Forcepoint DLP Deploy - DLP
Forcepoint DLP Deploy - DLP
Forcepoint DLP Deploy - DLP
Forcepoint DLP
v8 .9 .x
©2022 Forcepoint
Forcepoint and the FORCEPOINT logo are trademarks of Forcepoint. Raytheon is a registered trademark of Raytheon
Company. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
Published 2022
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this document. However, Forcepoint makes no warranties with respect
to this documentation and disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Forcepoint shall not be liable for any error or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing,
performance, or use of this manual or the examples herein. The information in this documentation is subject to change
without notice.
ii Forcepoint DLP
1 Overview
Forcepoint DLP can protect organizations from information leaks and data loss at the
perimeter and inside the organization, as well as in certain Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) platforms.
● Forcepoint Data Discovery can be used to learn the location of sensitive data both
on-premises an in supported cloud-based applications. It can be used to scan data
on file servers, email servers, and databases, as well as in content collaboration
applications, such as Microsoft SharePoint and Box.
● Forcepoint DLP Network can be used to prevent data loss through email and over
web channels (HTTP, HTTPS and FTP). It supports the scanning of content
supplied by third-party solutions, such as Citrix FileShare, via the ICAP protocol.
● With Forcepoint DLP Endpoint, an endpoint agent can be used to prevent data
loss over endpoint channels such as removable storage devices, mobile devices,
browser uploads, and email clients and applications (such as IM and file share
clients). It can also discover and remediate sensitive data stored on laptop and
desktop systems. The endpoint agent lets administrators analyze content within a
user’s working environment and block or monitor policy breaches as defined by
the endpoint profiles.
The basic components of Forcepoint DLP solutions are:
● Management server
The management server hosts both the Forcepoint Security Manager (the
graphical interface used to manage Forcepoint DLP and other Forcepoint security
solutions) and core Forcepoint DLP components. It also acts as the primary
Forcepoint DLP server.
Although there is only one management server, additional Forcepoint DLP servers
may be deployed for load balancing.
● Protector (requires a Forcepoint DLP Network subscription)
The protector intercepts and analyzes traffic on SMTP, HTTP(S), and FTP
channels, among others. It also supports DLP content scanning with third-party
proxies and data sharing solutions via ICAP.
See What is the protector?, page 4.
● Agents
A variety of agents extend Forcepoint DLP functionality to work with cloud
applications (CASB service) and so on.
● Endpoint clients
Endpoint client software runs on end user desktop and laptop machines
Deployment options
A basic deployment might have just one management server and an analytics server.
To extend enforcement capabilities, it might add a protector.
The high-level illustration shows a basic deployment ideal for a smaller- to medium-
sized organization with a single Internet egress point. (The illustration is intended to
show the general distribution of components and does not include network details,
such as segmenting, internal firewalls, routing, switching, and so forth.)
● The analytics server is used for Incident Risk Ranking reports.
● The protector can protect several channels, including SMTP, HTTP, FTP, and
ICAP.
The servers can be configured to either monitor or monitor and protect sensitive data.
2 Forcepoint DLP
Overview
This shows the extended capabilities of Forcepoint DLP incorporated into a more
complex network environment. It includes an extra Forcepoint DLP server and several
additional agents to support larger transaction volumes and numbers of users. Very
large deployments can have multiple Forcepoint DLP servers and protectors.
For diagrams of the most common customer deployments, see Most common
deployments, page 14.
In preparation for deployment, the system requirements for all Forcepoint DLP
components can be found in the Deployment & Installation Center.
● For operating system, hardware, and virtualization (VM) requirements, see
System requirements for this version.
● For port requirements, see Forcepoint DLP ports (the “Forcepoint management
server” section).
The protector is a component of Forcepoint DLP that can monitor and report on web
traffic and act as an MTA to monitor, block, quarantine, and encrypt email traffic.
For enforcement over the HTTP/S channel, the protector can integrate with a third-
party proxy that supports ICAP. (As an alternative, use the Web Content Gateway.)
