How Much Does Data Loss Prevention Software Cost?

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) software helps organizations keep sensitive information from being purposefully or accidentally leaked, stolen, lost or destroyed. Data Loss Prevention tools enable organizations to avoid the cost, legal exposure and reputational damage that occurs when sensitive information is publicly exposed, mishandled or exfiltrated by attackers. Organizations may deploy Data Loss Prevention Software on-premises or in the cloud, or they may access it as a SaaS application from Data Loss Prevention vendors.

Data Loss Prevention software costs vary widely and are impacted by multiple factors. Most Data Loss Prevention vendors charge based on the number of users or seats as well as the amount of professional services, maintenance and support required. Some solutions base Data Loss Prevention software costs on the volume of data scanned each month, with separate costs to produce high-level metrics and risk analysis.

To detect misuse of data and to block sensitive information from leaving the organization, Data Loss Prevention technology monitors the flow of data across an organization’s IT systems, including web, cloud, networks, email and endpoints. Data Loss Prevention software may use firewalls, monitoring technology, antivirus features and endpoint agents to inspect data streams, identify any content that violates DLP security policies and block or flag suspicious activity.

Data Loss Prevention software typically filters out potential leaks based on specific keywords or string matches within data. For example, DLP Software may search for credit card info or Social Security numbers within files, unencrypted business plans attached to an email or strings that match text from documents containing highly sensitive intellectual property. Data Loss Prevention Software can also search for potential leaks through contextual analysis of metadata like file size, format and headers.

DLP software includes features to protect several types of data.

• Data at rest. Data Loss Prevention software protects data stored in the cloud and on-premises by requiring encryption, managing access control and enforcing data retention policies.
• Data in use. DLP software authenticates users as they interact with sensitive data or apps and enforces access controls to prevent unauthorized use or access.
• Data in motion. As sensitive data traverses a network, DLP software helps prevent it from being routed to insecure places or destinations outside the organization.

When considering DLP solutions and Data Loss Prevention software costs, organizations must also consider the cost of inadequate Data Loss Prevention security.

• Direct costs of a data loss incident include the cost of regulatory fines and penalties, legal actions, compensation for affected parties and forensics and investigation activities to determine how the incident occurred. 
• Indirect costs of a DLP incident include time spent on communication and PR, lost revenue and productivity from downtime and the cost of efforts to recover from the event.
• Organizations may also incur significant but hard-to-measure costs in loss of business opportunities, loss of customer confidence and damage to reputation.

In total, the cost of a data loss incident can be huge. For example, fines and lawsuits over failure to adequately protect customer data have reached into the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. A data breach report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute concluded that the average cost of a data breach in 2021 was $4.24 million.

Data Loss Prevention software costs for solutions based on the number of users may range from $5 to $50 per seat or more, depending on the number of users and the terms of the contract. With these vendors, managing costs is typically a function of ensuring that the contract provides the right amount of professional support and maintenance services.

For solutions that charge based on volume of data scanned, IT teams can minimize Data Loss Prevention software costs by scanning only data that has changed since the previous inspection, using sampling to restrict the number of bytes inspected, or limiting scans to only relevant files.

Forcepoint DLP is the industry’s most trusted solution, providing tools to easily manage global policies across endpoints, networks, cloud, web, private applications and email. With Forcepoint DLP, businesses can easily discover, classify, monitor and protect data intuitively while ensuring zero friction for users.

Forcepoint DLP offers:

• Advanced detection and controls that follow the data. Forcepoint’s ability to identify data at rest, in motion and in use ensures superior DLP protection, even for highly complex DLP events. Optical character recognition (OCR) identifies data embedded images while at rest or in motion. Forcepoint DLP also provides cumulative analysis for drip DLP detection and robust identification for personally identifiable information. Custom encryption identification exposes data hidden from discovery and application controls.
• Tools to accelerate compliance. Over 1,600 predefined classifiers, policies and templates help to accelerate initial DLP deployment and simplify ongoing DLP management of regulated data.
• Automation features that empower people to protect data. Forcepoint automatically discovers data everywhere it lives, encrypts data moving outside the organization and automates data labeling and classification.
• Individualized, adaptive data security. Forcepoint enables organizations to replace broad, sweeping rules with DLP policies that won’t slow employees down.
• Centralized management. Administrators can create data security policies once and apply them throughout the organization with just a few clicks.
• Comprehensive solutions. Forcepoint DLP provides solutions for Data Loss Prevention in Google Workspace, Office 365, cloud email platforms and many other use cases.

Contact Forcepoint to learn more about the features of Forcepoint DLP as well as Data Loss Prevention Software costs.