Nightfall AI Alternatives for Data Loss Prevention in 2024
Nightfall AI is cloud data loss prevention (DLP) platform that helps organizations protect sensitive data across cloud applications and endpoints. Using Nightfall AI, businesses can surface regulated and protected information such as PII, shielding the organization from risk of regulatory penalties and reputational harm. Companies choose Nightfall AI for DLP because its cloud-native platform simplifies and consolidates DLP for SaaS, email, and generative AI, including ChatGPT.
While Nightfall AI has many useful features for businesses looking to secure their data, it may not be the right solution for every organization. In this article, we review Nightfall AI’s capabilities and shortcoming and compare them against top competitors in the marketplace today so you can make an informed decision about the DLP solution you choose.
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Limitations of Nightfall AI for DLP
While Nightfall AI offers many powerful features for organizations in need of DLP capabilities, some competitors do outperform it in some areas. For example, Nightfall AI’s altering system can be complex to configure and its AI may produce too many false positives, which can result in real security policy violations being overlooked. However, it may be difficult to reduce false positives without compromising the product’s sensitivity.
Nightfall AI’s technology is also largely keyword-based and lacks natural language processing capabilities such as sentiment and toxicity detection, which are offered by some competitors.
While the setup and integration process was easy, there is a learning curve when it comes to fine-tuning the system to reduce false positives without compromising the sensitivity needed for detecting genuine issues. The alert system, although robust, can be overwhelming if not configured correctly, leading to alert fatigue among team members.—AWS Marketplace Review
Most concerningly for DLP customers, to perform a historical scan in Nightfall AI requires pausing monitoring, leaving data exposed during that period, and Nightfall AI lacks a comprehensive suite of capabilities beyond DLP unless integrated with other products.
“While Nightfall offers robust detection capabilities for various types of sensitive data, it may have limitations in detecting new or unique data patterns, especially if they fall outside its pre-defined parameters.”
“Some detection services offered do not work as advertised or are very much still in a beta testing phase."
"Nightfall is primarily designed to protect specific types of data, such as financial transactions OR PHI/PII, and may not be suitable for other use cases. This means that you may need to use additional privacy tools or workarounds to protect other types of sensitive information."
Alternative Solutions to Nightfall AI as DLP Software
Nightfall AI Alternative: Aware
Aware is an AI-native data security and insights platform that provides DLP, federated search and eDiscovery, and people intelligence for digital conversation data. With Aware, businesses can consolidate all their unstructured collaboration data into one central platform for secure, automated management and control.
Aware connects natively to tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Outlook Exchange, Workplace from Meta and more via APIs and web hooks and ingests data continuously from source without impacting end-user experience. Then proprietary AI/ML models identify regulated and sensitive information in text and images, while the industry’s most accurate NLP scores sentiment and toxicity with greater accuracy and fewer false positives. These features enable real-time data loss prevention and compliance monitoring through around-the-clock automations that defend against data leaks and coach employees on acceptable use policies in real time.
Using Aware, compliance and security teams can implement continuous compliance monitoring and respond quickly to data subject access requests (DSARs) under the GDPR or CCPA/CPRA. Aware’s library of robust compliance automations enable real-time detection of sensitive information such as PCI and PII, reducing the risk from ransomware or malware, as well as PHI for HIPAA-covered entities. Additionally, Aware’s AI-powered algorithms can be customized to detect intellectual property and company-specific information, including code and passwords, limiting vulnerabilities and protecting against data breaches in collaboration tools.
For legal teams, Aware’s AI-infused metadata supports fast, federated search that puts data at the fingertip of officers performing eDiscovery and forensic search. Results are delivered complete with surrounding context, and one-click legal holds avoid penalties and sanctions during to spoliation. Aware exports to a variety of formats, including top providers like Relativity’s RSMF, making collaboration data accessible throughout the investigation lifecycle.
Using Aware, organizations can:
- Gain a complete overview of complex data sets
- Automate responses to data loss incidents
- Understand the context surrounding triggers and alerts
- Consolidate DLP, eDiscovery, and security in one pane of glass
- Protect IP and ensure continuous regulatory compliance
Aware is backed by enterprise-grade security, including role-based access controls and comprehensive audit logs.
Learn More
Aware for DLP
Safeguard your intellectual property with a platform that detects and addresses exposure of sensitive data in real time.
Aware for eDiscovery
Perform fast, effective eDiscovery in-house with AI-powered federated search for all your collaboration tools from one centralized platform.
Aware for compliance
Address multiple risks simultaneously with real-time compliance monitoring and information governance with fewer false positives.
Aware for EX
Gain a complete understanding of your employee experience in minutes and augment surveys with continuous listening using the industry's most accurate sentiment analysis.
