Data Loss Prevention vs Data Backup: Why You Need Both
Data loss is a severe problem for businesses and individuals alike. Losing sensitive information can lead to significant financial and legal consequences, as well as damage to a company's reputation. In crucial moments, it's essential to have both data loss prevention (DLP) and data backup systems in place to potentially minimize the costs of data loss.
What Is Data Loss Prevention?
DLP is an approach that enforces certain policies that aim to prevent unauthorized access, sharing, and leakage of sensitive data. It can prevent data loss before it happens, by identifying threats, and taking action before they can cause damage.
Data loss prevention systems monitor and analyze data usage, flagging any unusual activity on the go. Once an alert is triggered, it can block access, prevent data sharing or even encrypt the data.
DLP systems are essential for companies that handle sensitive data, such as healthcare or finance. DLP systems can prevent insiders from sharing sensitive patient or customer data with unauthorized third parties. According to the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million, which is why DLP tools are invaluable.
What Is Data Backup?
Data backup, on the other hand, is the process of copying data to a safe location for potential later use. Backing up data is essential for disaster recovery and allows for quick restoration in case of data loss.
Data backup systems copy data filenames, folder structures, and file contents to a location separate from the original files. The location could be on an external hard drive or even in the cloud.
When a data loss event happens, companies can restore data from their backups without disrupting their business operations. Most disaster recovery plans include backups to protect against data loss from malicious activity or system failures.
Why You Need Both, and How They Complement Each Other
DLP and backup systems are complementary and work together to protect sensitive data. While DLP systems work to prevent data loss by identifying and stopping malicious activity before it can occur, backup systems already have a copy of the original data and can restore it quickly if DLP fails to prevent an incident.
Let's say an employee at a healthcare facility tries to email sensitive patient data outside the company. The DLP system can promptly identify this activity and block the email, preventing data loss. But without a backup system, the company could still lose the same data if, for example, the storage device unexpectedly fails.
In a more sophisticated scenario, a cybercriminal could successfully breach data security protocols and steal sensitive data. In such cases, data loss prevention alone may not be enough, and the backup system can be key to restoring lost data without compromising operations.
Conclusion
To minimize the risks of data loss, you need both DLP and data backup. DLP systems work to prevent data loss before it happens, while data backup systems are necessary for disaster recovery.
Without either security measure, there would be significant consequences for businesses and individuals who handle sensitive data. Having both solutions in place can potentially minimize the costs of data loss.
Lastly, it's important to note that both DLP and backup systems require regular monitoring and reliable testing. Proper configuration and monitoring of both systems can be the difference between disaster and quick recovery.