices.It is not uncommon to see mixed environments (Windows, MacOS, Linux) in SMBs, and as each operating system has its own unique set of security flaws and vulnerabilities, it is important to keep in mind that the chosen data loss prevention solution should provide cross-platform protection.

Although traditionally DLPs might be seen as too complex solutions and difficult to implement for SMBs, nowadays a number of data loss prevention (DLP) software developers offer modular options that can be combined and matched to the company’s needs.