No two data loss prevention tools are made exactly the same. When it comes to securing your school district’s data, you need the best-fit solution for your specific needs.
Think about it: You wouldn’t shovel snow with a rake, just like you wouldn’t rake leaves with a shovel. Both tools are made differently because they serve different purposes. Simply put, the same principle applies when you’re talking about data loss prevention (DLP).
With so many different DLP tools available, it’s important to understand how each one fits into your existing infrastructure before making a commitment. To give you the confidence that your chosen solution is best for your district, let’s dive into what each one has to offer.
By now you might be wondering: What is data loss prevention?
Generally speaking, data loss prevention refers to the set of technologies, processes, and best practices used to prevent sensitive information from leaving your district’s network, whether it be in a data breach or data leak. In other words, any and all data protection tools put in place that prevent personal data from falling into the wrong hands can be considered DLP technology.
But do you really need data loss prevention in your district? The short answer is a resounding yes. In 2019, Edtech Magazine ranked education the least secure of 17 industries studied. According to our research in collaboration with EdWeek Research Center, little progress has been made in the years since. As a matter of fact, 50% of surveyed school districts either don’t know if their cloud security platform exists or they lack one entirely.
As if that’s not concerning enough, there are more threats to student data than ever before:
What does this mean for your district? Your sensitive data is at risk. With the proper data loss prevention tools in place, you have a much stronger chance of keeping it safe.
Data loss prevention tools come in all shapes and sizes. That being said, not every DLP tool will fit perfectly in every part of your data security infrastructure.
To piece this puzzle together, it’s best that you know how each type of DLP tool works, why they’re needed, and how they support your data loss protection effort.
1. Endpoint DLP software
When you think about how students and teachers access sensitive information, you think about hardware. That’s where endpoint DLP comes into play. An endpoint DLP tool – sometimes called an endpoint protector – monitors data as it moves between smartphones, tablets, and computers.
By doing so, this can help your security team track how students and teachers are accessing, storing, and sharing personal data between one another. In turn, you can reduce the risk of an accidental data leak.
All in all, endpoint data loss prevention software offers greater device control, but only on devices where the DLP software is installed. For this reason, it’s best to complement your endpoint protection with network and cloud DLP technology.
2. Network DLP tools
On the other hand, network security focuses on protecting sensitive information by placing a secure perimeter around your data in motion. Rather than only monitoring data at the endpoints, network DLP keeps a watchful eye over personal data as it moves in and out of your school network.
A proper network DLP solution can automatically encrypt, block, quarantine, and audit the content of an email, document or other communication that may contain sensitive information. Likewise, administrators can remove access rights to certain files as they assess the situation. With the enhanced visibility that network security provides, your security team can easily prevent data leakage and reduce the risk of an outside data breach.
While an endpoint protector safeguards data as it’s used on each device, network DLP secures the perimeter with constant surveillance so that nothing malicious or dangerous goes in or out. Although effective together, there still remains a massive vulnerability: Data stored in the cloud.
3. Cloud security
Cloud DLP patrols the sky – no pun intended. With more than 90% of K-12 schools operating in the cloud, it’s never been more important to close the final gap in data security. In essence, this type of integrated DLP tool focuses on protecting learning technologies and services that use cloud storage.
Whether it be Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365, cloud-based applications are storing plenty of personal data. Because they store information in the cloud, network firewalls and secure gateways do little to protect your data.
Through cloud monitoring, your district can receive real-time notifications when data has been improperly accessed, shared or saved from the cloud. Better yet, cloud DLP will automatically scan the content of shared files for personally identifiable information and other indications of sensitive data, allowing you to step into action in a moment’s notice.
It’s important to remember that data stored in the cloud is fundamentally different from data stored elsewhere. Because cloud data isn’t stored on an on-premise hard drive or local server, it’s therefore stored outside of your network – hence why perimeter network security can’t protect it.
Given the necessity for remote learning and hybrid work in recent years, it’s no wonder that schools and businesses alike have accelerated their leap to the cloud. But in the process of that expedited migration, critical cloud security measures are being missed.
This is a major problem, and here’s why: research shows that 83% of organizations are failing to encrypt their cloud data, while 40% have experienced a cloud data breach in the past 12 months. In other words, limited security controls are leaving sensitive data up for grabs where anyone might access it.
When it comes to protecting student information stored in your cloud environment, you need a DLP software that packs a punch. Empowered by a cloud-based data loss prevention solution, you stand to gain plenty of key advantages:
Let’s dive a little deeper and take a look at the two types of cloud data loss prevention tools: API and proxy-based solutions.
1. Proxy-based solutions
Proxy-based cloud DLP solutions use a proxy – a system that breaks the connection between sender and receiver – as a gateway that monitors users as they access data in the cloud. In basic terms, a proxy checks and filters known users and devices through a single gateway, allowing the software to take real-time action when risks are identified.
However, proxies cause significant delays in network performance. Think about it: Filtering all of your student data through a single gateway is like directing traffic into a single four-way intersection. Worse yet, proxies only check for known users, meaning unknown (or outside) threats may go undetected.
At its most simple, proxy-based cloud DLP tries to use network-level perimeter security to solve cloud-level challenges. Luckily, there’s a better way.
2. API-based solutions
API-based security doesn’t have any negative impact on network performance. Rather than use network technology, these solutions are built on a cloud application’s native Application Programming Interface (API). An API is simply a set of definitions and protocols that allow you to build and integrate application software, such as a DLP solution.
What does this mean for you? Because API-based solutions are integrated into your cloud services, they secure both known and unknown users. As a result, you gain direct, secure access to the cloud from any device. As a near-native part of the application, API-based DLP are far more effective at monitoring data activity within the app itself.
Best of all, APIs are built on an open architecture, which means that your security team can customize access rights, rules, and policies to your choosing. Plus, they’re ready-to-go with out-of-the-box data loss prevention capabilities for rapid deployment.
Whereas proxy-based solutions duplicate network functionality, API-based DLP provides an additional layer of security.
Protecting student privacy comes down to how effectively you use your data loss prevention tools. Of course, the quality of those tools will make that challenge easier on you and your district.
Be sure your choice is fully equipped with the following critical features and capabilities:
These features, among many more, are vital assets in your data loss prevention toolbox. Without the additional layer of security that an API-based cloud DLP tool provides, your school district’s data is likely still at risk.
Now that so much of your data is stored in the cloud, it’s time to close the final gap in your security. At ManagedMethods, our out-of-the-box cloud security platform is fully equipped with automated capabilities, data monitoring features and customizable policies to match your complex data protection needs.
Learn more about how our data loss prevention tool can protect sensitive data in your district by requesting a 30-day free trial today.