What to expect from the next evolution of DLP

Clearly no CISO, CIO or line of business manager wants to diminish the positive collaboration benefits that SMAC technologies deliver. No organization can be responsive, competitive or even remain static these days without using some or all of them. So in an ideal world, and taking into consideration the perfect information security storm we’re all whirling through, can DLP ever really make the shift from security enforcer to business enabler?

 

Where there’s a will, there is a way

When traditional DLP kicks in, it is usually over a simple piece of information that has broken policy. For example the credit card in an order that’s forwarded to a supplier – the communication is then blocked, stops the risk, but also slows the business. So if we could remove the offending content we’d be good to go? Correct. And that’s precisely what the new technology in an Adaptive DLP solution, Adaptive Redaction, was designed to do – find the information that breaks policy and remove it.

Perhaps the order was a PDF document, no problem, Adaptive Redaction recreates the document without the offending information – and sends that on. However, the brilliant part is that Adaptive Redaction not only deletes the obvious visible information, it also removes the less obvious ‘invisible’ information (hiding in document properties, revision histories and fast save data). It is also designed to work on both incoming and outgoing information, Direction Agnostic, and can also remove embedded active content (eliminating things like Advanced Persistent Threats before they have the time to act). Adaptive Redaction is intelligent; it can decide that secure email is fine for a particular document, but when it gets pushed into the cloud or copied onto a USB stick critical information is redacted (or even blocked – sometimes, blocking is the only sensible option!). Of course the actions can also differ depending on who you are, the CEO can send different types of information to a person in HR or someone in finance. Adaptive DLP is just that… Adaptive.

 

In summary, the traditional approach of ‘stop and block’ is still there, and the ability to alert on policy violations is also present – enabling the CIO to remain in control. But there is a new alternative – remove the information that breaks the policy and send the rest on. It might be a word from an email, or a credit card number in a report – remove it, but keep the business moving.

This adaptability is the cornerstone of what constitutes the next evolution of DLP – information always flows in,through and out of an organization, but specific information that breaks a policy is automatically and consistently removed.

This creates the perfect balance between:

  • Collaboration and control
  • Information access and security
  • Liberating businesses today and future-proofing them for tomorrow

 

In essence, the new era of Adaptive DLP has been purposely designed to drive productivity to the max, secure in the knowledge that only the right information is seen by the right people at the right time.

Discover how, with Clearswift’s technology, you can enjoy 100% visibility of critical information, 100% of the time.

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