Am I A Plumber or Fisherman? You Be The Judge

Let me begin by expressing my appreciation for the great feedback on the last blog.  Seems I made a whole mess of people tug on their chins and utter a collective "hmmm." Even the RIM folks. Glad I was able to make you think a bit. Now, on with the show

"Occupation? Stand-up philosopher. What? Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension" 
- Comicus (aka Mel Brooks)

Let's see, where were we? Ah, the rabbit hole and the departure of your data. Alice, are you ready? Cue White Rabbit music and let's begin. 

One Pill Makes You Larger...

Like a hippie at Woodstock, your data dances freely and completely uninhibited as it flies out the door. It is unchecked, perhaps sensitive in nature, and oh so easy to move. That's right, no midnight break-ins with flashlights and ninja suits. And it's happening right now, down the hall, in plain sight.There are lots of ways that data leaves your network. Examples would be email, thumb drive, or Trojan. The latter two are easier to control thanks to network security and countermeasure systems (think antivirus systems). The same is not true of email. You really don't think about it, do you? That is about to change...
Let me raise your eyebrow for a minute. Check out my favorite email "accidents." Yea, you know where this is going. The "uh-oh" moment. For those of you playing along at home, let me make sure you understand that the lesson here is that as long as it can be typed or attached to an email, it gets its very own digital wings and flies right on outta here. We'll start with the well known "accident" of an email to the wrong customer or company.  Embarrassing to everyone involved and is usually a legit accident. Usually. That is, unless it is a competitor.  Then there is the "accident" of an email being sent to yourself so that it lands on your smart phone. This one is usually done under the guise of "hey I needed it for a presentation." Nice.  Not so believable but nice. We'll round out the list with the big kahuna: the "accident" of sending data to your personal email address (like Gmail for instance). Can I do it and get away with it? Well, you just did. Screw those IT guys! The song "Can't Touch This" begins to play in your head (MC Hammer for those of you who just got lost) as you high five yourself and proclaim, "I am sticking it to the man!" 

Jeez. Did we just roll over one morning and discover that data loss was sleeping next to us in the business bed? Not really. It has always been there. I just made you more aware of it. And if you are a small business, you are a bit more in trouble thanks to blind faith. No, not talking about the 60's music group. See, in the SMB space, many things, including data security, are driven by trust acquired through blind faith. And it is given more so than earned, primarily due to small size and necessity. Long listed as an acceptable risk, it is also a huge "gotcha" that has unexpectedly removed large portions of flesh from the hind quarters of many business owners.

And One Pill Makes You Smaller...

Ok, so this seems easy enough to stop doesn't it?  You'll just stop allowing email attachments. Yea, that'll work. Think about that for a second. No, really think about it. How much stuff we all send via attachment these days. I mean legit stuff. Quotes, bids, brochures, fax (yea I said it: fax)...the list is nearly endless.  Not so easy now is it? So what do you do? You raise your index finger and say, "Ah ha, I will control the phone." Not so fast. Remember my Blackberry example? The evaporation of device control (click here for last blog) . You gave up that gig to put some Benjamins back in your pocket. What do we do now? Jedi mind trick? Not likely. Enforcement from Jules and Vincent? Not unless your name is Marsellus Wallace. Old fashioned honesty? Well, there are still some honest folks in the world. Wait a minute! If you can't control it, surely you can control what goes TO it? Indeed you can. My friends, I give you Data Loss Prevention (aka DLP), your new e-mployee.  He is cheap, tough as nails,  never calls in sick, and you don't have to pay matching social security. Got your attention? Walk with me…

Master of your Domain. King of the County. Lord of the Manor.

DLP technology has been around for a little while but is just now being talked about with small business. The technology is complex but the concept is quite simple: keep unauthorized data from leaving your network. If DLP was an employee describing their job to you, it would sound something like this: Day and night, I read every single email and every email attachment before it leaves your office. Period. I don't care who you are, you have to get through me before you get out the digital door. See, I am an expert on your company policies, your customer data, and your proprietary information.  I know the difference between a credit card number, a customer database, and a price list. I know if you are even allowed to send email, let alone an email attachment of any kind. When I question something I have read, and I do this a lot, I alone decide the fate of your messages. I delete them. I quarantine them. I even encrypted them before they are sent.  I can do all of this, and more...in real time. I learn from what I have previously read so that I can make better and swifter decisions in the future. And, so you know, I am very detail-oriented. I keep track of all my decisions and know when it is proper for me to get someone else involved, especially if I suspect something is questionable or flat-out wrong.

Good stuff, eh? This is real. This is what DLP is all about. The good news is the technology behind DLP has been fleshed out and vetted by many businesses before yours. You should thank them for being early adopters, working out the kinks and getting the price down. As a result, there are a number of companies offering this technology. However, you need to be careful here. The term "Data Loss Protection" is twisted and torqued by a number of companies in order to steer business to products that are...well...not real DLP products. WatchGuard does it right with their XCS device. They didn't re-invent the technology. Instead, they found a leader who has perfected it. See, XCS  was born and raised as Borderware before being assimilated into the big red collective that is WatchGuard. A battle tested product, they have stayed true to the definition of DLP. It's worth your time to check out their XCS product.  

Time To Go Fishing

So...you are leaking all over the place. But at least you now know what to do about it. Who knew it was all about hippies! Remember, the rod must control the fish, not the other way around. And that my friends will never change. Ask any fisherman. Need more proof? Just look at your desk, your nightstand, and your hip. The device-to-person ratio is beyond 2-to-1 for most of you. That's a lot of fish. And thanks to our obsessive infatuation with technology, it ain't going down. Think about it. We have 3D in HD and Hifi over Wifi. We have Internet on the ground and in the air, with Angry Birds everywhere. Smartphones, laptops, netbooks galore. Tablets, iPads, Kindles and more. You're gonna need a strong rod and a small nuclear device to run all this stuff. Sure, wind power would be better. But you would look pretty silly with a windmill on your head now wouldn't you?