CoSoSys included in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Data Loss Prevention

Next to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Data Loss Prevention, CSOs, IT Managers, and other IT security professionals can take advantage of the most recent research published by Gartner: the Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Data Loss Prevention by Brian Reed and Deborah Kish. The research evaluates DLP products for three use cases: regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection and data visibility and monitoring. Scores have been assigned on a scale of 1 to 5 and derived from nine critical capabilities.

• DLP Endpoint
• DLP Discovery
• DLP Network
• Ease of Deployment
• Configuration Flexibility
• DLP Advanced Detection
• Internationalization Support
• DLP Management System
• DLP Vendor Integrations

We are happy to be included in the research and we believe that the scores reflect our strong DLP capabilities, with a focus on endpoint DLP, with advanced detection techniques, ease of deployment and an intuitive management system. Our product, Endpoint Protector 4, offers great support for mixed environments, Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as iOS and Android devices for the optional MDM module. Localization is also an important aspect for Endpoint Protector, with customers in over 100 countries, therefore, the management interface is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, and other languages. We believe the inclusion in this research and our scores represent proof that we strive to offer to our customers a robust, reliable and easy to use DLP product to support them in achieving regulatory compliance, protect intellectual property and other sensitive data and to offer deep data visibility.

The report includes:

• Gartner’s analysis with scores for DLP vendors
• Description of the nine critical capabilities evaluated for each vendor
• Gartner’s key findings about enterprise DLP and recommendations for security and risk management leaders that are looking to adopt DLP

To understand the importance of the Gartner’s research, let’s analyze more in depth the three use cases: regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and data visibility and monitoring. We think these are also the main drivers for DLP adoption. Here’s why:

1. Regulatory compliance

For PCI DSS, for example, CoSoSys believes non-compliance can bring not only financial penalties but also the risk of losing the right to participate in future credit card transactions. Some of the biggest fines so far are: $25 million received by a global CSP provider for a data breach experienced in 2014 which exposed 280,000 customers’ names, full or partial Social Security numbers, and account-related data, including customer proprietary network information (CPNI); approximately $140 million paid by a U.S. based payment processing and technology provider, for a data breach suffered in 2015. If organizations want to implement DLP controls which are necessary for compliance with PCI and other industry regulations, the Gartner’s research is a great tool to assess DLP vendor’s capabilities in terms of regulatory compliance.

2. Intellectual property protection

The World Intellectual Property Organization defines IP as “creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” Intellectual property is protected by law through patents, copyrights, and trademarks. For organizations, IP can have also a broader meaning, like ideas materialized in a product, service, etc. According to CSO, each year, intellectual property theft costs U.S companies about $300 million. But the costs are not only financial. A data breach involving IP can impact organizations’ competitiveness, their future as sustainable businesses, brand reputation, credit ratings, and others. DarkReading describes 6 of the most shocking IP breaches.

Data Loss Prevention technology’s role in protecting intellectual property and for data breach protection is extremely important, addressing the theft and leakages risks from the insiders perspective.

3. Data visibility and monitoring

From our experience, this third use case for DLP is very popular especially in the first stages of DLP implementations. While there are organizations keeping the tool in “monitor only” or “audit” mode to observe user behavior in what concerns sensitive data, most companies prefer to take advantage of this mode only for a period, after which they enforce restrictions. Having visibility into what sensitive data is stored on endpoints, servers, network shares, who has access to it, its movement, etc. gives companies control over what enforcement and alerting actions to take. After all, they cannot control or analyze what they can’t see. Lack of visibility, not only at endpoint level but also in the cloud (e.g. shadow IT) is one of the top causes of data breaches and also a vulnerability in the face of insider threats. DLP technologies address these issues, offering deep visibility into confidential data like PII, intellectual property and other vital data with context-aware policies and allowing monitoring so informed decisions can be made.

To summarize, we believe the three use cases analyzed by Gartner comparing the capabilities for the main DLP vendors coincide with the primary needs in enterprises. There are companies that implement Data Loss Prevention just for regulatory compliance; others choose to do so for IP protection and others for data visibility and monitoring, and many for all three reasons. In the end, regardless of the motivation, the final outcome should be data breach protection and DLP should be only a segment of a complete information security execution.

*Gartner, “Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Data Loss Prevention”, by Brian Reed and Deborah Kish, 10 April 2017. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.