One of the apparent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the working population is the emergence of a certain divide, that is, remote work and office work. During the pandemic’s peak, businesses inevitably had to do necessary adjustments in their operations and even structures. Since people had to comply with the social distancing regulations and offices had to close to prevent the spread of the virus, a lot of businesses pivoted and started to offer work-from-home arrangements.
Today, it is clear that some are trying to return to their old office ways while others are trying to keep their remote work arrangements permanent. Whichever would dominate the market, one thing is certain – people and businesses are relying more and more on different online services to keep and share their files no matter how sensitive they are. While there are a lot of benefits to this, we also need to be aware and be cautious about its potentially damaging downsides.
Businesses and individuals are at risk of potentially harmful exploitation by clever cybercriminals. It’s no secret that most people are not prepared for the risks, this is why we need to talk about Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and how we can utilise it to protect our valuable data.
Google Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Security is one of the priorities of Google. This is observable with their DLP for different Google Apps for work and individual use such as Gmail and Google Drive. Their Google Workspace Apps help admins manage their online security needs across any type and form of information with helpful features such as data encryption, detailed audit reports, customisable sharing controls, mobile management, and two-factor authentication.
Google DLP keeps sensitive data from accidentally or intentionally slipping out of your organisation. It adds another layer of security on top of the ones aforementioned.
Is your business at risk?
Do you want to know if your business’ data is at risk? Onsite Helper made a comprehensive audit that can help improve your IT security. This security audit shows you the aspects of your IT security that needs improvement. We are more than happy to provide you with that information, as well as how to address it.
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Onsite Helper will show you how to properly set up DLP for Google Drive and Gmail. This will take your online security to the next level. Additionally, it ensures that your data will be safe and away from harmful risks.
Data Loss Prevention for Google Drive
content that users can share from Google Drive outside of the organisation. This will prevent the unintentional leakage or exposure of sensitive information like credit cards or personal identification numbers. Google Drive DLP works well in conjunction with Drive’s new Label feature which allows you to better improve the security of your data.
The flow of the Data Loss Prevention is as follows:
- Admins define the DLP rules. These rules apply to both My Drive and the Shared drives.
- DLP will scan the Drive for any contents that violate the rules that were set.
- DLP will enforce the rules to the current files and every file that you add from there on out.
- You will be alerted of any DLP rule violations that will occur.
What are the different file types that will be scanned by the DLP rules? On top of the Docs, Sheets, and Slides, on your Drive, these file types will also be scanned:
- Document file types: .doc, .docx, .html, .odp, .ods, .odt, .pdf, .ppt. .rtf, .wdp, .xls, .xlsx, .xml
- Image file types: .bmp, .eps, .fif, .gif, .img_for_ocr, .jpeg, .png, .ps, .tif
- Compressed file types: .7z, .bzip, .gzip, .rar, .tar, .zip
- Custom file types: .hwp, .kml, .kmz, .sdc, .sdd, .sdw, .sxc, .sxi, .sxw, .ttf, .wml, .xps
Technically, the only exclusions are the video and audio files.
How to set up Data Loss Prevention for Google Drive
If you want to learn more about Drive DLP, you can refer to the guide on the Google Workspace Admin Help.
Data Loss Prevention for Gmail
Why is Gmail DLP important especially for organisations? Email is the main way people communicate at work. Just in 2020, over 300 billion emails were sent and received worldwide every single day. Organisations have a lot of sensitive information, this includes proprietary data such as intellectual property and third-party data such as a customer’s personally identifiable information (PII).
The cost of data leaks isn’t easily quantifiable by a monetary amount because other than that information, you would also lose the trust of clients, customers, business partners, and more. Interestingly, most data leaks happen unintentionally – someone accidentally replying to all instead of a private message, sending information to a client of a similar name as a coworker’s, and more. Here’s why Gmail DLP really helps.
In the same way that Drive scans users’ files for DLP violations and restricts external file sharing, Gmail does the same in its own ways. How does Gmail DLP work? Basically,
- The admin sets rules on Gmail that adheres to the companies privacy policy
- Whenever an employee sends an email, DLP checks the contents of the email for any rule violations.
- If any violations were found, the sender’s email would not be sent successfully
- Admins are going to be notified of the incident
The scans don’t just apply to the text on the emails, Gmail DLP also scans the attachment of the email.
How to set up Data Loss Prevention for Gmail
If you want to learn more about Gmail DLP, you can refer to the guide on the Google Workspace Admin Help.
Prioritise your data’s security
You can never be too safe when it comes to data security and data loss prevention. Onsite Helper highly recommends that you identify any potential risk scenarios or weaknesses in your system, and address it accordingly. Do you need help in identifying those weak spots? You can always ask Onsite Helper for a FREE IT security audit, just click here.
Properly set up the Data Loss Prevention for your Google Workspace Apps, properly set the rules, and you can rest easy knowing that Google has got your back when it comes to protecting your sensitive data.
