WatchGuard’s DLP Solution Offers One-Click Configuration for Direct Threat Protection

regulatory standards in key markets worldwide. Users can select from a pre-configured library of more than 200 rules that monitor multiple file types, standards and sensitive data. This includes national identification numbers and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and can enable complex checks for HIPAA and PCI with a single click. This allows businesses to instantly protect data and prevent costly regulatory violations, which can top $5.4 million per breach.To get a better understanding of WatchGuard’s new offering, as well as the current threats that SMBs need to be most protected from, we spoke with Dave Taylor, WatchGuard’s VP of Corporate Strategy.

With more than 5,000 active partners, Taylor says WatchGuard is 100 percent channel focused, and its newest offering keeps in mind with the goal of providing partners with a value proposition to help their SMBs avoid today’s common security threats. He notes how today, threats are even more prevalanent than ever, and they are even more sophisticated. “It used to be back maybe 10 or 15 years ago, the biggest threat was someone using a floppy disk with a virus on it,” Taylor said. “Now you have to worry about threats as a result of downloads, phishing campaigns and other modern blended threats.

Taylor says that a move to a UTM is the most beneficial for an SMB, because rather than just being a firewall, which is a fixed feature device, a UTM functions as more of a platform that will be able to combat several different types of threats. “Now, with the inclusion of DLP on our platform it is one of the strongest proof points we have had with the value point in that model,” Taylor said. “All the user needs to do is put a check mark in a box to manage inbound and outbound data.”

In its new product announcement made earlier this week regarding the new DLP, WatchGuard said that in its research, 65 percent of companies reported still not having a Data Loss Prevention solution in place, despite the potential for organizations to be penalized millions of dollars for losing sensitive data.

Taylor says that as a result of the research conducted by WatchGuard, the company knew that it has to incorporate a strategy to help SMBs obtain a DLP solution in an easy and cost-effective manner. “We now have the ability to offer midsize companies DLP that’s so easy to use,” Taylor said. “In addition, this is a product that is not DLP in of itself, it’s a DLP solution on top of a UTM, which not many of our competitors currently offer.”