Digital Guardian (DLP): Product Overview and Pricing

Founded in 2003 as Verdasys, the company was eventually rebranded to its flagship product name “Digital Guardian” in 2014 and was acquired by HelpSystems in October 2021. Digital Guardian is a data loss prevention software company based in the United States that provides advanced data protection solutions for endpoints.

Digital Guardian solutions are intended to detect and prevent harmful user actions as well as malware on endpoints. It contextualizes data events and applies a detailed set of rules to safeguard it against attacks. 

Bottom Line

Digital Guardian is a data loss prevention technology that combines context-awareness with encryption and data level restrictions to limit the risk of data loss or attack as well as intentional data theft. Enabling enterprises to protect their data from unauthorized disclosure or malicious theft while enforcing data security protocols is made possible by its host-based security technology. In order to provide safe data exchange across all types of contexts, this scalable platform includes multiple levels of security. 

Computers running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux are protected by Digital Guardian for data loss prevention (DLP). Digital Guardian also supports monitoring and controlling devices such as USB flash drives connected to secured endpoints. This strategy ensures only allowed portable devices are used, and only permitted data is copied and transferred.

Also read: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Best Practices & Strategies

Key Differentiators

• Rapid deployment: The Digital Guardian data protection platform provides business data security without complexity. Users benefit from faster implementation, lower overhead, and quicker scalability, allowing them to operate a more successful information security program.
• Cross-platform coverage: Digital Guardian provides comprehensive business visibility and control across the major operating systems, web browsers, and applications.
• Flexible controls: Controls span from monitor and log to alert, prompt, block, and encrypt in order to provide fine-grained controls that do not inhibit employee productivity or corporate innovation.
• Technology integrations: Digital Guardian delivers custom APIs and a DLP software development kit to integrate with existing security infrastructure.

Key Features of Digital Guardian DLP

Digital Guardian offers no-compromise data protection for traditional endpoints, corporate networks, and cloud applications, making it easier to identify and eliminate threats to critical data. In addition, Digital Guardian cloud delivery provides benefits such as cross-platform coverage and configurable controls to prevent risky activity. Here are some other key features of Digital Guardian DLP. 

Analytics and reporting cloud

Digital Guardian goes beyond traditional point solutions to help enterprises protect their entire digital business—data, apps, devices, and users—at every stage of its lifecycle. Digital Guardian analytics and reporting cloud (ARC) uses endpoint agents and network appliances to collect and analyze data about system, user, and network events to detect and respond to both insider and outsider threats. Its analytics and reporting cloud uses multiple layers of protection for data encryption, policy enforcement, and user authentication at any stage of data creation or transfer. 

Management console

The Digital Guardian management console is a web-based administration tool used to configure DLP policies and settings. Administrators use it to create, edit, and manage policies for each user on each computer or mobile device. The console also provides management tools for viewing audit reports, incident responses, and reporting of alerts from users.

It enables IT managers to better monitor events that require security intervention, such as data leaks or malware infections. Businesses can increase operational efficiency with simplified set up and ongoing maintenance of their policy enforcement devices across multiple locations with centralized security intelligence in an easy-to-use environment. Some benefits of the management console include centralized controls, easy configuration and deployment, as well as simplified regulatory compliance.

Endpoint DLP

Digital Guardian endpoint DLP is a comprehensive data-leakage prevention technology. It secures Windows and macOS, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, servers, and endpoints against file-based exfiltration methods. This includes removable media transmission, email message encryption, file transfer over wireless or USB drives, and document scanning for malicious content. The architecture allows you to easily scale protection across thousands of systems while ensuring that endpoint performance is not impacted.

Network DLP

Network DLP helps enterprises ensure that data within their network is safe and secure. Network DLP monitors any traffic crossing a device’s internal or external networks. This includes peer-to-peer connections, email, web and cloud applications, FTP, Telnet, and other protocols. By identifying potential threats before they occur, network DLP solutions allow organizations to mitigate risks in both physical and virtual environments.

Cloud data protection

The Digital Guardian cloud data protection platform enables users to achieve true end-to-end encryption of all cloud applications and offers data protection and compliance solutions that enable users to access their data from anywhere and on any device with granular control. Cloud DLP extends data loss prevention controls beyond the user’s firewall to protect against insider threats, both unintentional and malicious.

Data classification 

Digital Guardian’s classification system supports automated detection and labeling of user-sensitive data.  It’s also optimized for regulatory compliance and intellectual property protection and supports both automated content and context-based classification and manual user classification.

Data discovery

Digital Guardian data discovery appliance automatically scans local and network shares for sensitive data using discovery-specific inspection criteria. Detailed audit recording and reporting let users prove compliance, secure personal data, and decrease data loss risk. It enables enterprise-wide visibility and auditing of sensitive data at rest.  

Use Cases

• Digital Guardian for data visibility: With kernel-level data visibility, Digital Guardian for data visibility and management allows users to identify where an organization’s sensitive data is and how it’s being utilized, while also providing device control and encryption.
• Digital Guardian for data loss prevention: To prevent insider threats, Digital Guardian for data loss prevention provides sophisticated classification by context, content, and user as well as email control and encryption.
• Digital Guardian for advanced threat prevention: Data Guardian delivers real-time threat protection by tracing the attack chain from first contact through several phases of the attack, while providing customizable controls to respond in a way suitable with the user’s risk tolerance. It also integrates with network solutions, such as FireEye, and SIEM systems, such as Splunk. 

Delivery 

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Managed security program 
• On-premises

Pricing

There are no pricing details available on the Digital Guardian website. However, you can contact the sales team for quotes tailored to your company’s needs or schedule a free demo.

Digital Guardian DLP Summary

When it comes to protecting data from internal and external threats, Digital Guardian depends on a combination of extensive visibility, real-time analytics, and a wide range of configurable restrictions. The platform is powered by AWS and works on traditional endpoints, corporate networks, and cloud apps, making it easier to detect and stop threats to critical data.

Read next: Best Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Software & Tools