What is Google Workspace / G-suite Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Google Workspace DLP: How to Prevent Data Leaks in Google Drive and Gmail

TL;DR

1. Google Workspace (Drive, Gmail, Docs) is a collaboration powerhouse, but data leaks, unauthorized access, and compliance risks are major threats.
2. Common risks: Publicly shared files, misdirected emails, insider threats, and lack of real-time security controls.
3. Google’s built-in DLP helps but has limitations—it lacks real-time remediation, cross-app visibility, and automated data protection.
4. How to secure Google Workspace manually: Restrict public sharing, enable 2FA, monitor file access, enforce email policies, and conduct audits.
5. Why Strac’s Google Workspace DLP? Real-time protection across Drive, Gmail, and Docs with automated file access control, sensitive data detection, and compliance enforcement.

Why You Need Google Workspace DLP

Google Workspace is the backbone of collaboration for millions of businesses, offering tools like Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets. But with seamless collaboration comes data security risks. Sensitive data—ranging from customer PII, financial records, trade secrets, and employee payroll information—flows through these apps daily.

Yet, many organizations fail to realize the gaps in Google’s built-in security. A misplaced access permission, an overly shared Google Drive file, or an email sent to the wrong recipient can lead to costly data leaks.

That’s where Google Workspace Data Loss Prevention (DLP) comes in.

Google Workspace, as a cloud-based SaaS platform, is accessible from anywhere. While this makes it great for remote teams, it also introduces serious security risks:

🔹 Data Overexposure: Employees often overshare Google Drive files by setting permissions to "Anyone with the link." This creates a hidden attack surface for data leaks.
🔹 Misconfigured Email Settings: Gmail users can accidentally send sensitive information (credit card numbers, SSNs, patient health data) to unauthorized recipients.
🔹 Lack of Real-time Monitoring: Google’s native DLP provides some alerts, but there’s no real-time visibility into where your sensitive data is stored or how it’s being accessed.
🔹 Compliance Risks: If your organization is bound by GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, or CCPA, you must prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data—or face fines and legal consequences.

Real-World Data Risk Stats:

• A recent study of 6.5 million Google Drive files found that 40.2% contained sensitive data.
• 34.2% of all Google Drive files were shared with external contacts, putting organizations at risk.
• More than 350,000 files (0.5%) were shared publicly, meaning anyone could access them.

Does Google Workspace Have Built-In DLP?

Yes, Google offers native DLP features, but they are limited.

✅ Google Drive DLP: Lets admins set up rules to detect sensitive data, but advanced security features (like blocking file sharing in real-time) are only available in higher-tier plans (Enterprise edition).
✅ Gmail DLP: Scans outbound emails for sensitive data, but only flags violations—it doesn’t provide automated remediation or advanced risk scoring.

🚨 The Limitations of Google’s Built-in DLP

To learn more about google workspace enterprise dlp limitations, please checkout: https://www.strac.io/blog/google-drive-dlp#what-are-the-google-workspace-enterprise-dlp-limitations

Key Takeaways

1. Broad Data Visibility
   Unlike Google’s native DLP (which is limited to Workspace apps), Strac offers complete visibility and protection across multiple SaaS platforms, cloud environments (AWS), and even endpoints (Mac devices).
2. Real-Time, AI-Enhanced Detection
   Google’s DLP engine relies heavily on predefined rules and static regex matching. Strac’s solution uses AI-powered classification for a vast catalog of sensitive data elements, reducing false positives and scanning in real time.
3. Automated Remediation at Scale
   Strac can redact, block, quarantine, and unshare sensitive information automatically—helping you address issues before they become data breaches. Google’s built-in DLP doesn’t provide these robust remediation capabilities.
4. Proactive Alerts for Public Drive Links
   Strac auto-detects files that may be publicly accessible and immediately alerts admins. With Google Workspace alone, admins typically discover these oversharing issues reactively—or not at all.
5. Bulk Remediation & Access Revocation
   Strac allows bulk remediation actions to quickly lock down or remove external sharing from multiple files or folders at once. Google’s native DLP tools require manual, file-by-file intervention.

