Symantec has integrated DLP into its BrightMail e-mail security gateway. There’s also been integration with the Symantec Altiris management software. Altiris v. 7 can be used to deploy and troubleshoot endpoint DLP Prevent and Discover agents.

“Today with the workflow capabilities of Altiris, we can communicate between an endpoint DLP agent and Symantec Endpoint Protection agent,” says Greer.

This capability can be used to solve problems, he notes.

“Say an end user on a laptop is about to check out for the day and copy the crown jewels of the business,” Greer says. “We could today identify that action is occurring, block it with the endpoint DLP, the incident gets recorded in the DLP system, and a message sent to Altiris to lock down that USB drive and doesn’t let anything leave that laptop until the issue is resolved.”

Although today Symantec isn’t at liberty to discuss specific future plans, Greer said work to integrate DLP into Symantec storage systems can be expected. Symantec DLP Discover, for example, has already been integrated into Backup Exec System Recovery. And Symantec intends to introduce some open APIs for DLP.