Securing Data

Overview

Data is more accessible and transferable today than ever before, and the vast majority of data is sensitive at different levels. Some is confidential simply because it is part of an internal organization and is not meant to be available to the public. Some data is sensitive because of corporate requirements and legal regulations.

The Check Point Data Loss Prevention Software Blade (DLP) lets you use the Firewall to prevent users from sending sensitive data to external networks. DLP helps you implement an automated corporate policy that catches sensitive and protected data before it leaves your organization.

For more about using DLP, see the R76 Data Loss Prevention Administration Guide.

Data Loss Prevention Features

These are the features that the Data Loss Prevention Software Blade uses:

• UserCheckä - Lets users handle data loss incidents with automated user notification and the unique Ask User mode. Each person in your organization learns the best practices to prevent future accidental leaks. These are the majority of DLP incidents and they can be handled quickly with the DLP Self Incident Handling Portal or the UserCheck client.
• MultiSpectä - Unmatched precision to identify and prevent incidents. DLP uses multi-parameter correlation with different customizable data types and with CPcode.
• Out of the Box Security - A rich set of defined data types recognizes sensitive forms, templates and data. DLP has a good out-of-the-box policy to make sure that the data stays in the internal network.
• Data Owner Auditing - Data Owners are the users in the organization that control the information and files for their own area or department. They get timely automated notifications and reports that show how their data is being moved. Without Data Owner control, system administrators can frequently be placed in an awkward position between managers and employees.
• CPcodeä - DLP supports fully customized data identification through the use of CPcode. You can define how email data matches DLP policies and rules.

  Note - See the R76 CPcode DLP Reference Guide.

Sample DLP Deployment

1. Use SmartDashboard and the Security Management server to install the DLP Policy on the Security Gateway.
2. The Security Gateway uses the built-in data types and rules to supply out-of-the-box Data Loss Prevention. DLP can also use the AD or LDAP server to identify users in the internal organization.
3. The Security Gateway analyzes all traffic from the web and mail server before it goes to the Internet.

   It catches all traffic containing data and being sent through supported protocols. It scans the traffic, including email attachments, for data that should be protected from being sent to external networks. This data is recognized by protocol, source, destination, and complex data type representations.

   The Security Gateway can also inspect internal traffic between Microsoft Exchange clients in the organization. The Exchange Security Agent forwards internal emails to DLP.

4. SmartView Tracker and SmartEvent log, track, analyze events, and report incidents that are captured by DLP.

Using a Mail Relay and Mail Server

You can configure the Security Gateway to send email notifications to users and Data Owners. If you are using email notifications, it is necessary for the Security Gateway to access a mail server and a mail relay.

We recommend that you use different computers for a mail server and a mail relay. For more about other deployments, see the R76 DLP Administration Guide.

Sample Mail Relay Deployment

In this deployment the Security Gateway with the DLP Software Blade scans emails once, as they are sent from an internal mail server (such as Microsoft Exchange) to a mail relay in the DMZ. The Security Gateway scans the email before it reaches the mail relay. The mail relay can send the allowed emails to internal and external recipients.

Mail Relay Workflow

1. User at internal computer sends email.
2. Email reaches the internal mail server and is forwarded to the mail relay.
3. Security Gateway intercepts and scans the email.
   • Email matches a Prevent rule - email is not forwarded
   • Email matches an Ask User rule - User must confirm that the email does not violate the DLP policy to forward it
   • Email matches Inform User, Detect, or no rule - email is forwarded
4. The mail relay receives the email from the Security Gateway and sends it to the internal or external recipient.

Enabling DLP

You can configure a DLP rule that sends users to the DLP portal when they send questionable data. This rule lets users decide if they will send data that can potentially violate the security policy.

The DLP portal is a web page that informs users that the specified data is possibly against company policy. If the users Send the data, then the action is logged.

To enable DLP on an existing Security Gateway or cluster:

1. From the Network Objects tree, double-click the Security Gateway.

   The General Properties window opens.

2. In the Network Security tab, select Data Loss Prevention.

   The Data Loss Prevention Wizard opens.

3. Click Next.

   The Email Domain and Active Directory page opens.

