Data Exfiltration: Understanding the Basics
Data exfiltration - one of the greatest risks to data security - may lead to catastrophic consequences for enterprises. Data exfiltration is a critical business risk, and the outcomes may range from major financial losses to regulatory enforcement breaches to sensitive asset leaks. With the right security strategies, the question as to how to prevent data exfiltration gets answered.
What is Data Exfiltration?
Data exfiltration, also known as data theft or data extrusion, refers to the process of data transfer from a computer, storage device, or other electronic systems to another system where anyone who does not have permission to view it may access it.
Data exfiltration puts organizations at risk because external actors can access potentially confidential information due to it. They can exploit or manipulate this information for their benefit. Exfiltrated data can also be stored in places, such as the personal computer of an employee, where it is not intended to remain under policy regulations. In order to return the exfiltrated data to the entity to which it belongs, it may also be held for ransom by attackers who demand payment.
Data Exfiltration: Prime Suspects
Data exfiltration may be carried out with malicious intent by assailants. However, because of errors, it can also happen. An important step in securing your data is to consider all of the ways in which data exfiltration can be carried out.
The three types of individuals who are likely to exfiltrate data include:
Accidental Insiders: Owing to negligence or oversight, workers, business partners, or other stakeholders who have legitimate access to data can accidentally exfiltrate it. For example, in order to work with it at home, an employee may copy sensitive data, even though company policy forbids this practice. Or, maybe accidentally, an email is addressed to the wrong recipient with a confidential file attachment, leading to unintended data exfiltration.
Malicious Insiders: In some cases, workers purposely transfer information out of the networks where it is meant to remai