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.
Why DLP is Critical for Financial Institutions
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:
- External Threats: Financial institutions often face external attacks like phishing, ransomware, and other cyber threats. Hackers constantly look for new methods to infiltrate these systems and steal important and valuable data.
- Insider Threats: Whether they intend to or not, employees within a business might jeopardize valuable information. Employees or contractors with access to financial records may mistakenly or purposefully cause large data leaks.
- Human Error: Simple mistakes, such as sending an email to the wrong person or not handling sensitive data properly, can lead to severe data leak incident.
- Cloud Security Risks: As more companies adopt multi-cloud services, the chance of data being exposed in the cloud is rising. Financial services are no exception. Companies need to make sure their data stays safe, even when it’s stored or sent across multiple cloud platforms.
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.
Key Features to Look for While Selecting a DLP Solution for your Financial Enterprise
When selecting a DLP system, it is crucial to consider specific features to ensure comprehensive protection. These features are:
1. Comprehensive Data Coverage
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. |
2. Customizable Policies for Regulatory Compliance
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:
- Establish specific guidelines for managing PII, payment card details, and other confidential data.
- Automatically block or flag actions that violate these guidelines.
- Generate reports for regulatory audits.
3. Real-Time Monitoring and Threat Detection
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:
- Real-time data loss prevention
- Session-level inspection
- Protocol-agnostic traffic analysis
- DLP solution for high-speed networks
4. Cloud Compatibility
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.
5. Behavioral Analytics to Detect Insider Threats
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.
Best Practices for Implementing DLP in Financial Services
Well, deploying p DLP solution is only part of the equation. To truly maximize the benefits, financial institutions must follow these best practices:
1. Classify Your Data
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.
2. Apply Strong Data Access Controls
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.
3. Regular Employee Training
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.
4. Automate Incident Response
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.
5. Integrate DLP with Other Security Tools
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: A Tailored Solution for Financial Enterprises
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:
- Real-Time Monitoring: Fidelis constantly monitors all network connections, making sure that no data movement goes unnoticed. This helps catch possible data breaches as they occur, stopping data loss before it becomes a bigger problem.
- Deep Session Inspection: Unlike traditional DLP solutions that check data at the packet level, Fidelis Network® analyzes data at the session level. This provides clearer insights into the actual content of network communications, including compressed files and attachments. It captures human-readable content for analysis, ensuring that even hidden or obfuscated data is detected.
- Scalability for Large Enterprises: Fidelis Network® DLP is built to manage large amounts of data and network activity. Its flexible design makes it perfect for big financial institutions that need to protect sensitive information in various locations and data centers.
- Prevent Data Loss Across All Protocols: Fidelis Network DLP is protocol-agnostic, it checks all ports, no matter what protocol is used. This helps financial institutions stop data from being lost, even when using non-standard protocols, making sure all data is well-protected.
Conclusion
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.
Frequently Ask Questions
How does a DLP solution help organizations in meeting regulatory requirements?
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.
How do behavioral analytics help find insider threats in financial institutions?
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.
