A guide to Data Loss Prevention for MSPs

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) plays a critical role in modern businesses. It helps companies to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive data from accidental exposure, unauthorized access, or even intentional theft, whether that data is in use, in motion, or at rest. This is especially important as, according to a study by IBM, the global average cost of a data breach is $4.4 million.

Managed service providers (MSPs) also need strong data loss protection solutions to safeguard their clients’ intellectual property, personal identifiable information (PII), and other sensitive information. This includes having measures such as business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) in place.

In this blog post, we’ll cover what DLP means for MSPs, the best practices, and how NordLayer can help.

What is DLP, and why is it important for MSPs?

As mentioned before, to achieve Data Loss Prevention, it’s crucial to detect, monitor, and prevent unauthorized access or accidental disclosure of sensitive information. The most common causes of data loss include human error and social engineering, insider threats, malware, physical device theft, weak or stolen credentials, and other security vulnerabilities. These incidents are usually categorized as data breaches, leakages, or exfiltration:

• Data breach refers to any cyberattack or other security incident that results in unauthorized access to confidential or sensitive data.
• Data leakage is the accidental exposure of sensitive information due to a technical security vulnerability or procedural error, including electronic and physical transfers.
• Data exfiltration is any data theft where an attacker moves or copies data to a device under their control.

To ensure that data remains private, accurate, and accessible, MSPs should implement DLP policies covering data classification, access controls, encryption standards, data retention, and continuous real-time threat monitoring. These policies should also include incident response protocols and technical controls like firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems.
By implementing DLP strategies, MSPs can protect sensitive information and enhance efficiency through clear processes for access requests, user provisioning, security audits, and incident reporting. This can help to reduce the risk of breaches and improve compliance with regulatory requirements.

In turn, this allows Managed Service Providers to help clients stay resilient against modern threats, strengthening their role as trusted advisors. reduce liability, and deliver measurable value through risk mitigation and compliance.

Effective DLP strategy for MSPs

For any MSP, a strong DLP strategy is vital for client data protection. This includes timely mitigating insider threats and data breaches, enabling disaster recovery, and ensuring business continuity. You can start building a comprehensive Data Loss Prevention MSP strategy with these core elements:

Data identification

Start by categorizing structured and unstructured data. Structured data has a standardized form, such as a credit card number, and is clearly labeled and stored in a database. On the other hand, unstructured data is free-form information like images or text documents, and isn’t neatly organized.

With DLP tools, your security team can scan the entire network to find this data wherever it might be stored: in the cloud, physical endpoint devices, or even on employees’ personal devices.

Encryption

Next, you’ll need to encrypt this data. Encryption protects your company’s sensitive data by converting it into a code accessed only by authorized users. This protects both data in transit and in storage.

Access controls and data classification

Data classification enters the picture as soon as the data is identified. It should be sorted out into groups based on sensitivity level (for example, public, confidential, highly confidential) and shared characteristics. This will allow you to determine appropriate access controls for each data type.

The latter works by defining user roles, like administrator or member, and assigning specific permissions to each role. These in turn dictate what each role can access and what actions they can perform with that data.

Data monitoring

Once everything is in place, the data in use (when it’s accessed, processed, updated, or deleted) in motion (when it’s transmitted, for example, via a messaging app or moved between networks), and at rest (data in storage: in a cloud drive, local hard drive or archive) should be monitored continuously to detect risky user behaviours and potential breaches.

Incident response plan creation

Unfortunately, with the increasing number of breaches, you have to be prepared for the worst. The well-crafted incident response plan will enable your organization to respond quickly and effectively, helping you to identify the breach, contain it, and notify the affected individual.

This will help your business to recover quickly and minimize overall damage. The plan should also outline the steps to investigate the cause of the breach and take corrective actions to prevent recurrence.

Team training

Since most breaches occur due to simple human error, focusing on employee training is key to preventing them. Teach your teams to spot phishing emails, follow data protection rules, and use strong passwords.

Regular training sessions will reduce the risks as employees will stay aware of possible threats. This will also help to build a strong cybersecurity culture.

Mistakes to avoid when implementing DLP

The implementation of the DLP strategy can be a complex process, so here’re some common mistakes to avoid to ensure success:

• Neglecting employee training. Let’s start where we left in the last section: failing to educate your teams regularly on DLP policies and procedures can lead to non-compliance.
• Classifying data inadequately. Not classifying data correctly can make it difficult to protect it.
• Too broad or too restrictive policies. If you define your policies, who can access what, too broadly or too narrowly, it can lead to non-compliance or to unnecessary restrictions and decreased team productivity.
• Failing to regularly update DLP strategies. It’s important to stay up-to-date with modern threats and changing technologies that can lead to breaches or other security incidents.
• Underestimating insider threats. Such threats, whether malicious or unintentional, can be a significant source of breaches—it’s vital to monitor and control internal data access and transfers.
• Overlooking remote work data security. With the increasing remote work and use of personal devices, it's essential to address the vulnerabilities that these devices and environments create.

How NordLayer can help with the DLP for MSPs

A simple human error, a phishing email, or a technical security vulnerability can be a trigger for leaking your client’s data. So, you, as a Managed Service Provider, should strengthen defenses and help your clients remain resilient.

NordLayer is a tool that can make your DLP strategies effective and smoother with features such as:

• Network Access Control (NAC): Enables to establish secure connection from device to resources, implements network segmentation and keeps unauthorized users and devices off your network.
• Identity & Access Management (IAM): Helps ensure only the right users can access critical data.
• Cloud Firewall: Secures cloud traffic, enforces rules, and reduces insider threats.
• Advanced AES 256-bit and ChaCha20 encryption helps protect your data in transit.

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