As mobile devices and BYOB are now ubiquitous, with always-available Internet connectivity, new realities have come to the fore. With the addition of private, public and hybrid cloud solutions widespread everywhere, organizations are now forced to address the following challenging realities:
- A traditional security perimeter is no longer adequate
- The difference between internal and external threats is blurred to the point that there is virtually no difference
Regardless of whether someone is intending on robbing proprietary data or data for profit for personal gains or payment, or whether permitted users that have excessive and unneeded privileges with insufficient expertise unintentionally cause damage – organizations must now seriously consider who can access their data and how.
As a critical data security tool, digital rights management can be highly effective in being a proactive solution; it can prevent suspicious activity from taking place by giving unequivocal rights to the content creator on how their documents or PDF files are viewed, even by permitted users.
According to the Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon in 2019, over 34% of all data breaches that took place were a result of insider threat by individuals. Recently, the data breach at Capital One was a further indication that the need to safeguard company data against insider threats is now graver than ever. Good motivations by insiders could help provide some impact on the shielding actions of a company, but these must be fulfilled in its full to ensure that the company’s database is protected.
Experts suggest that to accomplish an efficient data security strategy, the following points must be met. These include:
- Proactive and continual data security operations that are automated
- Continuous authorization and multifactor authentication
- Enforcing the least privilege principle
- Providing dynamic access to policy enforcement
- Adhering to the zero-trust policy
The only data security solution that effectively meets the above factors is digital rights management that offers complete and holistic security to PDF files and documents containing sensitive data.
Understanding zero trust
The zero-trust policy is essential in this growing age of data breaches. While some may consider it as the latest buzzword, this concept is of tremendous importance and makes a good deal of sense in today’s age. Regardless of whether individuals are inside or outside their network, companies must avoid trusting users and equipment that are accessing their data, while verifying every time whether the same user or device must be granted access to any content.
To safeguard organizational data, companies must also consider adopting the least privilege method for privileged access. This factor can be vital as it glues activity to the user’s identity and endpoint while encrypting all information in storage and in motion.
Simply put, the zero-trust methodology can ensure that only the right user of your resources has specific access to specific data and services, from the right equipment, under the right environment.
To execute zero trust, companies must:
- Ensure that their users are equipped with a safeguarded digital workplace space. This area can have all the applications needed for productivity on the permitted devices.
- Ensure that authorized corporate data is only granted to specific individuals based on full context.
- Include data security for information at rest and in motion, with real-time threat monitoring and encryption.
- Enforce data security policies with real-time monitoring to shut down or quarantine devices. This can ensure that data threats are alleviated and that compliance is maintained.
These methods must be executed in a manner that reduces friction without being a hassle to end-users. As a way to avoid insider threat, there will be no single solution to absolutely prevent every form of danger. For instance, the loss of a single or a few credit card or Social Security numbers may be impossible to avoid, but the overall impact of such a catastrophe can be curtailed.
Today, every company is faced with how to cut down on the loss of data, while learning how to avoid unauthorized access, alteration or reduction of company data. Typical insider threat exemplars include stealing or destroying a specific type of data, untoward activity at a particular time of day based on traffic and the presence of non-permitted devices or assets.
In the absence of a secure and reliable document security system such as DRM, it can be challenging to detect and remediate purposeful spiteful activity. As a forward-looking security technology, DRM gathers real-time activity data, validates the actions and arrests atypical behaviour patterns through its intrusion detection capability – preventing unauthorized access and use to confidential and sensitive information. DRM can work as a highly recommended document security tool for every organization.