4. Enter the email domain for your company to let DLP distinguish between internal and external email addresses.
5. Optional: To enable the Security Gateway to access user information in an AD, enter the AD user name and password.

   The Security Gateway accesses information in the definition of My Organization.

6. Click Next.

   The My Organization Name page opens.

7. Enter different names and phrases that are used to identify your organization.

   DLP uses these names to accurately detect incidents of data loss.

8. Click Next.

   The DLP Portal and Mail Server page opens.

9. Optional: Enable the DLP portal.

   NOTE: It is not necessary to enable the DLP portal if UserCheck is enabled.

   1. Select Activate DLP Portal for Self Incident Handling.
   2. In Main URL, enter the URL for the DLP portal.
10. Optional: Enable a mail server to send DLP emails to users about possible DLP incidents.
    1. Select Mail Server.
    2. From Send emails using this mail server, select a mail server or click New.
    3. To create a new mail server, in the Mail Server window enter the settings for the mail server and click OK.
11. Click Next.

    The Protocols page opens.

12. Select one or more of these protocols to which the DLP policy applies.
    • Email
    • Web
    • File Transfer
13. Click Next.

    The Data Loss Prevention Blade Setup is Completed window opens.

14. Click Finish.

Adding Data Owners

When DLP incidents are logged, the DLP gateway can send automatic notifications to the Data Owners.

To add Data Owners to a Data Type:

1. In the Data Loss Prevention tab, select Data Types.
2. Double-click a data type.

   The Data Type properties window opens.

3. From the navigation tree, select Data Owners.
4. Click Add.

   The Add Data Owners window opens.

5. Select the user or group who is responsible for this data and click Add.

   If the data owner is not in the list, click New. In the Email Addresses window, enter the name and email address of the data owner (or name a list of email addresses).

6. Add as many data owners as needed.
7. Click OK.

Notifying Data Owners

DLP can send automatic messages to Data Owners for incidents that involve the applicable data types.

To configure Data Owner notification:

1. In the Data Loss Prevention tab, select Policy.
2. Right-click the Track cell of the rule and select Email.

   The Email window opens.

3. Select When data is matched.

   Data Owners are added to the Email Notification list.

4. Optional: Click Add to send notification emails to more users.
5. Use the default notification email message, or click Customize and enter the message.

   The default message is: The Check Point Data Loss Prevention system has found traffic which matches a rule

6. Click OK.

Using DLP with Microsoft Exchange

Internal emails between Microsoft Exchange clients use a proprietary protocol which is not supported by the Security Gateways. To scan internal emails between Microsoft Exchange clients, you must install an Exchange Security Agent on the Exchange Server. The agent sends emails to the Security Gateway for inspection using the SMTP protocol encrypted with TLS. To supply Data Loss Prevention for Microsoft exchange, it is necessary that the Exchange server can communicate with the Security Gateway.

An Exchange Security Agent must be installed on each Exchange Server that sends traffic to the Security Gateway with DLP. Each agent is centrally managed through SmartDashboard and can only send emails to one Security Gateway. If your organization uses Exchange servers for all of its emails, you can also use this setup for scanning all emails.

To use the Exchange Security Agent it is necessary to configure settings in SmartDashboard and on the Exchange server. For more about configuring an Exchange Security Agent, see the R76 DLP Administration Guide.

DLP Rule Base

The rules in the DLP Rule Base are not applied sequentially, all the rules are applied to each data transmission. If the data matches multiple rules, the most restrictive rule is applied. The order from most restrictive to least is:

1. Rule with an exception
2. Action - Prevent
3. Action - Ask User
4. Action - Inform User
5. Action - Detect

Managing the DLP Rule Base

Use SmartDashboard to easily create and configure DLP rules.

These are the fields that manage the rules for the DLP Rule Base.

DLP Rule Exceptions

You can create exceptions for DLP rules. When a data transmission matches a DLP rule with an exception, the data is sent and the rule Action is not applied. If the data matches two DLP rules, and only one of the rules has an exception, the rule without exceptions is applied.

To create an exception for a DLP rule:

1. In the Data Loss Prevention tab, select Policy.

   The Policy window opens and shows the DLP Rule Base.

