The Role of DLP in Protecting Against Data Exfiltration

In this episode of Security Square, our cybersecurity-focused series featuring analyst insights, expert guests, and the latest news and happenings across the security sector, host Shelly Kramer, principal analyst at Kramer&Co and co-host Jo Peterson, analyst at Clear Tech Today, discuss how the rise of generative AI has created new challenges for data security, particularly in the realm of Data Loss Prevention (DLP). While AI drives productivity, it also presents significant security risks, especially regarding data exfiltration. The article explains that DLP tools are designed to protect data in three states: at rest, in use, and in motion, and come in three main categories: Full DLP, Channel DLP, and "Lite" DLP solutions. According to IBM's Global AI Adoption Index 2023 and O'Reilly's 2023 report, while AI adoption is growing rapidly in enterprises, data privacy and trust remain major concerns. The discussion today emphasizes that organizations must protect not only against public AI platforms like ChatGPT but also corporate-owned LLMs that contain sensitive data. Security Vendors are Rising to the Occasion The good news is that security vendors are actively developing solutions to address these challenges. Some of the key vendors in the DLP sector and their offerings include: Skyhigh Security added data loss prevention tools to their CASB solution. Cyberhaven automatically logs data moving to AI tools so that organizations can understand how data is flowing and offer them the ability to create guidelines and policy around patterns they observe in that data. Google’s Sensitive Data Protection services include cloud data loss prevention. Cloudflare One’s Platform began including data loss prevention for generative AI in 2023. Code42 created the Insider Risk Management Program Launchpad, which allows clients visibility into the use of ChatGPT, and detects copy-and-paste activity, which it can then block. Fortra’s Digital Guardian data loss prevention tool allows IT teams to manage generative AI data protection against a spectrum ranging from simple monitoring to complete access blocking, to just the blocking of specific content like customer information or source code. DoControl’s SaaS Data Loss Prevention takes things a step further than simply blocking apps and permissioning by monitoring sensitive SaaS application data security, performing end-user behavioral analytics to prevent insider threats, automatically initiating secure workflows and evaluating the risk of an AI tool in use, and then taking steps to educate the user and offer alternative suggestions as appropriate. Zscaler’s AI Apps category blocks access and/or offers warnings to users visiting AI sites. Palo Alto’s data security solution is a solid choice for safeguarding sensitive data from exfiltration and unintended exposure via AI applications. Symantec recently added generative AI support to its data loss prevention solution that allows for the classification and management of AI platforms. Symantec’s platform uses optical character recognition, which analyzes images. There are content formats that most data loss prevention tools can’t recognize, and the optical character recognition catches these nonstandard images. Next DLP is bringing policy templates to the table, designed to make complex policies easier. Next DLP began offering organizations preconfigured policies to help create out-of-the-box guardrails in the spring of 2023. The templates are available for Hugging Face, Bard, Claude, Dall-E, Coy.AL, Rytr, Tome and Lumen 5. Equally as interesting, Next DLP’s Policy Testing Tool allows organizations to assess the performance of their DLP solutions, ensuring the accuracy of their policies. Kramer and Peterson advise that organizations should integrate security awareness into their culture, actively recruit tech talent, upskill existing teams, and partner with trusted vendors to protect against data loss in the AI age. Tune in for the full conversation and insights shared. #dlp #datalossprevention #security #cybersecurity #shellykramer #jopeterson #datasecurity #zscaler, #paloalto #NextDLP #podcast #symantec, #cloudflare #DoControl #Code42 #GoogleSensitiveDataProtection #Google #Cyberhaven #skyhighsecurity #kramer&co #kramerandcompany