How to supercharge Google DLP with automated orchestration
Today, collaboration is the heartbeat of productivity. Whether you’re in the office, remote, or somewhere in between, collaborating with your coworkers is an inevitable part of your day to day.
Our SaaS apps are no different, Google Workspace included. These tools have redefined how we work, but they have also introduced a massive security challenge: file sprawl. For IT admins and security professionals, the objective isn’t to shut down collaboration; it’s to make it safe.
While Google DLP (Data Loss Prevention) serves as a robust foundation for identifying sensitive data, it leaves behind a “discovery gap” – a delay between finding a risk and fixing it. In a landscape where the average cost of a data breach in 2024 reached $4.8 million, that gap is a luxury your organization cannot afford.
To truly secure a digital ecosystem, you need to move beyond simple detection. You need to supercharge Google DLP with BetterCloud.
The shared drive dilemma: Visibility vs. action
Shared drives are powerful enablers, allowing teams to swap files across departments and vendors with ease. But this efficiency is a double-edged sword. Without granular control, a shared drive can quickly become a security nightmare.
Google’s native DLP capabilities are a great first step, but they often lack the contextual intelligence required for modern governance. For example Google might flag a document containing PII, but it won’t necessarily know if that document should be there based on the owner’s current employment status or if the external collaborator’s access expired months ago.
Without this context, IT and security teams are left guessing which files are safe to share and which represent a lurking threat. This is where BetterCloud transforms “better than nothing” visibility into “total” visibility.
3 Ways BetterCloud automates Google Drive security
BetterCloud is an all-in-one SaaS Management Platform (SMP) designed to help IT and security teams work more efficiently while driving immediate ROI. By integrating directly with Google Workspace, BetterCloud doesn’t just find the needle in the haystack, it automates the cleanup.
By bridging the gap between DLP and File Governance, BetterCloud ensures your security posture evolves as fast as your employees do.
1. Audit your current environment
Security starts with visibility. Many organizations suffer from “inherited risk”: sensitive files created years ago that remain publicly accessible today without anyone realizing it.
“
One of the nice things with BetterCloud is the visibility to see how many files are shared publicly and who owns these files. What we discovered was that a lot of people who had left the company had their files transferred to employees who had no idea they were shared publicly. Being able to recognize the risk, communicate what’s happening, and remediate the issue provides security.”– Senior SaaS Ops Engineer, Gainsight
BetterCloud allows you to conduct a baseline scan to find sensitive material across your environment. This audit identifies vulnerabilities that can be secured with ongoing policies, providing a clear starting point for your data governance journey.
BetterCloud’s content scanning goes beyond simple metadata – it peers into the files themselves to identify PII (Personally Identifiable Information), PCI (Payment Card Industry) data, and custom regex patterns.
Whether it’s a stray spreadsheet containing social security numbers or a PDF with credit card info, BetterCloud scans your Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and Slack environments in real-time. This ensures that you aren’t just managing “files,” but protecting the actual intellectual property and sensitive data that keeps your business running. By categorizing data based on its actual sensitivity, you can prioritize high-risk violations over low-stakes shares.
2. Automatically enforce Your DLP policies
The true power of “supercharging” Google DLP lies in IT automation through BetterCloud. Instead of waiting for an admin to log in and manually click “unshare,” BetterCloud acts in real-time.
When a violation is detected, BetterCloud can instantly:
- Revoke cloud file access: Stop unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data by killing public links or external shares immediately.
- Lock down files: Prevent further manipulation of critical data by changing permissions or moving the file to a secure “Quarantine” folder.
- Communicate with the user: BetterCloud can automatically send a Slack or email notification to the file owner, explaining why the file was restricted. This turns a security event into a real-time training moment.
3. Collaboratively clean up your shared drives
Because Shared Drives exist to foster collaboration, it takes that same collaboration to keep your environment safe.
BetterCloud is designed to not only be a control center for IT and security admins, but involve end users in the process of Shared Drive cleanup.
Administrators in the File Governance module can set shared drive cleanup policies to limit how many files are involved in each cleanup cycle and how frequently cleanup cycles occur.
We generally recommend 30-day cleanup cycles limited to 50 files to avoid user fatigue. However, you should consider policy exceptions for specific OUs, groups, or shared drives where data sensitivity requires a different approach.
End users will have the option to extend sharing of a file or folder, stop sharing said file or folder, or do nothing and sharing will be revoked automatically by BetterCloud.
Items such as new file grace periods and sharing extension periods are defined by the Administrator and can be changed at any time.
Conclusion: Turning alerts into action
File sharing, though vital for collaboration, poses significant security risks due to a lack of visibility and control. With BetterCloud, IT can take control of their organization’s file-sharing environments with proactive and reactive policy remediation—all without impacting organizational collaboration.
By leveraging BetterCloud’s DLP and File Governance offerings, you don’t just find the smoke; you put out the fire before it spreads. This is how you reduce risk, maintain compliance, and protect your company’s most valuable assets in 2026 and beyond.
Ready to see how BetterCloud can help with all of your SaaS lifecycle management needs?
Schedule a demo today and transform your Google Workspace into a secure, automated powerhouse.
