Originally posted June 07, 2012
When I first heard someone say DLP, it had nothing to do with mobile device management (or any of the other MxM technologies for that matter). It did, however, have to do with an awesome technology developed by Texas Instruments. Now every time I hear someone talk about DLP, they are talking about Data Leak Prevention (or Data Loss Protection or some combination therein). As users become increasingly agile in their approach to data consumption, the need to secure said data becomes equally as important. The last thing a company wants is to have sensitive corporate information exposed. Unfortunately this risk is a reality due in part to the ever changing technology landscape. As users become more mobile, the risk of data leakage increases. I can hear the technology curmudgeons now, “Don’t allow the data to be accessed by mobile devices and you won’t have this problem.” While this notion is correct, it does not allow corporate environments to be flexible and take full advantage of the ever changing mobile computing landscape.
This is where DLP comes into play. The idea is to allow end users to access data from a vast array of devices and methodologies while keeping the data secure from exposure. There are different takes on how to achieve this. One way would be to have a proxy based solution that determines what data can be accessed and from what devices or applications. Another way would be to have an application on the end point device which could determine what applications can access the data and how they can interact with the data. In the end, the main goal is to ensure the data is secure when it is accessed. The requirements of how this is accomplished will depend on what data is being accessed, how your end users require access to the data and the security requirements of your company and the industry you are a part of. Once you establish your criteria and your use cases, then you can begin to identify how best you can accomplish utilizing mobile computing for data access.
When I first heard someone say DLP, it had nothing to do with mobile device management (or any of the other MxM technologies for that matter). It did, however, have to do with an awesome technology developed by Texas Instruments. Now every time I hear someone talk about DLP, they are talking about Data Leak Prevention (or Data Loss Protection or some combination therein). As users become increasingly agile in their approach to data consumption, the need to secure said data becomes equally as important. The last thing a company wants is to have sensitive corporate information exposed. Unfortunately this risk is a reality due in part to the ever changing technology landscape. As users become more mobile, the risk of data leakage increases. I can hear the technology curmudgeons now, “Don’t allow the data to be accessed by mobile devices and you won’t have this problem.” While this notion is correct, it does not allow corporate environments to be flexible and take full advantage of the ever changing mobile computing landscape.
This is where DLP comes into play. The idea is to allow end users to access data from a vast array of devices and methodologies while keeping the data secure from exposure. There are different takes on how to achieve this. One way would be to have a proxy based solution that determines what data can be accessed and from what devices or applications. Another way would be to have an application on the end point device which could determine what applications can access the data and how they can interact with the data. In the end, the main goal is to ensure the data is secure when it is accessed. The requirements of how this is accomplished will depend on what data is being accessed, how your end users require access to the data and the security requirements of your company and the industry you are a part of. Once you establish your criteria and your use cases, then you can begin to identify how best you can accomplish utilizing mobile computing for data access.
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