Data leak protection is no longer optional. It’s an essential layer in any organization's privacy and security strategy. In this post, we explore what causes data leaks, how to prevent them, and why technologies like Multi-Party Computation (MPC) are reshaping what strong protection looks like.
What is data leak protection?
Data leak protection refers to the tools, policies, and practices that prevent unauthorized sharing or exposure of sensitive information, whether accidentally or maliciously. It includes detecting risky behavior, blocking unapproved data transfers, and encrypting high-value information.
Effective data leak protection solutions protect data across all environments:
Endpoints like laptops and smartphones
Email, messaging apps, and other communication channels
Data leak protection helps ensure that sensitive data stays where it belongs and isn’t accessed or exposed by the wrong people.
Why data leak protection matters more than ever
Data is more mobile, distributed, and valuable than ever. It flows between cloud platforms, personal devices, and third-party tools, often faster than security teams can track. At the same time, the stakes are getting higher. Customers expect their information to be handled with care. Regulators are tightening oversight. And the complexity of modern IT environments means one overlooked misconfiguration can lead to massive exposure.
The cost of a data breach is at an all-time high. In 2024, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.88 million, marking a 10% increase over the previous year and the highest total ever recorded.
The healthcare sector remains the most affected, with the average breach cost at $9.77 million.
Notably, 1 in 3 breaches involved shadow data (untracked or unmanaged data), highlighting the challenges in safeguarding proliferating data sources.
Additionally, in 2024, over 1.7 billion data breach notifications were sent to individuals, a fourfold increase from the previous year, underscoring the escalating frequency of such incidents.
In this landscape, hoping your data won’t leak is no longer a strategy. You need to design systems that actively prevent it. That means putting protection in place at every layer: across endpoints, applications, user behavior, and data workflows.
By taking a proactive approach to data leak protection, organizations can avoid costly legal penalties, maintain the trust of their customers and partners, and ensure business continuity even in the face of growing threats.
At Partisia, we believe protection should be proactive and invisible. With Multi-Party Computation, we reduce the need to expose sensitive data in the first place.
How do data leaks happen?
Data leaks can happen in a number of ways, but they typically fall into three broad categories, each with different causes, but the same result: sensitive information ends up somewhere it shouldn’t.
1. Human error and misconfigurations
Not every data leak is the result of a sophisticated cyberattack. In fact, many incidents are simply mistakes: An email sent to the wrong recipient, a file shared with the wrong access settings, or cloud storage left unintentionally exposed. These small oversights can have big consequences when sensitive data is involved.
2. Insider misuse
Leaks don’t always come from the outside. Employees, contractors, or former staff may intentionally or carelessly expose information they’ve had access to. Whether it’s done for personal gain, revenge, or simply due to a lack of training, insider-related leaks are especially dangerous because they often bypass perimeter defenses.
3. External attacks
Cybercriminals frequently target organizations with the goal of extracting valuable data. Using tactics like phishing, ransomware, or exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities, attackers gain unauthorized access and then quietly exfiltrate data. These breaches can remain undetected for weeks or even months, amplifying the damage.
At Partisia, we believe that preventing data leaks requires more than just patching holes. It means designing systems that minimize exposure from the inside out, using advanced privacy technologies like Multi-Party Computation to ensure that even if something slips through, the underlying data stays encrypted and protected.
Best practices for preventing data leaks
To protect sensitive data, organizations need more than firewalls and antivirus software. Here are key practices to implement:
1. Classify your data: Know what information is sensitive, where it resides, and who needs access.
2. Encrypt everything critical: Data should be encrypted both at rest and in transit.
3. Limit access: Apply the principle of least privilege. Only give people access to the data they need.
4. Monitor and audit: Track data flows and user behavior to catch anomalies early.
5. Train employees: Help your team understand how leaks happen and what to do to prevent them.
6. Use data leak protection tools: Deploy software that can detect and prevent data leaving your environment improperly.
The role of advanced technologies like Multi-Party Computation (MPC)
Traditional data leak protection tools work by detecting and blocking threats after data is already at risk. They rely on pattern recognition, rules, and user behavior monitoring to flag anomalies and prevent data from leaving the organization. While this approach is useful, it’s fundamentally reactive, and often too late.
MPC takes protection to the next level. Rather than just securing data at rest or in transit, MPC makes it possible to compute encrypted data without ever exposing the underlying information. This shift from passive protection to active privacy redefines what’s possible.
MPC enables secure data activation. Organizations can collaborate, analyze, and extract value from sensitive datasets without decrypting them or moving them into a shared environment.
Here’s how it works:
No single party holds the full dataset
There's no central point of failure
Even if one system is compromised, the data remains protected
At Partisia, we integrate MPC with blockchain-based coordination to offer privacy-first solutions that reduce the risk of leaks from the inside out.
Take cross-border data analysis as a concrete example.
In industries like healthcare and finance, organizations often want to collaborate on sensitive datasets that reside in different legal jurisdictions. Moving that data into a central environment creates compliance challenges and increases the risk of exposure.
Our Confidential Computing platform solves this by allowing each party to contribute encrypted inputs, perform secure joint analysis, and receive results without transferring or revealing any raw data. No single entity sees the full picture, and yet everyone benefits from the insight.
It’s a secure way to unlock shared value from data, even in the most complex and regulated environments.
Stay ahead of data leaks
Data leaks don’t always announce themselves but their impact can be massive.
Get ahead of the risk by staying informed. Our newsletter delivers expert tips, practical frameworks, and real-world use cases to help you build smarter, privacy-first systems that protect what matters most.
Frequently Asked Questions
Data leak protection
A data leak refers to the accidental or unauthorized exposure of sensitive information, often due to misconfigurations or human error. A data breach typically involves a deliberate attack where someone gains unauthorized access to data, often with malicious intent.
Data leaks often occur due to employee mistakes, misconfigured cloud settings, insider misuse, or cyberattacks such as phishing and malware. Even trusted third-party tools can become leak points if not properly secured.
Early detection relies on monitoring tools that track data access and movement, alerting teams to unusual behavior. Regular audits, DLP solutions, and anomaly detection systems can help catch leaks before they escalate.
MPC allows multiple parties to work with sensitive data without ever revealing the actual data itself. By keeping data encrypted and distributed during processing, it eliminates single points of exposure, even if part of the system is compromised.
First, contain the leak by revoking access or isolating affected systems. Then assess the scope, notify relevant stakeholders, and follow your incident response plan. It's also essential to identify the root cause to prevent future incidents.
