Written by Jacob Woodfield – DLP Practice Lead at Gradian | Jul 13, 2023

In October 2022 the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) revised the ISO 27001 standard, making Data Loss Prevention (DLP) an integral part of the framework.

In a nutshell, this means that to attain or retain certification, you must have DLP deployed within your organisation by the 31^st October 2025.

Read on to understand more about what DLP is, and how Gradian can help meet the requirements.

What is DLP?

DLP toolsets are configured to identify regulated, confidential, and business-critical data; these identifications are typically driven by regulatory compliance such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS but can be driven by Intellectual Property and other bespoke requirements. Examples include looking for specific keywords or patterns (such as a Regular Expression) or content similarity for your sensitive document templates.

Once those violations are identified, DLP can be utilised to enforce alerting, encryption, user-education, blocking and other preventative/protective actions and more to mitigate, and in some cases negate, the risk to end users from accidentally or maliciously sharing data that shouldn’t be shared.

Furthermore, DLP can build upon existing Data Classification toolsets, integrate with Web Proxies, Firewalls and CASBs. DLP can even be expanded to utilise UEBA technology and enforce stronger measures on users who are exhibiting potentially compromised behaviours.

DLP: The New Cornerstone of ISO 27001:2022

In an era of exponential data growth, DLP has evolved from being a reactive measure to a proactive necessity. Whilst the ISO 27001 standard has always mandated measures for information security, the 2022 revision has specifically called out DLP. As a result, ISO 27001:2022 is the manifestation of the global understanding of DLP’s indispensability in achieving a secure data environment.

The successful implementation of a DLP toolset aligns your organisation with the ISO 27001:2022 standard, showcases your commitment to data security, and instils trust among stakeholders. Therefore, an effective DLP policy forms the crux of the ISO 27001:2022 certification narrative.

Gradian’s role in your compliance journey

We understand the challenges organisations face in embarking on a successful DLP journey. That’s where our expertise and hand-picked best-in-class toolsets come into play.

Expert Consultation and Customisation

Our industry-leading security experts understand the nuances of an effective DLP policy. We customise our approach to your unique security needs, developing a tailored DLP solution that aligns with ISO 27001:2022.

We Listen. We work to understand what data you hold which needs protecting and we tune policies using our Crawl > Walk > Run approach to ensure the all-important balance between productively and security is met.

We also work with Policy Tuning across all DLP toolsets; so even if your toolsets are deployed already, we can work as an extension of your internal teams to ensure you are gaining the best ROI from them possible.

Technological Partnerships

Our strategic partnerships with best-in-class technology vendors enable us to leverage cutting-edge solutions for data protection. All partnerships with our vendors are fully vetted and explored before we put their name against ours. We deconstruct the technology and stress-test it to ensure it is enterprise ready and valuable. This process ensures that we are not only industry-leading experts in all technologies we recommend, but that the technologies are of a platinum standard for our clients.

Continuous Support and Training

Compliance isn’t a one-time accomplishment. It’s an ongoing endeavour, requiring regular updates and monitoring. Gradian provides continuous support to help you stay abreast of the evolving security landscape. Additionally, we offer training programs to empower you in effectively handling data loss incidents and reporting as well as maintaining toolsets internally.

Managed Services

If maintaining DLP toolsets sounds like a daunting task, we can provide our DLP-as-a-Service to you, which will help keep your mind at ease when it comes to things like troubleshooting, upgrading or even understanding how you can get that complex DLP policy just right. Working as an extension of your internal IT Security team, we ensure you always have decades of rich DLP-centric experience on hand.

The story of ISO 27001:2022 certification is one of a proactive commitment to data security, with DLP at its heart. In this narrative, Gradian serves as a guide, empowering you with the tools and expertise needed to navigate the complex terrain of data security and compliance.

Partner with us and let’s create a secure future for your data together.  The first step is to claim your FREE workshop or get in touch to see how else we can help you.