Think about data loss prevention (DLP) like taking care of your health. To prevent yourself from having a heart attack, you eat well and exercise. However, it’s not always so easy.
You sometimes have to make tough decisions: Should you spend a little more time and money eating salad and lean protein, or can you afford to cruise through the McDonald’s drive-thru window?
Ultimately, healthy decisions make a world of difference. And, at the very least, you know they’ll speed up your recovery if those precautions fall short. But what does this have to do with data security?
Simply put, preventing data loss is a very similar process. You implement all the reasonable and necessary security measures you can, ensuring you’re prepared for every possible breach scenario. But, even if a data leak occurs, you still have the proper tools and procedures in place to make it a little less painful.
Let’s take a closer look at how to prevent data loss in your school district. From the importance of data protection to the power of a DLP solution, you’ll learn everything you need to know.
In simple terms, data loss prevention refers to a set of best practices and procedures integral to keeping sensitive information safe from unauthorized access. More specifically, it’s the process of detecting and preventing a data leak, malicious breach, or unwanted loss of important data.
The term “sensitive information” is particularly relevant. Most K-12 school systems are storing a treasure trove of confidential data that, if exposed, could endanger students or violate their privacy rights. For example, your district’s cloud storage likely contains:
Now, consider the fact that the world creates 1.7MB of data every second. That’s a lot of information, and your district is likely generating more and more of it every day. Preventing data loss isn’t easy when you have thousands of students that need protection.
Fortunately, that’s where data loss prevention tools come into play. Not to be confused with antivirus software, a DLP solution automatically keeps watch for suspicious activity, sounding the alarm when a risk is detected.
Essentially, DLP software is a FitBit for your district’s data security policy. It gives you a real-time glimpse at what’s going on beneath the surface, allowing you to mitigate behavior and eliminate threats.
Altogether, data loss prevention tools and best practices can:
Contrary to popular belief, school districts aren’t too small or off-limits for hackers. In fact, according to Microsoft, they’re among cybercriminals’ most frequent targets. Over the past 30 days alone, the education sector has reported nearly 80% of all malware encounters.
Why? Because, as previously mentioned, sensitive information abounds throughout the K-12 landscape.
Whether it be in a hard drive, computer system, or cloud storage application, schools have tremendous amounts of valuable data. This makes them especially prone to data breaches, as hackers are constantly attempting to bypass their limited security measures.
You don’t need a big imagination to see how data leakage could impact your district. From a financial perspective, the average cost of a data breach is well over $9 million in the United States. Aside from disaster recovery costs, it can take weeks (and sometimes months) to bring an affected computer system back online, greatly derailing student learning.
More importantly, failing to protect personal data is a safety risk. Not only can bad actors exploit stolen data to steal a student’s identity, but they can also sell their home addresses to anyone online.
Preventing data loss is about going as broad as possible to cover your bases. An effective DLP strategy will account for all potential causes. In most cases, lost data can be sourced back to the following:
Data loss prevention strategies must consider all possible scenarios. Just like taking multiple precautions to stay healthy, schools should enact numerous security measures to keep information safe. This layered approach — called “defense in depth” — ensures that even if one system fails, another is ready to swoop in and save the day.
However, there’s no such thing as absolute safety. But, a good strategy will keep out anyone who isn’t both very determined and lucky — and will help your team audit and report on breach incidents and impacts. Here are some essential best practices to get started:
It doesn’t matter if your school district is big or small. You’re storing sensitive, personally identifiable information about students, their parents/guardians, faculty and staff, and more. Not only are you legally required to secure and protect this data, but it’s also in the best interest of your community.
Fortunately, ManagedMethods is here to help. Our Cloud Monitor platform is a DLP solution made specifically for K-12 school districts. From cyberbullying and data loss to self-harm and more, you can leverage this tool to safeguard your people in more ways than one. Combined with Content Filter, you can set up multiple layers of defense for a full-fledged cybersecur