The protector is additionally available as a software package and can be installed on
supported CentOS Linux 7.x and RedHat 7.x servers within public cloud services. A
site-to-site VPN is required when deploying the software protector in a public cloud
environment.
Refer to the following resource for public cloud deployment:
● Use the portal to attach a data disk to a Linux VM (Azure)
4 Forcepoint DLP
Overview
● The protector supports analysis of SMTP, HTTP/S, FTP, and plain text. It can
monitor or block email traffic, but only monitor web traffic. Blocking web traffic
requires integration with a third-party proxy that supports ICAP.
The protector fits into the network with minimal configuration. It requires no network
infrastructure changes.
The protector is the best choice for monitoring SMTP traffic. Just connect the
protector to a SPAN or mirror port that reflects the SMTP traffic.
For email blocking capabilities, use the protector’s explicit MTA mode.
To monitor HTTP traffic, either use the protector or integrate Forcepoint DLP with
another web proxy.
To monitor FTP or plain text, use the protector. Note that the protector cannot block
traffic on these channels. Optionally, integrate with another web proxy that buffers
FTP and supports ICAP.
Service Function
HTTP Monitoring
SMTP Monitoring passive
Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)
All Others Monitoring
ICAP Monitoring
Blocking
In monitoring mode, the protector is connected off the network via the SPAN/mirror
port of a switch (or via a network TAP), as shown in the following diagram. This
allows the protector to monitor and analyze traffic, but not block it.
The protector must connect both to the SPAN/mirror port or TAP, and the Forcepoint
DLP management server.
For additional diagrams showing typical protector deployments, see Forcepoint DLP
protector with ICAP, page 16, and Planning a phased approach, page 19.
6 Forcepoint DLP
2 Planning Forcepoint DLP
Deployment
What data does the organization need to protect? What data privacy laws, regulations,
and compliance concerns and obligations does the organization have?
Consider the factors described below to define the scope of what needs to be
protected.
Geographical factors
● Each region may have its own regulations or laws that require protecting various
types of sensitive information, such as personal, financial, and medical data.
● Global enterprises may be bound to multiple laws if they have branch offices in
different regions. (For example, they may have to abide by different state laws if
they have offices in several different states)
Industry
● Each type of industry may have its own laws and regulations. For example:
■ GLBA for Finance and Banking
Sector
● Government agencies and organizations that are affiliated with the government
are subject to special requirements and regulations, such as DIACAP for units and
contractors related to the U.S. Department of Defense and FISMA for U.S. federal
agencies and their contractors.
● For public companies, additional regulations may apply (such as the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act in the U.S., or regulations that are published by the regulatory body of
the relevant stock markets).
General
● Marketing data, like the following, may need to be kept secret from competitors:
■ Upcoming press releases
■ Marketing campaigns
■ Leads
■ Customer contact information and other customer data
Many organizations have individualized needs for data protection. Though these
might remain outside typical categories, Forcepoint DLP can accommodate them.
The Forcepoint DLP first-time policy wizard assists administrators in defining the
organization’s region or regions and industry. It then displays relevant policies,
making it easier to select them for monitoring and enforcement.
The policy wizard launches automatically when a Forcepoint DLP administrator logs
on to the Forcepoint Security Manager after installation or upgrade.
After selecting the appropriate predefined policies, administrators can create policies
to protect specific information or types of information, such as:
● Designs
● Drawings
● Marketing materials
● Legal documents
● Strategic planning documents, such as business plans
● Financial and pricing information
● All documents marked “Confidential”
8 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
In-house databases
To understand which databases are critical:
● Ask:
■ Talk to people that manage in-house applications that rely on internal
databases (such as customer relations, order processing, and accounting).
■ Talk to database administrators to identify the most-accessed databases. The
more a database is accessed, the more chances there are for data loss.
The IT department may be able to elaborate on the results of talking to both of
these groups.
● Discover: Define policies for database discovery, then use Forcepoint DLP to
classify databases. This should let you know primarily where your vital records
are located.
Combining the results can narrow down the most critical database servers, databases,
and tables to protect.
The business owners of information normally come from the departments where the
information was created.
