The Business Impact of Data Loss and How Prevention Strategies Can Help

Data is the beating heart of every company. The implications of losing important information can be far-reaching and disastrous for not only operations, but customer trust, legal compliance and financial stability. If you are an organization looking to safeguard its assets and reputation, it is important to understand how data loss really affects your business. Just as important is the need to deploy cautiously and effectively preventative measures that protect data. It is one of the many solutions out there, to this Mimecast also provides a comprehensive data loss risk and continuity offering.

The Implications of Losing Data at this Scale

There are any number of reasons why data loss may happen – cyber attacks, accidental deletion, hardware failure, insider threats, natural disasters, etc. The consequences are frequently very serious, who ever is at fault. 'First one, there is operational disruption. Loss of access to critical data leads to stalled workflows, slow decisions and customer service interruptions. These performance inefficiencies are opportunities for waste and lost profit.

But in addition to the instantaneous downtime, data loss can mean trouble with customers. Customers and clients assume that their personal and private information will be safeguarded by companies. Unauthorized access or losses of confidence is a threat and can eventually lead customers to share their business elsewhere. It takes time, effort and resources to rebuild confidence after a data loss event, if that confidence can even be restored at all.

There’s more than lost sales at stake. Legislation like GDPR, HIPAA, and the rest require data to be protected with the utmost diligence. If financial institutions fail to adhere because they did not have sufficient controls in place, they face substantial fines and legal risk. Costs for data recovery, forensic analysis and crisis management, meanwhile, also put a dent into budgets.

What is Mimecast DLP and how does it work?

Mimecast offers a layers approach to data security with a focus on prevention and swift action. Its solution unifies email security, archiving, continuity and data loss prevention (DLP) protection. Such a combination environment minimizes exposure at a communication level, in which data is most often leaked.

A Mimecast strength is email security. Phishing, malware, and human error continue to contribute to data breaches via email. Agile Email Security for the Dynamic Email Environment Mimecast leverages sophisticated threat intelligence and machine learning to detect and stop known and emerging threats before they impact our customers’ email users. This reduces the risk of data leak through email.

Mimecast’s DLP capabilities aren’t just for threat monitoring; its DLP tools also scan outbound emails for patterns that might include sensitive information. This outgoing filtering acts as a barrier to accidental or deliberate disclosure of sensitive information, making the jobs of compliance teams easier and reducing risk.

Enhancing Business Continuity with Mimecast

It is not uncommon for data loss to be accompanied by disruptions due to system or infrastructure crashes. Mimecast solves for these with email continuity services that keep business email working even if the primary system goes down. By utilizing a secure, cloud-based backup of emails, businesses are able to function without ever being cut off from critical data.

This continuity feature reduces downtime risk related to loss of data, keeping teams in touch and productive. It is further possible to archive historical email data, including making such data available for discovery, audit or review, through services such as those of Mimecast. Reliable archives are also critical for compliance with regulations and for investigation of incidents such as breaches and data loss.

Alleviating Insider Threats and Human Error

Data breaches result from many of insider threats – both accidental and deliberate. Mimecast provide organisation's with a counter-measure to these risks by using technical controls to police the policy.

User behavior analytics analyze email behavior such as and will highlight abnormal behavior that may indicate an attempt to exfiltrate data. Plus, as part of DLP policies, Mimecast can stop or quarantine suspicious communications before data exits your network.

Training and awareness programs integrated with Mimecast tools educate employees about the importance of data protection. Providing real-time alerts and contextual warnings reinforces good practices, reducing the likelihood of accidental data exposure.

Real-World Impact: Case Examples

For example, let’s take a financial services organization where clients are engaged heavily through email. Prior to having Mimecast, the company had several issues with data leakage where sensitive financial documents were not being retained or being handled correctly. The firm cut data leak incidents by 96 percent simply by deploying Mimecast’s integrated email security and DLP solutions, which helped with compliance and assistance when it came to building trust with customers.

Likewise, one medical provider struggled to maintain control over PHI in a disbursed workforce. Mimecast’s Simply Migrate, Continuity and Archiving services keep healthcare data secure and available during system migrations and outages.This resilience improved operational stability and reduced the risk of HIPAA violations.

Developing an Effective Data Loss Prevention Strategy

As useful and important as technology (like Mimecast) is, data loss prevention needs to be more than the sum of its technological parts. The businesses’ entry point is to assess their data landscape: Discover their critical assets, understand the data flows, and map the vulnerabilities.

Guidance on data handling, classification and retention should be written into policies. Employees’ function and duty should be clearly communicated to them, complemented by continuous training and awareness activities which highlight the actual risks of losing data in the real world.

Mimecast interconnected with an organization’s broader security architecture establishes an enhanced layered security approach with prevention, detection and response elements. Ongoing monitoring and periodic audits allow organizations to respond to changing threats and shifting regulatory pressures.

The Financial Benefits of Prevention

Investing in data-loss prevention, enabled by platforms like Mimecast, is not only about avoiding losses -- there can be financial benefits to data loss prevention, too. Avoid breaches and loss of operations to save expenses for downtime and remediation costs.

Compliant data control saves you from fines and legal costs. Furthermore, retaining brand reputation leads to higher customer retention and growth opportunities.

Firms that have made a nostril scrunch face for data loss prevention will also be able to show due diligence to partners, insurers and regulators, so have a potential leg-up when they are negotiating a settlement and paying a discounted premium.

Conclusion

Data loss's economic impact goes beyond the immediate: it also leads to long-term financial, legal, and reputational damage. Staving off those results is going to demand an integrated, technology-based, policy-driven approach.

Mimecast is an integrated email security, continuity and archiving cloud-based system which delivers robust email risk management to safeguard a business's email and their sensitive data, one of the most targeted areas for corporate fraud and security breaches. With threat detection, data loss prevention, archiving and continuity all in a single cloud-based service, Mimecast aids businesses in their efforts to manage their most important data.

Together with staff training and process enhancements, Mimecast delivers the foundation for a robust data security strategy. Companies that take these preventive steps set themselves up not just to prevent expensive incidents of data loss, but to thrive in an environment of ever-increasing digital risk.