Most data breaches
happen from the inside.

Sensitive Data Discovery & Classification

Before you can protect data, you need to know where it lives. DLP platforms scan endpoints, file shares, SharePoint, Exchange, Teams, databases, and cloud storage to find sensitive data — PII, financial records, health data, intellectual property — and automatically classify it using content inspection, regular expression matching, machine learning, and fingerprinting. Classification is the foundation: you cannot enforce policy on data you have not discovered and labelled.

Email & Collaboration DLP

Email remains the most common channel for data loss — both accidental (wrong recipient, unencrypted attachment) and malicious (exfiltration to personal accounts). DLP policies inspect email content, attachments, and recipients in real time — blocking, quarantining, or encrypting messages that violate policy before they leave the mail gateway. Microsoft Purview DLP integrates natively with Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive with no additional infrastructure.

Endpoint DLP

Endpoint DLP controls data movement at the device level — blocking uploads to personal cloud storage (personal OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive), copying to USB drives, printing to unmanaged printers, screen capture of classified content, and pasting into unapproved applications. Policies are enforced even when the device is offline and not connected to corporate infrastructure. Microsoft Purview Endpoint DLP and Forcepoint ONE deploy as lightweight agents with minimal performance impact.

Cloud & CASB-Layer DLP

Shadow IT — employees uploading work files to personal cloud accounts, using unapproved SaaS tools, or sharing externally without approval — is the most common source of unintentional data loss in modern organisations. Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) DLP sits inline between users and cloud services, enforcing data policies regardless of which cloud application is used. Real-time session controls restrict download, upload, and sharing based on data classification and user risk score.

User Behaviour Analytics (UBA)

The most dangerous data loss scenario is an employee who is about to leave and decides to take customer data, source code, or proprietary information with them. UBA monitors for behavioural patterns that precede insider data theft — unusual volume of file access, downloading entire SharePoint sites, emailing large attachments to personal accounts, connecting USB drives, and accessing systems outside normal working hours. Alerts are prioritised by risk score rather than flooding analysts with false positives.

Compliance & Audit Reporting

DLP generates the audit evidence that GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and cyber insurers require. Every policy match, blocked transfer, user override, and admin exception is logged with full context — who, what data, which channel, what action was taken. DLP investigation tools allow you to drill into a GDPR data breach notification to identify exactly what data was involved, where it went, and when — the precise information required for a 72-hour Article 33 notification to the ICO.

• ✓GDPR Article 32 requires technical measures to prevent unauthorised data disclosure — DLP is the primary control that demonstrably addresses this requirement
• ✓Automated PII discovery identifies personal data in unexpected locations — legacy file shares, old email archives, unsecured databases — before a breach exposes it
• ✓Policy enforcement for sensitive categories of data (health records, financial information, criminal records) applies stricter controls automatically based on classification
• ✓DLP audit logs provide the evidence trail required for ICO investigation responses, showing the controls in place and the incident's scope precisely

• ✓A departing employee forwarding a customer database to a personal Gmail account is undetectable by perimeter firewalls — only endpoint and email DLP catches it
• ✓UBA baselines establish normal behaviour per user — a sudden spike in file access volume or off-hours activity triggers a risk alert before the employee departs
• ✓USB and removable media controls enforce that sensitive data can only be written to encrypted, managed devices — preventing data walking out on a USB stick
• ✓Departing employee monitoring policies can be applied automatically when HR marks a resignation — applying elevated scrutiny during the notice period

• ✓80% of enterprise employees use unsanctioned cloud applications — personal Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer — to share work files because corporate tools feel friction-heavy
• ✓CASB DLP distinguishes between corporate-managed OneDrive (permitted) and personal OneDrive (blocked) even though both use the same domain and app
• ✓Real-time coaching messages explain why a transfer is blocked and offer the approved alternative — reducing help desk calls while maintaining policy enforcement
• ✓Shadow IT discovery reports identify which unapproved SaaS applications are in use across the organisation, enabling informed policy decisions about which to approve and which to block

• ✓Source code, product designs, client lists, M&A documents, and pricing strategies are high-value targets for corporate espionage and departing employees joining competitors
• ✓Document fingerprinting creates a unique signature for sensitive documents — any copy, partial copy, or paste of content from a fingerprinted document triggers a DLP policy match
• ✓Classification labels applied by sensitivity (e.g., Microsoft Information Protection) propagate DLP policies automatically — a file labelled Confidential inherits email encryption and USB block
• ✓Git repository and developer tool monitoring ensures that source code committed to personal GitHub accounts or uploaded to AI coding assistants is detected and blocked