As workers move further away from shared office spaces - perhaps forever - and processes become more cloud-centric, security practitioners have baked security into network changes and application implementations that have unfolded at breakneck speed. Many IT and Security teams have hit the crest of the first big wave of change and are taking a moment to look to the horizon and consider ways to improve their architectural and process resilience for the next wave of change.

By necessity, a large part of preparing for that next wave must be self-assessments of internal processes and programs that govern security products in the organizational environment and form our understanding of how those security products interrelate and adapt.

This series focuses on specifically and practically addressing DLP program maturity assessment processes and procedures, from beginning to end. We aim to arm our fellow security practitioners with the real practical tools and advice from people who know and use them daily so that they can use this knowledge to assess this complex and often misunderstood security program.

First up, core foundational elements of a DLP program self-assessment - the central categorical pillars of maturity that we will define, investigate, measure, and report on throughout this series. Our goal is to develop a unified lexicon for communicating about and measuring success, maturity, processes, and objectives for DLP programs.