Tips to enhance Google Workspace data loss prevention

1. Enforce 2-step verification

2-step verification (also called MFA, or multi-factor authentication) requires users to use a second form of authentication besides their password. Often, this is a code sent via SMS or created by an authenticator app. 

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You can enable 2-step verification for your organization by navigating to your Google Admin Console, selecting Security from the navigation menu, and then selecting Authentication -> 2-step Verification. Enabling 2-step verification in the Google Admin console.        

Before enabling this, educate your users on what MFA is and how they can enroll. Consider configuring the On from date and the New user enrollment period to give people time to onboard. 

2. Use Reports to gain insights

The Reporting Highlights page in your Google Admin console provides several informative roll-ups for assessing your Google Workspace security posture. 

For example, you can see if you have any inactive users. Inactive users are usually people who have left the company. These represent a considerable insider threat vector. (Consider the system administrator who caused USD $1.1 million in damages after his employer fired him.) To prevent this, either suspend or delete an account ASAP when someone leaves the company.

You can also see how many files are being shared. You can even see whether they are shared inside or outside your organization. The more external sharing, the higher the risk for data loss.

The external links report in the Google Admin console will show how many links are shared over time with people outside of your organization.   

You can access even more security-relevant information in drill-down reports. Use the Accounts report (Reports -> Apps Reports -> Accounts) for this. It shows how many users comply with organizational password strength rules. The report also highlights how many are using 2-step verification. Use these reports to drive compliance with organizational security policies. 

3. Limit user rights

At smaller organizations, it’s common to give users broad privileges. Such rights sometimes include administrator access.

That increases the attack vectors against your Google Workspace. All it takes is for someone to crack (or guess) the password of an admin user, and it’s game over. 

Limit administrator rights to a few select people. Consider limiting user rights further by:  

• Controlling file sharing capabilities - e.g., by turning external sharing off.
• Creating a resource hierarchy to limit access to more sensitive information. For example, customer contact information or future product plans.
• Limiting external sharing to specific trusted domains, such as partners and customers. 

4. Educate your users

Employees can undo the best security. Most of the time, this is done without ill will. People get busy and take the easiest path. 

Train all new employees on Google Workspace security best practices. Specifically, ensure they know organization rules on password strength, password sharing, and information sharing with partners and customers. Create a culture of security at your company by always encouraging users to consider the possible risks their actions might have.

How to Strengthen Google Workspace Security

Here are six proven ways to protect your business from Google Workspace data leaks.

1. Restrict Public File Sharing

Many organizations unknowingly expose confidential Google Drive files due to open sharing settings.

✅ Solution:

• Regularly audit Google Drive files to detect publicly shared links.
• Use DLP rules to automatically block sharing of sensitive files.

📌 Strac’s Google Drive DLP automatically scans for publicly shared files, flags risks, and revokes external access in real-time.

2. Implement Strong Access Controls

If too many employees have admin or editing access, data leaks become inevitable.

✅ Solution:

• Limit admin access to only essential personnel.
• Restrict external sharing to trusted domains.
• Enforce role-based access controls (RBAC).

📌 Strac’s DLP solution lets you enforce access policies automatically based on data sensitivity.

3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Weak passwords are a leading cause of Google Workspace data breaches.

✅ Solution:

• Require 2-step verification for all users.
• Block users from using weak or compromised passwords.

📌 Strac’s Google Workspace Security scans for weak user credentials and enforces strong authentication policies.

4. Monitor Email Activity for Sensitive Data Sharing

Employees may accidentally send sensitive customer data via Gmail.

✅ Solution:

• Scan all outbound emails for PII, PHI, and financial data.
• Automatically block risky emails or warn users before sending.

📌 Strac’s Gmail DLP solution integrates with Gmail to detect and block data leaks before they happen.

5.Deploy an Advanced Google Workspace DLP Solution

🔹 Google’s built-in DLP is not enough—it lacks real-time remediation, SaaS-wide visibility, and proactive security controls.
🔹 Strac Google Workspace DLP offers enterprise-grade data protection across Google Drive, Gmail, Docs, and Sheets.

Google Workspace DLP FAQs