Lack Of Control Over Sensitive Data

Adversaries are laser-focused on trying to find out where a business’ sensitive data is and steal it, and they’ve enjoyed a lot of success since attackers too often know where a company’s data is better than the company itself, according to Netskope Founder and CEO Sanjay Beri. Once companies find out where their sensitive data is, Beri said they need to put guardrails around it to control how it’s used.

Data is the intellectual property of most companies, meaning that it can be an existential threat to the company’s existence if that data gets out, Beri said. Regulators are cognizant of just how important it is for businesses to have visibility into their sensitive data, and aren’t afraid to issue fines if a company is holding customer data and doesn’t have adequate controls in place to safeguard it, according to Beri.

Companies on average use close to 1,000 cloud applications, 90 percent of which aren’t owned by IT, according to Beri. With more than half of all sensitive data living in the cloud, Beri said cloud-based data loss prevention (DLP) is vital for helping companies figure out which of their data goes where.