In most organizations today, there is sensitive data that is overexposed and vulnerable to misuse or theft, leaving IT in an ongoing race to prevent data loss. Packet sniffers, firewalls, virus scanners and spam filters are doing a good job securing the borders, but what about insider threats?

The threat of legitimate, authorized users unwittingly (or wittingly) leaking critical data just by accessing data that is available to them is all too real. Analyst firms such as IDC estimate that in five years, unstructured data, which makes up 80% of organizational data, will grow by 650%. The risk of data loss is increasing above and beyond this explosive rate, as more dynamic, cross-functional teams collaborate and data are continually transferred between network shares, email accounts, SharePoint sites, mobile devices, and other platforms.

As a result, security professionals are turning to data loss prevention solutions for help. Unfortunately, organizations are finding that these DLP solutions in many cases fail to fully protect critical data because they focus on symptomatic, perimeter-level solutions to a much deeper problem – the fact that users have inappropriate or excessive rights to sensitive information.