How do I stop my users from sharing company data?

Data is more easy to share, in more ways, and in less time, than ever before. This presents a problem to companies, for whom data is both a key asset and a key risk. How do you stop internal company data from making its way into the wrong hands, especially in a world designed to encourage data to flow with as little resistance as possible?

For companies that are heavily invested in cloud software, storage, and applications such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, the first defense against data sharing is the deployment of a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB). CASB platforms integrate with your identity provider on side and with cloud platforms on the other to enable granular controls over cloud data.

CASB enables you to regulate who or which groups of users can copy, edit, download, delete, or share files (and, in the latter case, with whom), and under which conditions, giving you extra (and centralized) control over how your data behaves in, flows into, and flows out of your assortment of cloud applications.

Beyond CASB lie Data Loss Prevention (DLP) platforms, which go a step further in providing control over how (and whether) users can move data on and off of their endpoint (their computer or workstation), including enabling regulation of things like removable media, copy-and-paste functionality, and what can be sent in or attached to email.

Solutions like these also often provide other kinds of controls, such as regulation around what locations, times of day, or machines users must be using in order to perform an operation, and even what websites they can visit or what they can do on particular websites.

The goal in each case is the regulation of data flows—both in the cloud and on the local workstation—to prevent company data from making its way into the wrong hands. Plurilock's own Plurilock AI CASB and DLP solutions lead the industry in customer satisfaction according to Info-Tech Research Group, outpacing on this front outpacing offerings from Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, and Prisma, among others.

Because of the complexity and learning curve associated with CASB and DLP deployment, it's important that you select a provider that can get you up and running cost-effectively and with a minimum of fuss and frustration.