Nightfall AI Alternative: Forcepoint DLP
Forcepoint DLP is an enterprise-grade data loss prevention solution that provides unified data protection across all channels under a single console. Forcepoint DLP includes advanced data discovery, classification, and fingerprinting functionality, OCR to detect data in images, and pre-defined policies for compliance requirements covering 370+ regulations in 83 countries.
While admins appreciate Forcepoint DLP’s strong data protection capabilities and ease of use and deployment, some reviewers note that Forcepoint DLP’s rule sets are inconsistently effective, particularly when dealing with unstructured data. Forcepoint DLP also lacks some of the more advanced machine learning capabilities of other DLP solutions.
Ultimately, Forcepoint DLP offers a more comprehensive data protection suite with pre-defined policies and risk-adaptive features, but may have some limitations in device control and customer support. Nightfall AI, on the other hand, is a specialized cloud security DLP solution known for its ease of use and strong customer support, but may lack the broader data governance capabilities of Forcepoint.
Nightfall AI Alternative: Netskope
Netskope offers both cloud-based and on-prem DLP through its zero-trust SSE, providing comprehensive data protection across multiple vectors, including cloud-based SaaS apps, network connections, email, and endpoints. As a CASB, Netskope is positioned to discover, monitor, and protect sensitive data as it moves between locations. However, this may create delays that cause frustrations and slow the pace of collaboration.
Another consideration is Netskope’s AI/ML capabilities. These are primarily based on keyword matching and OCR and lack advanced sentiment and toxicity analysis offered by some alternatives. Additionally, Netskope does not share surrounding context when an event is indicated, potentially making it harder for investigators to determine intent.
In summary, both Netskope DLP and Nightfall AI offer robust data loss prevention capabilities, but with some differences in their approach and focus. Netskope provides a more comprehensive security platform with risk-aware data protection, while Nightfall AI is a specialized cloud DLP solution.
Nightfall AI Alternative: PageFreezer
PageFreezer helps organizations ensure regulatory compliance and prepare for legal requests through its archiving and monitoring capabilities for websites, social media, and enterprise collaboration platforms. PageFreezer is widely considered a user-friendly and low-maintenance solution for protecting data in the digital workplace, although some reviewers feel that there is a learning curve to using PageFreezer, especially for admins with no prior technical knowledge.
Other limitations of PageFreezer include a lack of customization ability for its monitoring features, and searches are limited to user, potentially delivering bloated result sets that are costly and time-consuming to review. PageFreezer also lacks the functionality to perform bi-directional deletion, meaning unauthorized data sharing cannot be remediated on the platform. This slows resolution and can potentially increase the risk of exfiltration or unauthorized access. Finally, while PageFreezer does offer sentiment analysis for insider threat detection, it is rule-based and not a true AI/NLP solution.
PageFreezer provides a more comprehensive data archiving and monitoring solution than Nightfall AI, however it lacks some of the features of a specialized cloud DLP platform. Which is best for your organization will depend on your information security strategy and goals.
Nightfall AI Alternative: Trellix
Trellix (formerly known as McAfee Enterprise) is a cybersecurity company that offers a range of security solutions, including Trellix DLP. Trellix is available on-prem or as a SaaS offering administered through a central console. Using Trellix, organizations can protect against data loss through channels such as email, web, cloud, and removable storage. Additionally, Trellix offers data fingerprinting, classification, and file tagging capabilities for advanced data management and control.
Users appreciate the wide range of features available with Trellix, including the ability to integrate with Trellix ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) platform for centralized policy and incident management and enhanced regulatory compliance. However, the broad scope of Trellix's features can add complexity and make it harder to effectively set up.
Compared with Nightfall AI, Trellix provides more features to support centralized data management and compliance enforcement, while Nightfall AI focuses on its DLP capabilities. When choosing the right fit for their organization, buyers should consider whether they are seeking a complete information security and threat management solution or if their needs can be met with a more specialized product.
Final thoughts
When considering alternatives to Nightfall AI for data loss prevention, it’s important to keep some key questions in mind:
- Can the organization’s needs be met by a specialized DLP, or does it make more sense to invest in a holistic security and compliance platform?
- Does the solution offer NLP sentiment analysis that can detect potential insider threats?
- Can search queries be refined by multiple parameters to reduce results sets?
- How are monitoring alerts triggered, and can the solution reduce the number of false positives?
- Is the product easy to implement or does it require a learning curve or technical knowledge?
- How does the product fit into existing workflows and integrate with tools already in use?
Finding the right DLP solution for your organization requires careful consideration of the protections and outcomes you require in relation to your particular threat landscape. By combining real-time monitoring with enhanced search capabilities and AI/NLP-powered insights, organizations can better manage and protect data in the digital workplace.