For example, for marketing materials, the head of marketing is normally the business
owner. That person should be consulted about Forcepoint DLP deployments that
protect marketing data.
Normally, principals from affected departments want to get notifications about data
losses containing information originating from their department (even and especially
if the sender is from a different department).
10 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
Authorized users, however, can still send content they are authorized to use to
unauthorized recipients.
Forcepoint DLP augments access control by providing Information Distribution
Management (IDM) capabilities, thereby greatly enhancing the level of information
security. Forcepoint DLP protects digital content from being sent from within the
network to external recipients, as well as protecting classified information from being
sent to unauthorized users within the local network.
To make the most of data security capabilities, delineate users as belonging to groups
or security levels, enabling a sophisticated, high level of control over classified data.
Naturally, when considering the policies discussed here, it is important to consider
how these policies are impacted by or impact other content policies within the
organization.
Structural guidelines
It is possible to configure the system so that a particular user cannot access specified
documents through the network, but can receive them by email. For example, a
manager would not want employees to access documents in his or her personal folder,
but would want to be able to send the documents to them by email. It is therefore
important to perform this analysis with a network administrator, so that changes are
implemented in a smooth, logical fashion.
Typically, network directories are organized functionally, according to the different
business units in the company. Within this structure, functional groups are usually
entitled to look at documents within their business unit.
The recommended process is:
● Take a network map of all the directories, and look at how the network access is
organized.
● Determine what types of classified documents the organization has, and where
they are located.
● Determine whether documents of similar confidentiality are together in similar
directories.
■ Organize/group information that is critical to the organization and information
whose security is legally mandated.
For example, financial institutions may start by considering customer data
(such as Social Security numbers or account numbers) and highly confidential
business information.
■ Organize/group important proprietary and confidential information with
medium or low change-frequency
■ Arrange all major information assets so that data locations, relationships, and
security-value hierarchies are well understood.
The result of this analysis should be a table identifying the directories in the network
that need to be protected, indicating what types of users should be able to receive
those files. This should provide insight into access issues.
It may be desirable to rearrange some areas of network access, and set the data
security accordingly. See below for recommended procedures.
To decide on factors like disk space allocation, number of servers, and network
distribution, start by answering these questions:
● What volume of daily data is expected in number of transactions?
● What is the user count?
● Are geographically distributed offices being covered?
● What is the user directory structure (Active Directory, Domino), and what are the
IP addresses of the LDAP servers?
● Which ports and port numbers are used?
12 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
On endpoint client
Distributing resources
Forcepoint DLP supports multi-site, distributed deployments. Among other examples:
● In addition to the management server, there can be one or more supplemental
Forcepoint DLP servers to balance the load.
● The Web Content Gateway includes its own local policy engine to supplement the
policy engine on other servers.
● It is possible to have distributed (primary and secondary) fingerprint repositories.
● The crawlers on the Forcepoint DLP servers can be used for fingerprint and
discovery scans, or standalone instances of the crawler agent can be added to
improve performance.
Network architecture and geographical factors of the organization contribute to
determining the best way to distribute Forcepoint DLP resources.
See Most common deployments, page 14, for examples.
Load balancing
Load balancing allows administrators to configure how each Forcepoint DLP module
sends its data to specified policy engines for analysis. This both distributes the load
and, more importantly, ensures that the organization’s email and HTTP performance
are never harmed.
For example, designate 1–2 dedicated servers to analyze HTTP traffic (where analysis
latency is critical), and use another set of servers to analyze other channels.
An agent or a protector service can have its traffic analyzed by all listed policy
engines, or by specifically selected policy engines. (Protector traffic can be analyzed
only by local or Windows-based policy engines.) Administrators can specify which
policy engine analyzes a specific agent or service of the protector.
Note
Forcepoint recommends that you do not distribute the load
to the management server.
Load balancing is configured in the Data Security module of the Security Manager.
See the Forcepoint DLP Administrator Help for instructions.
14 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
16 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
18 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
As part of the planning process, consider the tactics that can be employed in protecting
data, configuring policies, managing incidents, and controlling access.
