The Value of Data, and How to Keep it Safe

This blog post is the third of an ongoing cybersecurity training series sponsored by OPSWAT Academy which reviews the technologies and processes required to design, implement, and manage a Critical Infrastructure Protection program.

The practice of protecting items of value has been part of human society for thousands of years. A crown in a high-walled castle, money in a bank vault, or jewelry in a safe. It is inherent to our nature in finding measures to protect precious things, and to know these things are where we left them when we wake up the next morning. Why should our data be any different?

Data is a broad term, and not as tangible as Great-Grandmother’s wedding ring, or baby’s first shoes. But data is now so engrained with our daily lives, it has become the digital manifestation of our social presence, finances, intellectual property, and our very identity. We work with so many points of data, that it becomes easy to miss when sharing something can be damaging to ourselves, our employer, or our loved ones.

Any organization processing data, be it an employer, health or education service, application provider, etc., is trusted with our data. However, the multitude of users, endpoints, and employees constantly working with and processing information are all unpredictable entities. BYOD and IoT devices, unregulated emails, and unrestricted file uploads are just some of the threat vectors where a person can deliberately or unintentionally disclose confidential data.

So how does an organization protect the data they have been entrusted with?

Data Loss Prevention, or DLP, is a technology offered by many solutions, and used by many organizations to scan for potentially damaging content in moments of information transfer. As a file analysis tool already distinguished for its excellent in-line processing of files to scan for malware and vulnerabilities, and to render malicious content inherent with CDR, MetaDefender has become the perfect home for advanced DLP implementation for any flow of data.

MetaDefender Core offers Proactive DLP, which not only has the capability to find and prevent sensitive or confidential data from leaving or entering an organization, but also can obfuscate and nullify confidential content within files.

MetaDefender Core’s DLP is “Proactive” because rather than blocking your files and leaving your team high and dry, it can smartly, and simply, suppresses sensitive information with automatic document redaction, metadata removal, or watermark addition. This allows for the safe transfer of content, without bottlenecking productivity.

OPSWAT Academy offers cybersecurity training courses that will dive deeper into Proactive DLP, and other security technologies OPSWAT has to offer. Head over to opswatacademy.com, and sign up today!

-Nate Medeiros - Product Owner, Technical Certifications