Data Loss Prevention (DLP).

A set of technologies and policies that detect and block unauthorized exfiltration of sensitive data across endpoints, networks, email, and cloud services. It belongs to the Privacy & Data Protection category of cybersecurity.

A set of technologies and policies that detect and block unauthorized exfiltration of sensitive data across endpoints, networks, email, and cloud services.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a control category that inspects content in motion, at rest, and in use, then enforces policies to keep regulated or confidential data inside trusted boundaries. DLP engines combine pattern matching, lexical rules, exact data matching, machine learning, and document fingerprinting to recognize PII, payment data, source code, or intellectual property. Typical enforcement actions include blocking an outbound email, quarantining a file, requiring justification, or redacting content before it leaves the environment. Mature deployments link DLP to data classification, IAM, and SIEM/SOAR so that incidents are triaged, evidence is preserved, and policies are tuned to cut false positives while supporting GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS obligations.

Defences for Data Loss Prevention (DLP) typically combine technical controls and operational practices, as detailed in the full definition above.

Common alternative names include: Information Leak Prevention, Data Leakage Prevention.