To assess how to protect data from compromise, Forcepoint recommends a multi-
phased approach. One possible approach is outlined here.
Phase 1: Monitoring
Start by monitoring data (auditing without blocking):
1. Enable regulatory compliance, regional, and industry-related predefined policies
in order to:
■ Deploy solid, first stage DLP.
■ Get a good picture of what information is being sent out, by whom, to where,
and via which methods.
2. If the organization has unique data identification needs that are not covered by a
predefined policy, request custom policies from Forcepoint.
■ Data types requiring a custom policy might be items like coupons or catalog
numbers.
■ To request a policy, contact Forcepoint Technical Support. They will escalate
the request and engage a research team. The usual turnaround is
approximately 3 weeks. (The research team can typically provide an
estimated time to completion within 3 days of reviewing the request).
3. Fingerprint data (can be also part of Phase 2):
■ Data fingerprinting allows accurate and efficient data identification
■ Database fingerprinting (PreciseID database technology) allows accurate and
efficient detection of fingerprinted records coming from database tables,
database views, and CSV files.
■ Content policies can be flexibly defined for data sources, with detection rules
based on combinations of columns and thresholds based on number of
matches.
■ Database fingerprinting can be used in conjunction with PreciseID patterns.
While patterns identify a full range of data (for example, all credit cards),
database fingerprinting can narrow down the detection only to credit cards
belonging to the organization’s customers.
■ Files, directory, and SharePoint fingerprinting (PreciseID files technology)
allow identification of unstructured data (free text).
○ Data can be identified in different formats (e.g., after PDF conversion),
different contexts (excerpt of fingerprinted confidential document), and so
on.
○ Advanced and efficient algorithms allow detecting fingerprints even on
endpoints that have limited resources.
Phase 4: Enforcing
Begin this phase after all policies have been successfully tuned and business owners,
data owners, and incident managers are trained and ready to handle the incidents.
● Start with the one channel (for example, SMTP), then gradually move to add
enforcement for other channels (like HTTP).
● Continue monitoring incidents to identify whether certain policies should be
moved back to auditing only. For example, if all quarantined email is released, it
might be better to simply monitor the transactions.
● It may be desirable to integrate with encryption gateways as part of SMTP
enforcement. Forcepoint DLP can automatically route certain email transactions
to be encrypted based on email content and/or policy definitions (actions).
20 Forcepoint DLP
Planning Forcepoint DLP Deployment
Phase 5: Discovery
This phase can start earlier, in parallel with other phases.
Establish discovery tasks on sensitive corporate servers, databases, Exchange servers,
and SharePoint sites that are widely accessed. This ensures that administrators know
where sensitive information is located, and who is allowed to access it.
22 Forcepoint DLP
3 Integrating with Existing
Infrastructure
Forcepoint DLP is an integral piece of the network architecture, and can be combined
with existing systems to ensure seamless web and email protection. This section
describes:
● Working with existing email infrastructure, page 23
● Working with web proxies, page 25
● Working with Exchange servers, page 29
Configure Forcepoint DLP to work with an existing email infrastructure to block and
quarantine email that contravenes DLP policies.
This can be done by connecting the Forcepoint DLP protector to the network directly
in the path of the traffic, enabling traffic to be not only monitored, but also blocked,
quarantined, or even terminated before it reaches its destination.
The protector has 2 SMTP modes:
● Monitoring mode (sometimes referred to as passive mode)
In this mode, the protector monitors and analyzes SMTP traffic, but does not
block transactions.
● Explicit Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) mode
In this mode, the protector acts as an MTA for SMTP traffic and operates in
protect mode. Protect mode allows transactions the breach policy to be blocked or
quarantined. Limit the networks with permission to send email via the protector’s
SMTP service to prevent the protector from being used as a mail relay.
Pre-installation checklist
The figure below shows a common topology in which the protector is installed inline.
The checklist refers to the numbers in this figure.
Before installation:
Verify that the required hardware is available. Check the Deployment &
Installation Center for the list of certified hardware.
