Key points

• DLP monitoring is essential for detecting and preventing data breaches.
• It ensures sensitive data is protected across endpoints, cloud, and networks.
• Effective DLP strategies safeguard businesses from internal and external threats.
• Metomic supports DLP monitoring with automated discovery, real-time scanning, and customisable policies.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) monitoring is key to ensuring that sensitive information stays protected from unauthorised access and potential breaches.

As businesses increasingly depend on digital platforms and cloud-based tools, maintaining control over critical data is more important than ever.

Whether you’re part of an IT or security team, or a small-to-medium-sized business without a dedicated security function, understanding DLP monitoring can help you enhance your organisation’s data protection efforts.

In this guide, we’ll explore what DLP monitoring is, why it matters, how it works in practice, and how DLP tools like Metomic can help your business safeguard its data while ensuring compliance with industry regulations.

What is DLP monitoring?

Did you know that 60% of data breaches are caused by insider threats? That’s where DLP monitoring comes in.

It’s all about keeping a close eye on your data—whether it’s at rest, in motion, or being actively used—to spot any risky behaviour and prevent potential data loss.

DLP monitoring plays a vital role in your overall data security strategy by tracking data across endpoints, networks, and cloud environments, making sure it’s being handled properly.

It gives you real-time visibility into who’s accessing what, helping you catch security risks before they become bigger problems.

Now, you might wonder how DLP and DLP monitoring are different. While DLP focuses on the policies and controls to stop data loss, DLP monitoring is the continuous tracking part that keeps you in the loop, spotting threats before they cause harm.

What are the benefits of DLP monitoring?

DLP monitoring offers a range of important benefits that help safeguard your organisation’s sensitive data. One of its main strengths is ensuring that data is protected at all times, regardless of where it’s stored, or who is using it.

By continuously monitoring for risky behaviour, DLP solutions can identify potential threats and mitigate them before they lead to data breaches. Considering that it’s estimated that 74% of data breaches are as a result of human error, the ability to catch mistakes early is a huge advantage.

Compliance is another key benefit. With regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS in place, businesses need to be extra careful about how they handle sensitive information. DLP monitoring helps ensure that your organisation stays compliant with these frameworks by enforcing data handling policies.

DLP monitoring also shines when it comes to detecting internal threats. Whether it's accidental misuse by employees or deliberate actions by contractors, it provides an extra layer of protection against insider risks.

Finally, real-time visibility into data movement across your organisation means you can stay on top of how data is being accessed, used, and shared. This transparency is crucial for maintaining control over your information and reducing the likelihood of a breach.

How does DLP monitoring work?

DLP monitoring works by keeping a constant watch over your data, scanning and tracking it across all your endpoints, cloud platforms, and networks. This ongoing oversight ensures that your data is protected, whether it's stored securely or being transferred.

For instance, data in transit—like emails or files moving through cloud apps—is monitored to catch potential issues in real time. Similarly, data at rest, which is stored on servers or devices, is checked to ensure it’s not at risk of being compromised.

DLP monitoring tools use a combination of agents and software to identify any unusual activity and enforce your data handling policies. Think of these tools as the safety net for your data, helping to spot and address potential threats before they become problems.

One of Metomic’s key advantages is that it’s an agentless solution—meaning that it can integrate directly with cloud platforms, without needing software on individual devices. This makes deployment faster, reduces maintenance, and simplifies data protection across cloud environments.

With 60% of corporate data now stored in the Cloud, it's crucial to have effective monitoring in place. Modern DLP solutions also leverage advanced techniques such as AI-driven monitoring and automation to enhance threat detection and streamline responses, making data protection more efficient and effective.

Examples of DLP monitoring in action

To really grasp how DLP monitoring works, let's look at some real-world examples:

Scenario 1: Printing sensitive documents

Imagine an employee tries to print a document containing confidential information. With DLP monitoring in place, this action is flagged, and the system promptly blocks the print job, preventing any sensitive data from being exposed.

This helps ensure that critical information stays secure and only reaches authorised individuals.

Scenario 2: Uploading to unauthorised cloud storage

Consider a situation where someone tries to upload sensitive data to a cloud storage service that's not approved by your organisation. DLP monitoring steps in by triggering an alert and blocking the upload.

This not only stops the data from leaving the company but also flags the activity for further investigation, reducing the risk of unauthorised data exposure.

Scenario 3: Detecting phishing attacks

Phishing attacks are a significant concern, with 36% of all data breaches originating from such scams. Imagine a user receives a phishing email and interacts with it. DLP monitoring can detect suspicious behaviour linked to the phishing attempt, such as unusual data access patterns.

The system then prevents any data from being shared with the malicious third party, protecting your organisation from potential breaches.

These examples illustrate how DLP monitoring actively protects your data by blocking risky actions and alerting you to potential threats, helping to keep your sensitive information safe from various types of attacks and misuse.

How can DLP software support a data classification and prevention strategy?

Data classification is all about identifying and categorising sensitive data based on its risk level. Think of it as prioritising what needs the most protection—like customer info, financial records, or intellectual property.

DLP tools step in to make this process dynamic and efficient:

• As data moves through your organisation (whether in the cloud, on devices, or via email), DLP tools can automatically classify it in real-time.
• Once classified, these tools enforce policies like encryption, restricted access, or blocking unauthorised downloads or sharing.
• DLP software fits into a broader strategy by combining proactive security (like encryption) with reactive measures (such as real-time alerts), ensuring sensitive data is always protected.

It’s about keeping your data secure, whether it’s at rest or in motion, with minimal hassle.

How can Metomic help?

Metomic offers a set of comprehensive DLP monitoring features designed to keep your data secure across cloud environments.

Whether you're a small business or a larger organisation, Metomic makes data protection straightforward and effective.

Here’s how Metomic can help:

• SaaS monitoring: Metomic automatically scans your cloud apps and platforms, identifying sensitive data and keeping an eye out for potential risks.
• Custom policies: You can easily set up data handling policies that fit your business needs. Metomic enforces these in real-time, blocking risky behaviour before it becomes a problem.
• Risk management: With AI-driven insights, Metomic detects suspicious activity—like unauthorised access or unusual sharing—so you can act fast to prevent data loss.
• User-friendly: For businesses without dedicated security teams, Metomic’s interface is simple and intuitive, so anyone can use it without needing deep technical expertise.

Whether you're focusing on compliance, reducing risks, or just making sure sensitive data stays safe, Metomic gives you a modern, AI-powered solution that’s easy to implement and integrates easily into your existing setup.

Getting started with Metomic

Ready to take the next step? Contact us today to learn more about how Metomic can help safeguard your data or explore our free tools to get started.

• Book a demo: The easiest way to see how Metomic works is by booking a personalised demo. Our experts will walk you through the platform and show you how it can meet your specific needs.
• Try a free risk assessment: Get a glimpse of your data security risks with a free risk assessment. Metomic can help you identify any potential vulnerabilities in your cloud environments, especially with Google Drive, and Slack.