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Top 5 Steps to Dramatically Limit Data Loss and Information Leaks

By Priya George

"From lost laptops to misplaced backup tapes to accidental e-mails filled with sensitive information, we seem to be in the midst of a data loss epidemic, with tens of millions of individuals receiving ‘data loss’ notification letters this year," said Rich Mogull, research vice president for Gartner.

"Data loss and information leaks are not random acts of nature too costly to prevent," Mr. Mogull said. "By following these five steps, enterprises can dramatically reduce the risk of their valuable structured or unstructured information ending up in the wrong hands and forcing an embarrassing public disclosure."

The top five steps to prevent data loss and information leaks are as follows:

Deploy Content Monitoring and Filtering (CMF)

"CMF tools are best at detecting and reducing information loss from accidents, such as e-mailing the wrong file to the wrong person, or bad business process, such as exchanging HR data over an unencrypted FTP connection," Mr. Mogull said. "CMF won't stop all malicious activity and can be circumvented by a knowledgeable attacker. Still, most information leaks are the result of these accidents or bad processes, and CMF is evolving rapidly to address more malicious attacks."

Encrypt Backup Tapes and Mass Storage

"During the past few years, tools have emerged that significantly improve the performance, manageability and simplicity of encryption," Mr. Mogull said. "For large tape installations, we recommend in-line encryption appliances. For tape drives connected to local systems or servers, companies may want to consider software encryption. Older mainframes may need an in-line appliance with an adapter for mainframe protocols, while new software solutions can take advantage of extra processors or cryptographic coprocessors in more current models."

Secure wWorkstations, Restrict Home Computers and Lock Portable Storage

"There’s really no excuse for not keeping an enterprise system up-to-date with the latest patches, a personal firewall, antivirus and anti-spyware software," Mr. Mogull said. “These precautions alone will prevent the vast majority of commonly encountered Internet attacks."

Encrypt Laptops

"There is only one tool to protect sensitive information on a lost laptop: encryption, preferably whole-drive encryption from a third-party vendor," Mr. Mogull said. "Whole-driven encryption, as opposed to file and folder encryption, involves very little user action, protects all data on the computer, and is not vulnerable to the same kinds of recovery techniques that skirt the protections of passwords or other controls."

Deploy Database Activity Monitoring

"Database activity monitoring tools observe all activity within a database, record this activity in a secure repository and generate instant alerts for unusual activity," Mr. Mogull said. “Through detection of unusual behavior, database activity monitoring can limit insider misuse of database systems, enforce separation of duties for database administrators and limit certain external attacks, all without affecting database performance.”


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