Discover the Top 5 XDR Use Cases for Today’s Cyber Threat Landscape
As data travels across networks, it becomes vulnerable to interception. To safeguard
Data is the backbone of the financial services industry. Each transaction, interaction, and record hold sensitive information. This can be attacked by both internal and foreign attacks.
In today’s highly regulated world, financial institutions must make considerable efforts to safeguard their data and comply with regulations such as GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). A data breach can have serious implications, like fines, loss of customer trust, reputational damage, and long-term financial concerns.
That’s why Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions are important. They stop unauthorized access, monitor how data is moved, and ensure compliance with industry standards. But with many choices out there, how do you pick the best DLP tool for your financial business?
This blog gives a detailed guide on data loss prevention for financial services, what features to look for in a solution and how to use DLP in the financial world.
Financial institutions are attractive targets for cybercriminals. The IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023 showed that the financial services industry bares some of the costlier data breaches, with each one costing around $5.97 million on average, much higher than the global average of $4.45 million.
There are many reasons why financial institutions face such a high risk of data loss:
In high-stakes situations, financial institutions will need to consider using strong data loss prevention tools. These tools prevent data from being lost and help the institutions follow industry rules.
When selecting a DLP system, it is crucial to consider specific features to ensure comprehensive protection. These features are:
A good DLP solution should give full insight into data at every point, be it data at rest, data in motion, or data in use. Financial organizations deal with a lot of data through emails, file sharing, cloud apps, and local systems.
The DLP solution must be able to monitor and protect important information across all these channels, making sure no data is left unprotected.
| Feature | Importance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Data at Rest | High | Protects sensitive data stored on servers, databases, or endpoints. |
| Data in Motion | Critical | Ensures that data being transmitted across networks is monitored and secured. |
| Data in Use | Essential | Monitors data that is actively being accessed, ensuring that authorized users handle it securely. |
Financial organizations must comply with regulations, like GDPR, PCI DSS, and SOX.
An ideal DLP solution should be able to design and implement DLP policies tailored to your business, ensuring compliance with the regulations. This is important for preventing accidental or unauthorized sharing of information, which could lead to regulatory fines.
Customizable policies enable financial institutions to:
Any hold-up in detecting a problem could be catastrophic as in this field transactions take place in real-time. A DLP solution should monitor data as it moves and alert the security team right away if something looks unusual.
Fidelis Network® Data Loss Prevention solution does this well, keeping an eye on all 65,535 network ports. This means even the trickiest attacks are detected and stopped before they pose any harm.
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Immediate Breach Detection | Alerts security teams to potential data leaks, enabling a faster response. |
| Continuous Data Monitoring | Monitors data flow in real-time, reducing the risk of data exfiltration by external or internal actors. |
| Proactive Threat Mitigation | Identifies suspicious activity early, allowing organizations to respond before a breach escalates. |
In this comprehensive buyer’s guide, you’ll discover:
Just like any other industries, financial enterprises are migrating their operations to the cloud as well. That’s why a DLP solution you pick needs to work flawlessly with cloud services. It should also offer multi-cloud observability.
It needs to keep data safe whether it’s stored in public, private, or hybrid cloud spaces. Since 87% of financial companies use more than one cloud service, this feature is very important.
DLP solutions makes sure that sensitive data is protected no matter where it is, preventing unauthorized access and leaks.
Insider threats are a matter of worry, as employees or contractors often have access to important data. But behavioral analytics can spot unusual actions, like an employee suddenly looking at more data than needed or moving a lot of information to unauthorized locations.
Such analysis can quickly point out possible insider threats, giving the security team time to investigate the issue and prevent any data loss.
Well, deploying p DLP solution is only part of the equation. To truly maximize the benefits, financial institutions must follow these best practices:
The very first step is to categorize your data according to its sensitivity. This helps you apply suitable security policies to different types of data.
Highly sensitive information, such as PII, needs the highest level of protection, while less sensitive data might need fewer security checks. Data Loss Prevention solutions, like Fidelis Network® DLP provide advanced features for data classification, making the process simpler.
Limiting access to important information based on people’s roles and duties is very important. This lowers the chances of insider threats. A system of least privilege access helps prevent unauthorized access or accidental sharing of data.
Human error is a leading cause for data breaches in financial services. Providing regular training for employees on best practices for handling sensitive data is necessary. Employees should be trained to recognize phishing emails, use secure file transfer methods, and follow data protection policies. This reduces the risk of accidental data leaks.
When a data breach or possible leak is found, quick action is needed to stop any further damage. DLP solutions with automated response features can isolate affected systems, alert security teams, and start containment steps. This helps handle the breach well and reduces its impact.
A DLP solution should work smoothly with your organization’s current security tools as well, like SIEM systems, firewalls, and endpoint security solutions.
This approach makes sure that all possible ways for data loss are watched and kept safe.
Fidelis Network® DLP is a complete solution that is a great fit for financial organizations. Here are some of its main features that make it perfect for protecting against data loss in financial services:
In the busy and strictly regulated financial world, picking the best DLP tool is important for protecting valuable information, ensuring compliance, and preventing costly data breaches. Enterprises should look for tools that can monitor data right away, have policies that can be changed to fit their needs, work well with cloud systems, and identify insider threats.
Fidelis Network® DLP is a sophisticated solution designed for financial enterprises, offering complete visibility, thorough session analysis, and the ability to scale to meet the needs of even the biggest financial organizations. By using Fidelis’ solution and following the best practices for setting up data loss prevention technology, financial institutions can stay ahead of cyber threats and keep their most valuable asset—data—safe.
A DLP solution assists in enforcing data security policies that adhere to standards like GDPR, PCI DSS, and SOX. It monitors data movement and access, ensuring that sensitive data is secure and in accordance with regulatory requirements.
Behavioral analytics monitors how employees handle important information, looking for unusual actions that might show insider threats. Financial institutions, which are especially vulnerable to insider threats, find this early detection very useful. In a 2021 report by Tessian, 47% of employees said they exfiltrated data when they left their jobs, showing why this kind of monitoring is needed.
See Fidelis in action. Learn how our fast and scalable platforms provide full visibility, deep insights, and rapid response to help security teams across the World protect, detect, respond, and neutralize advanced cyber adversaries.