Create an Application DLP Policy

Creating a Data Leak Protection (DLP) policy in Zaperon enables administrators to detect, monitor, and prevent unauthorized data movement across applications, endpoints, clipboards, and storage media. Zaperon DLP policies help protect regulated, confidential, and business-critical data by inspecting content in real time and enforcing security actions such as Log or Block before a data leak occurs.

Zaperon supports multiple DLP policy types to provide comprehensive endpoint-level protection:

• Application DLP – Controls data uploads, downloads, and sharing activities across web and desktop applications.

• Email DLP – Protects sensitive information shared through email by inspecting outbound emails, attachments, recipients, and content in real time.

With Zaperon DLP, organizations can apply granular controls based on data type, file attributes, activity type, destination, and user groups, ensuring strong data protection without disrupting employee productivity. These policies work seamlessly for agent-based users, enabling continuous visibility, policy enforcement, and compliance with industry and regulatory requirements. 

An Application Data Leak Protection (DLP) policy in Zaperon is a rule that monitors and controls how sensitive data is handled across applications and endpoints. It defines what data to inspect, which applications and user groups to monitor, what activities to track, and what enforcement action to take when a policy condition is matched.

In a Zero Trust security framework, controlling data movement is as important as controlling access. Zaperon's App DLP policies ensure that sensitive organizational data cannot be exfiltrated through applications, file transfers, or endpoint activity, even by users who have legitimate access to the data itself.

Organizations create DLP policies to reduce the risk of data breaches and accidental data exposure. Common reasons include:

• Prevent sensitive data from being exfiltrated through applications, file uploads, or endpoint transfers without disrupting legitimate business workflows.

• Define granular inspection rules using data dictionaries, file types, and activity types to target specific data protection requirements.

• Enforce consistent data protection controls across all user groups and applications from a single centralized policy interface.

• Take proportionate enforcement actions including Log and Block based on the sensitivity of the data and the risk of the activity detected.

• Support compliance with data protection regulations including GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, RBI, and SEBI by maintaining documented, enforceable data handling controls.

• Gain full visibility into how sensitive data is being accessed and moved across the organization through integrated DLP reporting.

You should create a Data Leak Protection (DLP) policy when your organization needs to identify and control the movement of specific types of sensitive data, not just applications or users.

• Sensitive or regulated data must be protected from unauthorized sharing

• Users access business applications from managed endpoints

• Compliance mandates require monitoring or blocking specific data types

• You want to log data movement for audit or investigation purposes

• Security teams need fine-grained control over data flows across applications

Note: 

1. DLP policies rely on Data Dictionaries to identify what sensitive data looks like. A Data Dictionary defines patterns, exact matches, or predefined identifiers that the Zaperon DLP engine uses to inspect content.

2. Data Leak Protection works only for agent-based users.

Before creating a DLP policy, ensure that required data dictionaries are available.

→ Refer to Add Data Dictionary – Choose predefined or create custom data dictionary to detect sensitive information.

Without a Data Dictionary, DLP policies cannot inspect or classify sensitive data, which may result in incomplete protection or false negatives.

• Preventing Sensitive File Uploads to Unsanctioned Applications:

Employees may attempt to upload confidential files to personal cloud storage or unsanctioned SaaS applications. App DLP policies detect these upload attempts based on file type or data dictionary matches and block the transfer before sensitive data leaves the organization's control.

• Monitoring and Controlling Financial Data Movement:

Organizations handling sensitive financial information can create App DLP policies targeting financial data patterns using custom data dictionaries. When a match is detected during an upload, share, or transfer activity, the policy logs or blocks the action and generates a reportable event for the security team.

• Protecting Regulated Data Across Applications:

For organizations subject to data protection regulations, App DLP policies ensure that regulated content such as personally identifiable information (PII), health records, or payment data cannot be transferred across applications without detection and enforcement, supporting regulatory compliance requirements.

• Enforcing Role-Based Data Protection Controls:

Different user groups within an organization have different data access and handling requirements. App DLP policies can be applied to specific groups, ensuring that data protection controls are proportionate to each group's role and the sensitivity of the data they work with.

• Building an Auditable Data Protection Record:

Every DLP policy match and enforcement action is logged and available in the Data Leak Report, giving security and compliance teams a complete, timestamped record of data handling events that supports audit readiness and incident investigation.
→ Refer to Data Leak Report.

After creating the Application DLP policy:

• Test the policy with a non-admin user by performing an activity that should trigger the policy condition.

• Verify that the correct enforcement action (Log or Block) is applied as configured.

• Check the Data Leak Report to confirm that the policy match event has been recorded with full context.

• Confirm that legitimate user activities that should not trigger the policy are not being incorrectly blocked.

After creating a Data Leak Protection (DLP) policy, you can continue to manage it based on your security and operational requirements. Zaperon allows administrators to control how and where a policy is enforced without recreating it.

You can configure and update policy conditions, content types, and actions to ensure sensitive data is protected across applications, files, email, and web activities. Policies can be enabled or disabled as needed to test changes or troubleshoot issues.

If a DLP policy is no longer required, it can be permanently deleted to keep policy management clean and reduce unnecessary rule processing.

→ Refer to Edit a DLP Policy.

→ Refer to Delete DLP Policy.

→ Refer to Enable/Disable DLP Policy.

→ Refer to Create Email DLP Policy to secure outbound emails and prevent sensitive email data leaks.