2. Right-click the Exceptions cell for a rule and select Edit.

   The Exceptions for Rule window opens.

3. Click New Exception.
4. Configure these settings for the exception:
   • Data - Data Type
   • Source
   • Destination
   • Protocol - Traffic that is allowed
5. Click OK and then install the policy.

DLP Rule Actions

For each DLP rule that you create for a data type, you also define what action is to be taken if the rule matches a transmission.

Sample Rule Base

This table shows a sample DLP Rule Base. These are the settings for the columns that are not shown:

• Source - My Organization
• Destination - Outside My Organization
• Install On - DLP Blades
• Protocol - Any
• Time - Any

Salesforce Reports - When users send data that matches the Salesforce Reports Data Type category, they are asked to confirm the data transmission. A watermark with the word Restricted is added to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. This incident is logged with High severity.

PCI - Credit Card Numbers - Users are blocked from sending data that matches the PCI - Cardholder Data, and PCI - Credit Card Numbers Data Type categories. These incidents are logged with Critical severity.

SEC Filings - Draft or Recent - Data transmissions that matches the SEC Filings - Draft or Recent Data Type category are logged with High severity. An email is sent to the Data Owners for each incident.

Source Code - Data transmissions that matches the Source Code Data Type category are logged with High severity. A pop-up window opens in SmartView Monitor for each incident.

Analyzing and Tracking DLP

To keep a strong Data Loss Prevention policy, it is necessary to do an analysis of DLP incidents. These SmartConsoles can help your DLP analysis:

• SmartView Tracker
• SmartEvent

You can use the Follow Up flag in SmartDashboard for the DLP rules. If you find one or more incidents that you want to change or fine-tune, set the Data Type or rule to Follow Up.

Using SmartView Tracker

You can open the log of an incident and see the actual data that caused the incident. It is not necessary to review most of the incidents manually, but the data transmission (for example, the email or attachment) is saved.

To use SmartView Tracker to analyze DLP:

1. In SmartDashboard, select SmartConsole > SmartView Tracker.
2. In the Network & Endpoint tab, select Predefined > Data Loss Prevention Blade.
3. Double-click a category.

   The Data Loss Prevention logs for the category are shown.

DLP Actions

SmartView Tracker actions for DLP incidents include:

DLP General Columns

DLP incidents can show some or all of these columns and are available to all administrators.

Using the Incident UID as a key between multiple logs:

Each DLP incident has a unique ID included in the log and sent to the user as part of an email notification. User actions (Send, Do not Send) are assigned the same Incident UID that was assigned to the initial DLP incident log.

If a user/administrator sends an email with a DLP violation and then decides to discard it, two logs are generated. The first log is a DLP incident log with Ask User action and is assigned an Incident UID. On the user action, the second log is generated with the same UID, with the Do not Send action.

Each matched data type generates its own log. The gateway makes sure that all the data type logs of one incident show the same unique Incident UID and rule action (Prevent, Ask, Inform, or Detect). This happens also if data types were matched on different rules. The same action shown for an incident is the most restrictive.

For example, in a case that a transmission matches two data types. Each data type is used in a different rule. The action of one rule is Prevent. The action in the second rule is Detect. The two logs that are generated will show Prevent as the action. The action implemented will be Prevent. The log of the Detect rule will show Rule Base (Action set by different rule) in the DLP Action Reason column.

DLP Restricted Columns

These columns are restricted to administrators with permissions.

Using SmartEvent

SmartEvent provides advanced analysis tools with filtering, charts, reporting, statistics, and more, of all events that pass through enabled Security Gateways. SmartEvent combines all DLP logs of the same incident (all matching rules and data types and user action if applicable) to a single event.

You can filter out the specific Data Loss Prevention information for efficient monitoring and relevant reporting on DLP incidents.

• Real-time and history graphs and reports of Data Loss Prevention incidents
• Graphical incident timelines for rapid information retrieval
• Easily configured custom views to quickly answer specific queries
• Incident management workflow
• Reports to data owners on a scheduled basis

To open SmartEvent:

1. In SmartDashboard, select Window > SmartEvent.
2. When SmartEvent is open, open Events.
3. Select Predefined > DLP or any of the analysis data categories under DLP.