Customizable Proximity Keyword Distance enables you to control the maximum character distance between sensitive data and proximity keywords required to trigger an Enterprise Data Loss Prevention (E-DLP) detection to up to 1,000 characters. By default, Enterprise DLP requires sensitive data to be within 200 characters of the proximity keyword which might be too restrictive for detecting valid matches or too permissive in other scenarios, potentially causing false positives.

When creating or editing a regular expression (regex) data pattern, you can specify exactly how close proximity keywords must be sensitive data to constitute an Enterprise DLP detection. For large files or traffic containing sensitive data where related proximity keywords might be separated by longer text blocks, you can increase the proximity distance to ensure proper detection. Conversely, for files or traffic where you need tighter control to reduce false positives, you can specify a smaller proximity distance to ensure only closely associated keywords trigger a match. Enterprise DLP always adheres to the proximity distance configured in the matched data pattern when a detection occurs. To support your compliance requirements, Enterprise DLP generates an audit log when a data security administrator edits an existing data pattern to modify the keyword proximity distance for a data pattern.

The ability to customize the proximity keyword distance provides you with greater flexibility and precision when deploying multiple data patterns. This helps your organization achieve the right balance between comprehensive data protection and operational efficiency.