Symantec Delivers DLP 12 To Take On Insider Threats

Symantec Wednesday rolled out Data Loss Prevention 12, the company's answer to the ever-increasing need for protection against insider threats.

"Employees are copying and storing information everywhere to be more productive and effective in their jobs, but no one is ever [leaving work and then] deleting it or cleaning it up," said Linda Park, product marketing manager, Data Loss Prevention, at Symantec, Mountain View, Calif.

A recent Ponemon Institute study titled on data breach costs shows that insider threats have increased 22 percent over the past eight years. Security breaches of this nature are not always intentional, but human error can cause extensive damage to a company whether the breach is malicious or not.

To help combat this increasing problem, Symantec's DLP 12 includes three new features.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

The first, mobile email monitoring, applies to Apple iOS devices. Gaining insight into what confidential data is being downloaded or synced to the native mail app on an iPhone or iPad is a network-based solution that does not require an app or mobile agent.

The second new feature of Symantec DLP is the ability to identify a file that has been encrypted by Symantec, decrypt the content in the file, extract and analyze the content and compare it against a data loss policy for confidential information.

Finally, Symantec has incorporated a "user risk summary" in DLP 12 that allows visibility into not only content, but context in which information is being accessed or used. This new capability is all about tracking and reporting threats and making the appropriate people aware of the threat so that it can be addressed, Park said.

NEXT: Symantec's DLP 12 For SMBs Too

"Insider threats is always one of those big conversations," said Jon Heimerl, director of strategic security at Omaha, Neb.-based Solutionary. "There are basic things about how you protect insider information, but there is no guarantee that the inside of your company is going to be any more secure than the outside."

"This [DLP 12] is going to provide us the ability to very intelligently figure out who owns information, and who the highest and most critical offenders may be," said Sean Steele, CEO of infoLock Technologies, a longtime Symantec partner.

"One of the strengths of Symantec DLP is its modularity. It is increasingly true that Symantec DLP is not limited to large companies. This is a solution that can be cost-effective and quickly implemented by small and medium-size companies," Steele said.

PUBLISHED JUNE 28, 2013