Data Exfiltration Prevention: How to Protect PHI, PII and More

Why is data exfiltration so difficult to stop?

It can be the work of malicious insiders or hackers, but it can also occur when less secure third-party applications have access to your company’s data. Data exfiltration can result in costly data breaches, loss of valuable intellectual property, compliance violations and reputational damage—all adding up to massive financial losses.

And data exfiltration can occur through various channels, such as email, cloud storage, thumb drives, file transfer protocols, or network traffic. It can be intentional or accidental, and it can be targeted or opportunistic. That’s why it’s difficult to stop—there’s so many motives for individuals to copy files where they shouldn’t and so many different places they can do it.

Data exfiltration prevention requires a clear focus on keeping all your organization’s critical data files safe. Effective prevention requires data visibility and control. There’s no way an organization can protect data it can’t see.

4 data exfiltration prevention best practices

Preventing data exfiltration means protecting personal customer data like PHI, PII IP and other types of sensitive data. Some key best practices include:

• Implement a data discovery and classification solution: Data discovery is the first step in the process since it helps define the universe of what needs to be protected. Data classification helps prioritize your data protection efforts and reduce the exposure of your most critical data. A good DSPM product helps automate the process. As an example, Forcepoint DSPM discovers nearly a million files per hour.
• Implement a robust Data Loss Prevention solution: A robust data loss prevention (DLP) tool can detect nd block data exfiltration attempts based on predefined rules and policies. As an example, Forcepoint ONE Data Security allows organizations to use 1,700 predefined policies to prevent data exfiltration across multiple channels including web, cloud, email, network and endpoint.
• Monitor employee activity over time: Besides understanding who has access to sensitive files, it’s also important to understand what they are doing with it. A tool like Risk-Adaptive Protection. RAP extends the capabilities of our DLP using behavioral analysis to identify risky user behavior to potentially make dynamic adjustments to data policies based on that behavior. Additionally, RAP automates actions within those policies.
• Educate and train employees: Raising awareness and providing guidance to employees about data security best practices should include training on common data exfiltration methods and motives, and the potential consequences and risks that come with it. Enable your employees to get work done while encouraging them to follow the data security procedures as defined by your organization. That's the thinking behind one of our most-requested features from customers—Forcepoint ONE Data Security now features customizable DLP popups that allow administrators to teach employees why a policy is being enforced in the moment something occurs.

The cost of ignoring data exfiltration

Ignoring data exfiltration can be a costly mistake for organizations. According to a report by IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 was $3.86 million, and the average time to identify and contain a breach was 280 days. Data exfiltration can erode customer trust, damage brand reputation and expose sensitive information to competitors or adversaries.

Forcepoint is here to help customers avoid all the negative effects of data exfiltration. We can help your organization build a robust data exfiltration prevention strategy to ensure compliance, protect personal data like PHI, PII, IP and all your organization’s critical files. Talk to an expert to set up a customized demo.