Top 6 Data Loss Prevention Solutions

#1. Check Point

As part of the Check Point Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), Check Point offers solutions to protect against both accidental and malicious data loss. Check Point tracks and controls sensitive information, regardless of its type or format, across your organization. This includes network coverage as well as protection for email, web browsing, collaboration platforms, and other environments.

Check Point provides innovative technologies to accurately identify and classify sensitive data, while also providing real-time remediation to minimize the impact of data security incidents. Users are immediately alerted to potential policy breaches through real-time notifications, enabling them to quickly mitigate their effects. In the case of legitimate communications, they can simply confirm the action. This frees IT staff from unnecessary incident handling and improves data loss awareness, with users self-administering their actions and learning correct data handling practices.

An inline solution, Check Point uses multi-protocol inspection and enforcement with data flows continually monitored against defined policies. Pattern matching, file classification, and other detection technologies allow for sensitive data to be identified immediately. This includes scanning encrypted traffic passing through the NGFW.

Check Point DLP offers two primary options: Content Awareness in the Unified Policy and full-featured DLP. Content Awareness is a lighter-weight data-loss solution, while the full-featured option offers more extensive functionality, including dictionary matching, scanning file repositories, template matching, adding watermarks to files, and creating your own data types.

Both Check Point data loss solutions are easy to deploy and allow you to manage DLP across your entire IT infrastructure from a single interface. They also offer out-of-the-box policies that follow proven DLP best practices for common requirements, including key data privacy regulations.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• • Over 700 predefined data types to identify sensitive information, including classification based on common regulations.
  • Customizable data types with the ability to define internal sensitive information classifications.

• Inspect and control all network traffic, including encrypted data.

Vorteile

• Educates users on DLP policies and on how to interact safely with sensitive data.
• Predefined policies allow Check Point data loss solutions to be deployed in minutes.
• DLP capabilities integrate directly into any Check Point firewall, reducing installation time and saving you money.

Nachteile

• • Less endpoint control compared to some data loss solutions.
  • With granular, customizable policies, users have many options, leading to longer setup times.

• Maximizing security requires a knowledgeable IT team.

Pricing

Available by contacting Check Point or finding a Check Point partner to work with. Users can try the product for free by scheduling a demo with a Check Point expert.

#2. Symantec

As part of the Broadcom security portfolio, Symantec offers data loss solutions that protect sensitive information across endpoints, the cloud, email, and general storage. Symantec’s DLP solutions utilize content-aware technologies to accurately detect sensitive data, reducing false positives and negatives regardless of storage location or file format. Technologies include various fingerprinting techniques, file-type detection, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to track data stored in images.

Symantec allows users to create customized policies that enforce different controls based on the data environment. These policies and content inspection are overseen from the Enforce Platform, a unified interface with extensive reporting and incident response tools.

Symantec’s primary two data loss products are its core DLP and cloud DLP solutions. The core solution offers on-premises DLP modules, while the cloud DLP solution extends to SaaS applications. This includes integrations with the vendor’s Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) solution and Information Centric Analytics (ICA), which provides User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) capabilities to detect anomalous activity.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• Deep content inspection based on various context-aware technologies.

• Data loss solutions managed by a single console using the Enforce Platform.

• Identifies, controls, and protects sensitive data across different devices and environments.

Vorteile

• DLP capabilities scale to match the needs of large-scale operations with complex data protection needs.

• Flexible and easy-to-use interface.

• Quickly identifies sensitive data across different environments.

Nachteile

• Requires significant investment and resources, better suited to large-scale operations with dedicated, experienced security teams.
• Slow to deploy due to extensive on-premises infrastructure installation.
• More expensive than other data loss solutions on the market.

Pricing

Enterprise-grade solution with custom pricing provided upon request. Total cost of ownership can be higher due to the need for dedicated hardware.

#3. Forcepoint

Forcepoint is a significant player in the DLP space, with mature solutions that provide unified policy enforcement and extensive pre-built libraries for identifying various types of sensitive information. Forcepoint data loss solutions provide a single interface to enforce security policies across different environments. The platform offers over 1,700 classifiers and templates to identify sensitive data across a wide range of countries, compliance regulations, and file types.

Forcepoint leverages AI and machine learning extensively to identify and monitor sensitive information and provide risk-adaptive policies based on context and user behavior. The platform also offers controls to protect data shared with generative AI systems, enabling innovation without compromising data security or compliance.

Both on-prem and cloud data loss solutions are available through the vendor’s broader Forcepoint One platform. This facilitates seamless integration with other Forcepoint security products, including its CASB, Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) modules.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• • Offers a vast library of pre-built classifiers and policy templates to identify and define sensitive information stored across different environments.
  • Risk-adaptive policies use machine learning to adjust protections based on context and an understanding of normal user behavior.

• Users can train machine learning classifiers with internal examples to improve platform performance.

Vorteile

• Extensive use of machine learning technology to protect against a wide range of data threats.

• Offers an extensive suite of DLP features.
• Seamless integration with the Forcepoint ecosystem.

Nachteile

• Forcepoint provides complex data loss solutions that require lengthy configuration by knowledgeable security teams.
• Utilizing their solutions has a significant learning curve, and users have criticized the platform’s interface.
• Its machine learning models improve over time, leading to a performance delay during optimization.

Pricing

Potential clients must submit details about their operations to receive custom quotes for Forcepoint’s data loss solutions. Values quoted online suggest the full suite costs roughly $50+ per user per year, while modules providing endpoint DLP solutions cost significantly less, around $20 per user per year.

