Gmail DLP vs. Backupify for G Suite

Last week, Google announced that Gmail Data Loss Prevention (DLP) would only be available to G Suite Enterprise customers. However, according to their statement, “customers who purchase or who have purchased G Suite Business before Mar 31, 2017 can use Gmail DLP until their current Services or Order Term expires or Jan 31, 2020—whichever comes first.”

Gmail DLP is a security feature designed to prevent data leaks. It is not a form of backup. However, there is some confusion in the market about the differences between Gmail DLP and Gmail backup products such as Backupify. So, let’s take a look at each.

Gmail DLP

Data loss prevention software is designed to prevent potential data breaches and data leakage by monitoring, detecting and blocking sensitive data in flight and at rest. Google DLP offers similar functionality but is native to G Suite Enterprise, so there is no need to manage another piece of software.

DLP scans inbound and outbound email traffic for data, such as credit card or Social Security numbers, and filters email according to a set of user-defined actions. DLP uses a set of predefined detectors to evaluate message content. For example, a user might configure Gmail DLP to automatically scan the email subject, message body, and attachments. More sophisticated content compliance policies can be set by combining one or more predefined detectors with keywords or regular expressions to construct compound detection criteria.

Gmail DLP can also scan and protect Google Drive files. Users can set policy-based actions that will be triggered when any sensitive data is detected. Available actions include sending email alerts to super administrators and the file’s owner, blocking sharing of the file, etc.

Backupify for G Suite

Backupify for G Suite is a SaaS backup product designed to protect G Suite data in Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Contacts and Sites. It allows users to rapidly restore G Suite data following loss or corruption. Backupify for G Suite protects against a variety of types of data loss, such as:

• Viruses or ransomware
• End-user deletion
• Accidental data overwrites
• Lost data due to a cancelled account subscription
• Malicious end-user activity

Backupify for G Suite allows users to automatically back up data three times a day to the secure Datto Cloud—a 250+ PB Tier 3 (ANSI/TIA-942) cloud purpose-built for backup and disaster recovery. It provides completely independent, geographically redundant copy of G Suite data.

Users can quickly identify and recover individual emails, files, objects or entire accounts with related records intact using Backupify’s advanced search capabilities and filters. It also allows users to retrieve data in its original format, because the file and label structure is maintained in the backup.

Conclusion

So, Gmail DLP is not backup, and Backupify for G Suite does not protect against the same threats that DLP does. As such, they are complementary products that can and should be used side by side.