Have valid IP addresses for the Forcepoint DLP server and the protector
management port
Make sure the following IP addresses are known prior to installation. They are
required in order to complete the procedure:
■ The complete list of internal networks (IP ranges and subnet masks) [1]
24 Forcepoint DLP
Integrating with Existing Infrastructure
If there is more than one site, the internal networks list should include the
networks of all sites.
■ A list of the mail server’s IP addresses (in all sites) [4] [6]
■ The IP addresses of the mail relay, if one exists [5] [7]
■ The IP address of the outbound gateway for the protector (this will typically
be the internal leg of the firewall) [2]
■ The IP address of the inbound gateway for the protector (this will typically be
the external leg of the backbone switch or router) [6]
■ The HELO string the protector will use when identifying itself. This is
relevant for the SMTP channel only.
■ If customized notifications will be displayed when content is blocked, these
should be prepared beforehand.
The recommend web proxy for use with Forcepoint DLP is Content Gateway. Content
Gateway includes its own Forcepoint DLP policy engine and streamlines
communication with the management server.
Content Gateway is included with Forcepoint DLP Network and Forcepoint Web
Security.
Forcepoint DLP also supports the following third-party Web proxies:
● Blue Coat (Blue Coat web proxy, page 25)
● Squid open source (Squid open source Web proxy, page 28)
These proxies integrate with Forcepoint DLP over ICAP, an industry-standard
protocol designed for off-loading specialized tasks from proxies.
Limitations
● The solution does not support the FTP GET method for request modification.
● The solution does not support the HTTP GET method for request modification.
● The solution can only scan files 12 MB or smaller. The system can generate an
error if a file exceeds that size.
● The described deployment does not include caching (Blue Coat SG does not cache
PUTs and POSTs). Nonetheless, exercise care if a response mode configuration is
used.
Deployment
This deployment recommendation describes a forward proxy: a Blue Coat SG
appliance connected to a Forcepoint protector using ICAP. The Blue Coat SG
appliance serves as a proxy for all HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP transactions. It is
configured with rules that route data to the Forcepoint ICAP server.
The Forcepoint protector receives all traffic directed to it from the Blue Coat
appliance for scanning,
The following diagram outlines the recommended deployment:
26 Forcepoint DLP
Integrating with Existing Infrastructure
intended destination. This is the recommended mode, because it provides the most
security.
● In monitoring mode, the transactions that are redirected by the Blue Coat SG
appliance are analyzed by Forcepoint DLP, which can then generate incidents for
confidential information and send notifications to administrators and information
owners. In this mode, the Forcepoint DLP ICAP server universally responds to all
redirected transactions with Allow.
Network integration
The solution includes of 3 components:
● Forcepoint DLP protector
● Forcepoint management server
● Blue Coat SG appliance
The ICAP integration component resides on the protector, and acts as a relay between
the Blue Coat SG appliances and the management server as shown below:
Deployment
The recommended deployment uses a forward proxy: a Squid web proxy server
connected to a Forcepoint protector using ICAP. Squid serves as a proxy for all HTTP,
HTTPS, and FTP transactions. It is configured with rules that route data to the
Forcepoint ICAP server.
28 Forcepoint DLP
Integrating with Existing Infrastructure
The Forcepoint DLP protector receives all traffic directed to it from the Squid server
for scanning, and, in enforcement mode, returns a response indicating whether to
block or allow the transaction. In monitoring mode, the response is always allow.
System setup
Refer to the Forcepoint DLP Installation Guide for instructions on installing
Forcepoint DLP, and refer to the relevant Squid documentation for more information
on installing the Squid Web proxy.
After connecting the systems, follow instructions to configure network parameters and
other properties.
With Forcepoint DLP, you can perform discovery on Microsoft Exchange servers.
Before you begin, there are a number of steps you need to take.
discovery. Log onto OWA with this account and try switching between mailboxes
as shown below:
d. Under Roles, click the plus sign and add a new role named
“ApplicationImpersonation” to the Roles table.
30 Forcepoint DLP
Integrating with Existing Infrastructure
e. Under Members, click the plus sign and add the Service Account you will be
using in the Exchange discovery task, such as Administrator, to the Members
table.
