{ "id": "92b6dde1-6900-4893-9210-8efbd8d9fc27", "created_at": "2026-04-06T01:32:31.793717Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T13:12:41.534595Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "123667e2f25bf70a8cfab3291581d8877b1d1ac4", "title": "7 Data Loss Prevention Best Practices \u0026 Strategies", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 61220, "plain_text": "7 Data Loss Prevention Best Practices \u0026 Strategies\r\nBy Michael Swanagan, CISSP\r\nPublished: 2024-02-24 · Archived: 2026-04-06 01:21:33 UTC\r\nOn average it takes organizations 191 days to identify data breaches.\r\nIf an organization lacks diligence in protecting the sensitive data it owns or is entrusted with, they are at risk of\r\nexposing sensitive data to those who are not authorized to observe or possess it.\r\nThe 7 best practices for data loss prevention include:\r\n1. Identifying the crown jewels.\r\n2. Researching multiple vendors.\r\n3. Defining incident response and remediation.\r\n4. Crawling, walking, and running.\r\n5. Perform a proof of concept exercise.\r\n6. Identifying the DLP stakeholders and support team.\r\n7. Informing stakeholders of the state of the DLP program.\r\nThe strategy often used to counter and reduce the risk of data loss is referred to as Data Loss Prevention (DLP).\r\nIn this article, we will define DLP, describe how it works, briefly cover the top DLP software, and explain the best\r\ntime to implement a DLP strategy.\r\nBy the end, you will have a deeper understanding of data loss prevention best practices and why DLP strategies\r\nare important to a successful cybersecurity program.\r\nFree Security Policy Templates\r\nGet a step ahead of your cybersecurity goals with our comprehensive templates.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 1 of 9\n\nData Loss Prevention is defined as a strategy that detects potential data breaches or data ex-filtration\r\ntransmissions and prevents them by monitoring, detecting and blocking sensitive data while in\r\nuse (endpoint actions), in-motion (network traffic), and at rest (data storage).\r\nData Loss Prevention is also synonymous with the term Data Leakage Prevention. These terms are often used\r\ninterchangeably, however, Data Loss Prevention is the common term used by DLP solution providers today.\r\nSensitive data is information that must be protected against unauthorized access to safeguard the privacy or\r\nsecurity of an individual or organization.\r\nIt can exist within entries on a spreadsheet containing employee names and Social Security numbers.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 2 of 9\n\nSensitive data may be the contents of a document describing the secret formula for a brand of soda, or it could be\r\na database that contains the full names, addresses, and driver license numbers for a state’s DMV.\r\nOne of the core functions of a DLP strategy and solution is to prevent exposing sensitive data to unauthorized\r\nparties.\r\nOrganizations today are faced with the challenge of selecting the best security solutions.\r\nThis includes implementing a SIEM and IDS/IPS to protect their corporate data.\r\nThis is because the unintentional leakage or loss of sensitive data due to a malicious actor, an inside job, or an\r\nunknowing employee, can lead to significant financial loss and reputational damage to any organization.\r\nData Loss Prevention Best Practices\r\n1. Identify The Crown Jewels\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 3 of 9\n\nKnow thy business. Identify the proverbial ‘crown jewels’ of your company. This could be Intellectual Property\r\nsuch as a recipe, source code, or formula.\r\nEngage Executive and Senior Leadership to direct the DLP program by providing input on what is critical to the\r\norganization.\r\nThis approach is referred to as the ‘top-down’ approach.\r\nInput from technical leaders can be shared during the maturation of the DLP program to enhance value and\r\ncreativity.\r\n2. Research Multiple Vendors\r\nDefine your expectations for DLP in your organizations. Consult with peers in your industry and find out who\r\nthey are using for DLP and gauge their satisfaction with support, incident workflow, and overall confidence level.\r\nGartner can also be used as a reference to determine how the DLP vendor has performed over time.\r\n3. Define Incident Response And Remediation\r\nEnterprise DLP is not simply a tool, it is a\r\nprogram. The downfall of many DLP installations is poor planning for incident triage.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 4 of 9\n\nIt is not unusual for an organization to go through the strategy process, purchase the software, and fail to plan for\r\nDLP incident management.\r\nEnsure there is an incident response plan and team in place before going live with the implementation.\r\n4. Crawl, Walk, and Run\r\nI recall working on my first deployment of Vontu/Symantec DLP. One of their sales engineers mentioned the\r\nphrase, do not boil the ocean right out of the gate.\r\nHe was advising us to go for small wins, instead of turning on every single policy checkbox available.\r\nDoing so would overwhelm the system and inundate the system with massive amounts of incidents, therefore,\r\ndefeating the purpose of the investment. Same principle applies a decade later.\r\nStart with a small subset of policies and demonstrate value to leadership, then gradually build the system over\r\ntime as your understanding of the product matures.\r\n5. Perform A Proof Of Concept Exercise\r\nThe goal here is to replicate the functionality and test the feature sets.