Fortra DLP's data classification capabilities have helped organizations better understand their data for years but for businesses looking to empower further their users and automate their data protection programs, there are additional options available.
Fortra's acquisition of Boldon James and Titus three years ago has brought a wealth of data classification knowledge and technology under the Fortra umbrella.
While Fortra DLP's data classification capabilities afford organizations the ability to tag each and every file in their ecosystem with a sophisticated detection mechanism – a set up that’s optimized for regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and mixed environments – Fortra’s Data Classification goes several steps further.
Data Classification Suite (DCS) gives users permanent metadata tagging that’s set by the end user and any discovery tools in place. This metadata stays with the file and can help further drive the efficacy of downstream tools like Fortra Data Loss Prevention, whenever and wherever the file originates from.
It also allows users to apply visual markings to the content that can be used to indicate, to other consumers of the content, be they internal or external users, the different levels of classification or sensitivity. This helps the users in the business to enforce your organization's security policies, as well.
Go Beyond Basic Classification
While Fortra DLP allows organizations to roll out policy decisions based on tagging – it uses context-based classification to identify and tag sensitive data, taking into account the type, content, and author - Fortra’s DCS takes it a step further.
By adding additional metadata beyond the metadata applied for classification values, organizations can add rich context to on-premise and cloud data. That metadata is preserved, even when the file is transferred through email or to portable media like USB drives.
Organizations can leverage this rich and persistent metadata to drive complex policies, achieve compliance (DCS can help comply with rapidly evolving data protection regulations and shifting legal requirements) and increase security awareness and accountability among users.
Greater Granularity Equals Greater Control
Combining both visual marking and metadata labels is key to an effective data classification policy. Having greater granularity in classification gives organizations more ways to control how data is handled as it flows through the business, too.
Simply labelling data as “Confidential” may work in a pinch but it may lead to issues also. For example, is the “Confidential” PII data to be treated the same as the “Confidential” intellectual property? The ability to label the content as, for example, “Confidential – Radiology – PHI” gives it additional context that can in turn, inform and educate users who interact with it on a day-to-day basis how to manage it.
Keep Data Secure and in Your Control
As mentioned previously, being able to implement metadata that can trigger downstream technologies like encryption or DLP tools like Fortra’s DLP can give your business a tremendous advantage. Ensuring that conditions are in place to ensure that sensitive data is encrypted when it leaves the business or that it’s forbidden from being uploaded to the cloud can keep your information secure and in your control.
When sharing data externally, DCS - in harmony with Fortra Secure Collaboration - can overcome encryption challenges that can slow business.
If an organization, through DCS, mandates that files marked as classified or sensitive need to be encrypted to be shared, our end-to-end solution can help organizations find, categorize, secure, and track data while ensuring its encrypted and in compliance every step of the way.
How DLP and DCS Drive More Efficient Data Security
It’s been said, over and over again, that data classification is the foundation to effective data protection. While Fortra's DLP data discovery, data classification, and enforcement capabilities have long delivered comprehensive data protection to help businesses prevent data loss, building on that with the context and flexibility that Fortra’s DCS brings, can help organizations drive more efficient data security and better inform critical business decisions through a powerful combination of best-of-breed classification and file-level security.