32 Forcepoint DLP
4 Scaling Forcepoint DLP
As the organization’s network and network security needs grow, Forcepoint DLP can
grow with it. The software is architected for scalability, even for networks with
massive traffic and complex topologies.
The sections below address network growth issues such as:
● Recognizing when the system load demands system expansion.
● Configuring for single and multi-site deployments.
● Dealing with the growth of the various information repositories.
See:
● When does the system need to grow?, page 33
● Adding modules to the deployment, page 36
There are numerous triggers that might prompt an organization to expand the
Forcepoint DLP system. Among them:
● Performance issues
Performance issues may vary in visibility and impact.
■ Slow discovery or fingerprinting scans, for example, could indicate an
overworked crawler. This might be resolved by adding a crawler or
Forcepoint DLP server.
■ If users are experiencing slow web or email transactions, an additional policy
engine might help.
Even if performance issues are not obvious, system resources may not be fully
optimized.
To see how the Forcepoint DLP system is performing, open the Security Manager
and go to the Main > Status > System Health page. Expand each module to see
load statistics, the number of transactions, latency information, and more.
Before adding modules, try balancing the load between existing Forcepoint DLP
servers (policy engines). To do this, go to the Settings > Deployment > System
Modules page, then click Load Balancing. Select a service, then indicate which
policy engine to assign to that service.
Note
Forcepoint recommends that you do not distribute the load
to the management server.
34 Forcepoint DLP
Scaling Forcepoint DLP
The transaction volume can grow even if the user base does not. If a significant
increase in traffic is anticipated, the system may benefit from adding one or more
Forcepoint DLP servers.
● The number of endpoints grows
With Forcepoint DLP Endpoint, when large numbers of endpoint clients are being
deployed, additional endpoint servers may be required. A general rule of thumb is
to add 1 Forcepoint DLP server for every 15,000 endpoint clients.
● Moving the deployment from monitor to protect
Enforcement requires more resources than monitoring, particularly because load-
balancing must be enforced between policy engines and other Forcepoint DLP
modules.
When a deployment is moving from monitor to protect, it may benefit from an
additional Forcepoint DLP server. Note that the Forcepoint DLP Web Content
Gateway is required to enforce the HTTP channel; the protector is required to
enforce the SMTP channel.
● Moving from a single-site to multi-site configuration
Forcepoint DLP supports multi-site, distributed deployments. An organization can
have a local policy engine on the protector, for example, and distributed (primary
and secondary) fingerprint repositories. There can be a management server in one
location and one or more supplemental Forcepoint DLP servers in other locations.
Administrators have the option to use the crawlers on the Forcepoint DLP servers
alone to do fingerprint and discovery scans, or to install the crawler agent on
additional servers to improve performance.
Many scalable options are available. See Most common deployments, page 14, for
typical component distributions.
Organizations with multiple geographical locations need a protector for each site.
A deployment with low latency between two geographically distributed sites
might need two protectors and two supplemental Forcepoint DLP servers.
If network and security requirements dictate the need to add new agents or other
modules, most can be added using the Forcepoint Security Installer (the Windows
installer).
During installation, the administrator is prompted to provide the FQDN of the
management server and the credentials for a Forcepoint Security Manager
administrator with Forcepoint DLP system modules permissions. This allows the new
module to register automatically with the management server.
After installation, to accept the default configuration, an administrator must click
Deploy in the Security Manager to complete the registration process. To customize the
configuration before deploying, go to the Settings > Deployment > System Modules
page and select the module to edit.
Only a Security Manager administrator with system modules permissions can install
or configure new network elements.
For information on adding and configuring modules, see “Adding modules” in the
Forcepoint DLP Administrator Help.
36 Forcepoint DLP
Scaling Forcepoint DLP
Red on the chart indicates a heavy load on the policy engine during the corresponding
period.
In monitoring mode, a few red bars may not be an issue. The system will process the
incidents during a less busy period.
In blocking mode, even one hour of red is undesirable. If a red bar appears, perform
load balancing, and, if that does not resolve the issue, add a new Forcepoint DLP
server.