Plugging Data Leaks

IT security systems are designed to prevent malicious outside forces from invading the network; however, these systems generally do little to keep data inside the network. After all, employees, contractors, suppliers, partners and even customers need ready access to data in order to keep the organization running smoothly. Preventing that access would cause operations to grind to a halt.

But the loss of sensitive data can be extremely costly. For its fifth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, the Ponemon Institute tracked a wide range of cost factors, including outlays for detection, escalation, notification and response, legal, investigative and administrative expenses, and costs associated with customer support such as information hotlines and credit monitoring subscriptions. The study also analyzed opportunity costs and the economic impact of lost or diminished customer trust and confidence, measured by customer churn or turnover rates.

The research firm found that data breach incidents cost U.S. companies $204 per compromised customer record in 2009, compared to $202 in 2008. Average total per-incident costs increased to $6.75 million in 2009, compared to an average per-incident cost of $6.65 million in 2008, despite an overall drop in the number of reported breaches.

Blue Coat Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a comprehensive platform that helps reduce the number of data loss incidents by discovering, monitoring and managing sensitive data across corporate networks. It also helps organizations comply with government and industry regulations regarding data security, and ensure that all users adhere to established internal policies regarding data protection.

“Critical business data has moved beyond traditional network security boundaries and the value of that information has increased,” said Tom Olson, Senior Network Architect, Milestone Systems. “Blue Coat DLP is designed to help organizations prevent the loss of sensitive data by going where the data goes and enforcing policies regarding data protection.”

Find It, Protect It

Few organizations know where all of their sensitive data resides on the network, and that lack of visibility is a contributing factor in many data loss incidents. As a result, the first step in preventing data loss is to identify data that needs protection — including both corporate secrets such as financial data and trade secrets and custodial data such as customer and payment card information. Blue Coat DLP identifies sensitive data in file servers, databases, e-mail repositories and more.

“Businesses are drowning in unstructured data such as documents, spreadsheets and e-mails, which continues to grow exponentially every year. The key challenge for organizations is determining what information is stored in unstructured files and how to best protect it,” Olson said. “Blue Coat DLP features accurate data ‘fingerprinting’ capabilities in addition to powerful keyword, pattern, and regular expression support. Data fingerprinting, combined with automated and accurate signature generation, enables organizations to determine not only where critical information lives but the exact nature of that information in order to maximize security without disrupting workflow.”

Once sensitive data is identified, Blue Coat DLP serves as a centralized platform for setting, managing and enforcing policies governing the protection of that data. Blue Coat DLP allows organizations to create finely tuned policies based upon the data source, content, designation and other criteria. It then secures sensitive information that may be distributed via an inappropriate medium such as e-mail, instant messaging or social networking sites.

“Deployed with ProxySG, Blue Coat DLP also allows organizations to monitor and control SSL traffic through the gateway to mitigate the potential loss of sensitive information through secure Web transfers such as Webmail, a common source of data leakage,” said Olson.

Rapid Rollout

Each Blue Coat DLP appliance can serve one or multiple roles to help reduce overall expense and achieve greater flexibility. A standalone appliance can meet the complex needs of a remote office while headquarters can deploy multiple appliances to deliver high availability, fault tolerance and scalability. Blue Coat DLP can function as a separate product or as part of the Blue Coat Application Delivery Network. Like all Blue Coat appliances, it requires minimal management overhead.

“Blue Coat DLP is a cost-effective solution that does not require the installation and testing of local software agents. A typical installation can take less than a day with a few key compliance and risk mitigation policies. Customers can later build and test additional policies, or refine existing policies, with little time and effort,” Olson said. “Customers can start taking advantage of Blue Coat DLP right away to reduce the risk of data loss and improve compliance.”

The most expensive data breach event included in this year’s Ponemon study cost the organization nearly $31 million to resolve, while the least expensive data breach incident cost $750,000 to resolve. These costs, coupled with the challenges associated with protecting enterprise data, are fueling strong demand for DLP solutions. The Radicati Group estimates that the total market for DLP and related e-discovery solutions will top $2 billion by 2013, reflecting the need for comprehensive, technology-based data protection for sensitive data throughout the enterprise. More and more organizations are recognizing that traditional network security systems are not sufficient to prevent data leaks.

“Each year, the Ponemon Institute finds that the cost to organizations for data loss incidents has increased,” said Olson. “Given the wide range of threats along with the spread of data outside the confines of the enterprise network, organizations must proactively implement technologies that mitigate the risk of a data breach. Blue Coat DLP is a proven solution that combines data discovery, policy enforcement and more to help prevent data loss.”

Blue Coat’s new DLP solution is based upon proven technology and integrates with the Blue Coat Application Delivery Network. Call Milestone at 866.646.9211 or e-mail info@milestonesystems.com to learn more.