Data Leakage Solutions from SECURE COMPUTING®

Protecting your Valuable Data

Data leakage takes many forms, and the reality of it can be more sinister than the phrase implies. Although data leakage can be unintentional and the result of human error, it is often the result of specific, targeted actions, sometimes by trusted insiders, which leads to the loss of sensitive information.

Your intellectual property is valuable to your organization, and its safekeeping is vital to maintaining a good reputation. In addition, much data, such as personal healthcare information and financial information, is protected by federal or state legislation, and its exposure, whether intentional or not, can lead to significant fines.

Reasons for data leakage may not be readily apparent, but usually, it is because of one of the following:

1. An employee or end user, through oversight or error, has left a "back door" open to the network, and an outsider has taken advantage of it.
2. Improper configuration or inadequate protections has left a "back door" open on the network.
3. An employee or end user has acted maliciously to steal information.

In reality, data leakage as a result of malicious activity or espionage is more common than believed. It does not take a sophisticated employee to steal data, and data leakage may occur through simple techniques, such as guessing a weak password, or deploying a simple keystroke logger that can be easily found on the Internet. Data leakage may also result from social engineering or phishing attacks, which trick users into revealing their login information.

Lists of private customer data, such as account numbers, login information, and social security numbers are especially vulnerable and are often targets of theft. Data leakage of these types of databases can be devastating. Your reputation will be damaged, and you will have to notify all customers that have been affected. You may be liable for losses or penalties as well.

Fortunately, data leakage can be prevented through standard precautions. Secure Computing's suite of security products, starting with the Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) security appliance with TrustedSource global reputation system, stops data leakage from happening by allowing you to create and enforce rigorous security policies. Protection against internal attacks that lead to data leakage are prevented through Secure Firewall's (Sidewinder) policy of limited access, Unified Threat Management, and strictly enforced authentication and authorization.

For more information on Secure Computing's Secure Mail Data Leakage solutions and
Secure Web Data Leakage solutions, please visit our Data Leakage pages.

Or, read our white paper, Data Leakage: Four Sources of Abuse.