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 5 of 9\n\nThis can also be compared to as a pilot. This is the time to kick the tires and ensure the product meets your\r\ncompliance needs and observe deficiencies in your triage process.\r\n6. Identify The DLP Stakeholders And Support Team\r\nI t is not surprising to hear many organizations\r\nhave DLP in the environment and barely utilize the features or have support teams to manage incidents.\r\nCreate an internal DLP Committee, comprised of Senior Leaders, Business Unit Managers, Legal, and InfoSec\r\nManagement.\r\nIf internal resources are not available to support DLP Operations, consider partnering with a Managed Service\r\nProvider that specializes in DLP.\r\n7. Regularly Inform Stakeholders Of The State Of The DLP Program\r\nEnsure stakeholders are informed of the state of the program.\r\nConsider creating a DLP committee comprised of Executive Leadership members and key Business Unit leaders.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 6 of 9\n\nMonthly or quarterly meetings will provide input and will help to continuously drive the program and ensure the\r\nquality of the investment is operating optimally.\r\nA DLP strategy can commence once executive leadership is on board with the solution. This usually takes place\r\nafter a vulnerability assessment or cost-benefit analysis has been performed.\r\nThe DLP strategy will provide direction on how to implement the solution and outline what, where, and how to\r\nprotect the data.\r\nI’ll list a few real-world scenarios to bring the strategy process into focus.\r\nScenario A\r\nA fictional company named MediHealthRecords processes medical insurance claims for a regulated Health Care\r\norganization.\r\nThey are aware that HIPAA and Medical claim data reside on file servers, but they are not sure where the data is\r\nlocated.\r\nSolution: Implement A DLP At Rest Solution\r\nHere the best choice would be to implement a DLP at Rest solution. The strategy would include a discovery scan\r\nof unstructured data, which will crawl the selected storage and locate data matching the pattern of HIPAA and\r\nMedical keywords, as set forth in the scan policy.\r\nWhen a pattern match occurs, a notification alert will be recorded in the DLP database and viewable on the\r\nmanagement console by the DLP Analyst.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 7 of 9\n\nScenario B\r\nThe Human Resources manager has learned that a few members of the HR department have been emailing\r\nsensitive files to their personal Gmail accounts to work on backlogged HR requests over the weekend.\r\nSolution: Implement DLP For Network And Endpoints\r\nA couple of options can be employed. A network security policy can be created to prevent file uploads to Gmail.\r\nThe component utilized to enforce this would be data in motion or DLP for the network.\r\nDLP for Endpoint can also detect HTTP/HTTPS, which can be done with advanced application configuration. File\r\nupload data can detect the content as it leaves the endpoint to the Internet.\r\nScenario C\r\nThe Sales team is complaining that they cannot store their PowerPoint presentations on USB thumb drives. There\r\nisn’t any sensitive data saved, only presentation.\r\nSolution: Implement DLP For Endpoints\r\nThe best strategy that fits this scenario is to provide an exception for the Sales team members.\r\nDLP for the Endpoint in most cases allows the ability to whitelist users via a policy based on Active Directory\r\nmembership.\r\nScenario D\r\nThe CEO would like to know when the secret formula document has moved from its original location or emailed\r\nwithin network.\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 8 of 9\n\nSolution: Create A DLP Policy\r\nWhen researching a DLP vendor, ensure that they can demonstrate any scenario involving the protection of your\r\nIntellectual Property.\r\nCreate a policy that detects the exact match of the document or monitor for specific keywords as it resides in\r\nstorage or email.\r\nAs stated, the examples listed above are real world scenarios that organization’s face every day in the corporate\r\nworld.\r\nBy developing a strategy, an organization can assess which DLP component is applicable to their environment.\r\nIt would not be a wise investment to purchase an expensive Enterprise DLP solution that offers an entire suite of\r\nDLP features if your organization doesn’t manage unstructured data on-premise or in the cloud.\r\nThe cost of implementing a DLP platform can be expensive.\r\nBe sure the capital investment is based on sound cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, and vendor analysis. \r\nSource: https://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nhttps://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/\r\nPage 9 of 9", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "origins": [ "web" ], "references": [ "https://purplesec.us/data-loss-prevention/" ], "report_names": [ "data-loss-prevention" ], "threat_actors": [ { "id": "d90307b6-14a9-4d0b-9156-89e453d6eb13", "created_at": "2022-10-25T16:07:23.773944Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T02:00:04.746188Z", "deleted_at": null, "main_name": "Lead", "aliases": [ "Casper", "TG-3279" ], "source_name": "ETDA:Lead", "tools": [ "Agentemis", "BleDoor", "Cobalt Strike", "CobaltStrike", "RbDoor", "RibDoor", "Winnti", "cobeacon" ], "source_id": "ETDA", "reports": null } ], "ts_created_at": 1775439151, "ts_updated_at": 1775826761, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/123667e2f25bf70a8cfab3291581d8877b1d1ac4.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/123667e2f25bf70a8cfab3291581d8877b1d1ac4.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/123667e2f25bf70a8cfab3291581d8877b1d1ac4.jpg" } }