#4. Trellix

Formed by the merger of McAfee and FireEye, Trellix offers real-time data loss solutions with customizable policies and automated incident response capabilities. A modular product, users can pick and choose between Trellix’s suite of DLP solutions that cover a range of data security threats for complex endpoint and network environments. This includes functionality for discovering and protecting data, as well as centralized management covering each stage of the data lifecycle.

Detection technologies identifying sensitive data include fingerprinting, machine learning/contextual classification, and OCR. Machine learning technology is also used to establish typical user activity patterns and detect suspicious deviations, with a focus on limiting risk from insider misuse of data and attacks. Upon identifying suspicious behavior, Trellix DLP provides various responses, including restricting data movement or encrypting data moved to external devices (such as USB drives).

The platform enables easy integration with complementary Trellix solutions, such as Trellix EDR/XDR and ePO ePolicy Orchestrator for centralized management, and other security platforms. This allows users to unify their cybersecurity posture by combining data loss solutions into a single framework that provides broader protection. Trellix also offers pre-built policy templates and reporting for well-known regulations.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• Strong detection technologies, including machine learning, are used to discover and classify sensitive data.

• Range of response capabilities to protect information, including the option to block data saved to external devices, recorded by screen captures, or being posted online.

• The policy orchestration module allows users to create and deploy policies using a single interface.

Vorteile

• • Combines network and endpoint DLP solutions into a single platform with extensive protection and features to cover both.

• Seamless integration with other Trellix products and third-party platforms.

• Real-time data monitoring from an easy-to-use interface.

Nachteile

• • The platform has a significant learning curve for new users.
  • Issues configuring and defining custom policies.

• For many smaller operations, Trellix’s price point may be too high.

Pricing

Custom pricing that varies depending on the specific DLP modules required. Users must enquire with the company to get specific values. However, online sources report values of around $100 per user per year for Trellix’s full suite of DLP modules.

#5. Proofpoint

Proofpoint’s data loss solutions focus on providing human-centric, adaptive protection with visibility into user behaviors and how they interact with data. Managed via a single, unified console, Proofpoint’s cloud-native DLP architecture offers straightforward data security that is easy to deploy and maintain. The platform also includes advanced analytics to better understand DLP risks and streamlined incident response tools to mitigate them quickly.

Proofpoint content inspection leverages behavioral telemetry and threat intelligence to deliver accurate threat detection. By monitoring user behavior and incorporating up-to-date insights into the latest threats, Proofpoint DLP enforces adaptive security controls that aim to minimize impact on legitimate users and their data use.

The platform provides extensive email DLP features, including scanning all outbound messages and attachments against custom rules and sensitive data identifiers defined internally. This approach protects the most common attack channel against both accidental and malicious data breaches.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• • Advanced threat detection and visibility into data usage, with enhanced accuracy and coverage.
  • Focuses on a people-centric approach, leveraging user behavior monitoring and the latest threat intelligence to implement accurate security measures that minimize disruption.

• Vast array of pre-built identifiers and classification engines, as well as support for users to develop customized ones.

Vorteile

• • Impressive threat detection accuracy and proactive mitigation features.
  • Easy to integrate with other Proofpoint products.

• The platform is intuitive and easy to set up compared to other data loss solutions.

Nachteile

• Can have issues with high false positive rates and alert fatigue.
• Fewer templates and UI tools compared to other data loss solutions.
• Has a higher starting price, and many advanced features are only available with higher-tier subscriptions.

Pricing

Tiered pricing depending on the scale and DLP features provided. Users can purchase email DLP solutions for around $2 to $5 per user per month. Estimates for more extensive, enterprise-grade data loss solutions range from $25 to $70 per user per year, depending on the full set of required features.

#6. Microsoft Purview

Microsoft Purview, the tech giant’s DLP platform, provides built-in security for the large number of businesses operating in its ecosystem. This includes native protections for various Microsoft products, including Exchange, OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and its AI assistant Copilot. While Microsoft Purview is built into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, its protections extend to all endpoints on the network, on-prem infrastructure, and third-party cloud services.

With support for 200+ data types, information labeling, and machine learning-powered adaptive security controls, Microsoft Purview offers broad data security coverage without significantly impacting the user experience. This approach accurately detects sensitive content, enforces data policies, and provides real-time security controls, including blocking data sharing, encrypting data, and issuing user warnings.

A fully cloud-native data loss solution, Microsoft Purview provides centralized management of DLP policies through its web-based portal. Finally, complying with data privacy regulations is simplified with automatically generated reports that align with popular frameworks.

Schlüsselmerkmale

• • Over 200 pre-built sensitive data types that cover widely used compliance types, including GDPR, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and others.
  • Classifiers that can be trained using machine learning to optimize performance for your data security needs.

• Rapid, automated incident response to mitigate and minimize DLP risk.

Vorteile

• Efficient and easy-to-use DLP solution for companies already utilizing Microsoft services.
• Automated data discovery and policy controls reduce the need for manual oversight.
• Consolidates data governance, risk management, and compliance capabilities into a single, centralized portal.

Nachteile

• • Reduced coverage for non-Microsoft applications.
  • Potential for high false positive/negative rates due to classification limitations.

• Less granular reporting and reduced reporting compared to other data loss solutions.

Pricing

While basic DLP features are available with Microsoft 365 E3 licenses, advanced features required for enterprise coverage need E5 licenses or additional purchases. Some data loss solutions are also transitioning to a consumption-based pricing model.

Prevent Data Loss with Check Point 

Each of these data loss solutions has its pros and cons for protecting your sensitive information. However, for most businesses, Check Point’s Check Point DLP platform is the top data loss solution in terms of security, compliance, operational overhead, and pricing. Learn more about Check Point’s comprehensive DLP strategy by scheduling a demo today or downloading the Check Point NGFW Buyer’s Guide.