Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - protecting data with user behaviour analytics

Forcepoint is focusing on behaviour and compliance to secure the future of data protection.

Data is everywhere, and security threats are growing ever more sophisticated. Companies are under pressure to protect sensitive information, not only from malicious intruders but also from increasingly strict compliance regulations. For Matt Bent, Senior Sales Engineer and Solutions Architect at Forcepoint, the answer lies in a holistic, people-focused approach to data protection.

Forcepoint, a major player in security software and data protection, has been at the forefront of this sector for over a decade. Its solutions are used by organisations globally to secure information across endpoints, networks, and cloud services. Speaking in a recent interview, Bent detailed what sets Forcepoint's data loss prevention (DLP) solution apart.

"Forcepoint's been a leader in the market for over 10 years now in data protection," he said. "We talk about the ability to follow a user as they interact with data, regardless of that location. What the Forcepoint data protection solution does is gives the ability to follow the user from endpoint to network to cloud, and that one data protection policy wrapped around that."

Bent emphasised that what truly distinguishes Forcepoint's offering is its emphasis on understanding user behaviour. "We focus a lot around behaviour analytics," he explained. "We use things like dynamic data protection and the ability to use analytics to dynamically change a user's data protection policy as well." This flexible approach means that the company can tailor security measures in real time, responding to what each user is doing, rather than relying solely on static, blanket rules.

This people-based approach flows from Forcepoint's heritage as a division of Raytheon, a company experienced in analysing human behaviour, particularly within highly regulated environments. "Raytheon is very focused on understanding human behaviour and understanding what people are doing within fairly highly regulated organisations," Bent explained. "With the Forcepoint data protection solution, that inherent capability is built into the solution."

Bent outlined how this works in practice: "We're talking about understanding a user's day-to-day role within an organisation – getting a baseline of that user, understanding the user against himself, against his department, against his global location, and then we basically build a baseline of that user. Once we start to understand what a user is doing at any given time in an environment, we can then start to understand what data they interact with, and that becomes important with an effective data protection solution."

This baseline creates the ability to quickly detect any abnormal behaviour, which could indicate a compromised account or a user acting maliciously. "If, for example, we had a compromised account or something malicious was occurring, we would see a deviation in behaviour, and that deviation in behaviour is able to then automate a policy change onto that user to effectively stop that user from being able to export, trade, or send data external to the organisation," Bent said.

Analytics, then, is a crucial part of the modern fight against data loss. "Analytics becomes key in the fight against data protection," he said. "That is getting that effective data protection platform into an organisation."

But in today's environment, it is not enough just to be secure - organisations must be compliant. Compliance is now a significant driver in the data protection space, particularly with governments around the world, including Australia, enforcing stricter regulations. "Compliance is a significant driver," Bent said. "We see compliance as a significant driver in the data protection space."

Forcepoint's solution addresses these needs directly. "What we have built into the product is the ability to deploy for compliance out of the box," Bent said. "As I said, endpoint to network to cloud, regardless of where your information is kept, we are able to then go and choose the industries that your organisation may be relevant to, the global regions that your industry may be relevant to. We will then be able to select from a key set of criteria that matches the local compliance laws."

For customers, the process is simple: "We can very easily just go tick box, tick box, tick box and go and deploy that solution for compliance," Bent explained. "There is no need to go any further than that for compliance. We basically do everything there."

He added that the integration extends to other tools, such as classification software, making it even more straightforward to detect and control data. "To detect and control data around that compliance space is very simple for us to do out of the box," he said.

This focus on governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) is shaping how organisations view data protection. "GRC is very much a driver for us across the whole region," Bent said. He has observed how the responsibility for data protection is no longer confined to IT departments: "The key stakeholders within organisations have moved away from not just involving IT setups these days. We've got compliance officers, we've got different teams and different stakeholders in an organisation that need to be across data protection, understand an effective data protection program, and going into what that's. So having a tool that can bridge the gaps between the different teams is key in the modern day to protect information."

Bent concluded by emphasising the essential nature of this multi-layered approach. "Having a tool that can bridge the gaps between the different teams is key in the modern day to protect information," he said.

As organisations continue to navigate the challenges of data security and compliance, it's clear that solutions that combine behavioural insight with easy-to-deploy compliance features are likely to remain in demand. "Analytics becomes key in the fight against data protection," Bent said. "That is getting that effective data protection platform into an organisation."