DoControl vs. Nightfall: Why DoControl Wins For Accurate Risk Detection & Remediation

Nightfall AI has established itself as a modern leader in the data loss prevention (DLP) market, offering a cloud-native, API-driven platform built to protect sensitive data across SaaS, cloud, email, and generative AI applications.

Nightfall makes it easy for organizations to get started quickly and secure their digital environments without deploying heavy agents or proxies.

This strength in accessibility and breadth of apps has helped Nightfall gain traction among security teams looking for a way to monitor data exposure. However, as with any solution, there are natural trade-offs.

Many teams report challenges with high false-positive rates, which can overwhelm security teams, distract from real threats, and disrupt workflows. Nightfall also lacks the ability to remediate historical data at scale, limiting organizations’ ability to efficiently clean up past exposures. 

And, while Nightfall integrates with a wide range of applications, its coverage proves to be broad rather than deep - meaning that it offers visibility across many apps, but limited granularity within each.

For some organizations, these gaps are manageable - depending on their existing tech stack, priorities, or goals.. For others, these limitations open the door to exploring complementary or alternative solutions that address these challenges more directly.

In the following sections, we’ll explore three of the most pressing industry wide challenges facing organizations as they secure data across SaaS and cloud environments - and show how DoControl addresses these gaps with an API-first, context-rich approach to SaaS security.

Industry Challenge → High False Positives Deflect From True Threats + Hinder Productivity

As organizations expand their SaaS usage, accurate risk detection becomes critical. 

Biggest Downsides of False Positives in SaaS Risk Detection

1. Real threats are missed, which actually increases the attack surface.

↳ Time spent chasing false positives means actual security threats actively slip through the cracks in real time. Critical incidents go uninvestigated, which increases risk exposure.

2. Wasted resources and disrupted workflows.

↳ Security teams lose valuable productivity when investigating false alarms. Their time chasing down false takes away from high value tasks they need to be doing somewhere else. Not to mention, operations are further disrupted when legitimate business activities (sharing files, necessary collaboration, etc.) are mistakenly quarantined or when permissions are revoked unnecessarily.

3. Erosion of trust from employees, stakeholders, & customers.

Employees, stakeholders, and customers lose confidence in security systems when safe, business-justified actions are repeatedly flagged. Over time, this undermines adoption and compliance - and wastes money in a solution that doesn’t really benefit the business.

Nightfall’s Approach

Nightfall applies content inspection and classification to detect sensitive data across environments. While it is effective at identifying broad categories like PII or PCI data, this approach often struggles with using context to inform actions. As a result, legitimate business actions that make sense are frequently flagged as risky, which drives false positives, hinders productivity, and introduces alert fatigue.

DoControl’s Advantage

DoControl enriches every event that is taken in the SaaS environment with context from HRIS, IdP, and EDR systems. By understanding who the user is, what role they play, what department they’re in, and whether the action aligns with their responsibilities and historical behavior, DoControl separates routine business activity from real risk.

DoControl uses a contextual risk score for each user to discern whether that action is risky, or if it makes complete sense in reference to their scope and day-to-day operation. This reduces noise, increases accuracy, enables security teams to act confidently and spend their time chasing down REAL threats to the business.

DoControl’s Contextual Precision > Nightfall’s False Positive Rates

Industry Challenge → Lack of Historical Remediation Leaves Gaps

Securing today’s activity is only part of the picture. Legacy data exposures — old file shares, outdated permissions, forgotten SaaS connections — remain a major attack surface if not remediated. Without the ability to address historical risk, organizations remain vulnerable.

Biggest Downsides of Failing to Remediate Historical Risks

1. Unaddressed legacy exposures creating more risk.

↳ Old file shares, outdated permissions, and forgotten SaaS connections remain open doors - forever - for attackers to access and gain entry.

2. An impossible to track attack surface that causes issues.

↳ Even if current activity is secured, the historical risks creating hidden vulnerabilities are out of your control and impossible to keep track of, which is not only bad for security - but is bad for reporting and compliance.

3. Ongoing vulnerability + accountability gaps for teams.

↳ Without retroactive remediation, organizations remain exposed to threats. It also becomes difficult to demonstrate that current or new teams are effectively cleaning up and maintaining a strong security posture.

Nightfall’s Approach

Nightfall focuses on identifying sensitive data in motion and at rest, but does not provide large-scale, automated remediation of historical exposures. This means that organizations can see their past exposures or old risks, but they have zero ability to efficiently resolve them.

DoControl’s Advantage

DoControl enables bulk remediation for up to 1M files with a single click, giving organizations the power to quickly close off, eliminate, and effectively contain legacy exposures. 

By combining proactive controls with retroactive remediation, DoControl ensures complete coverage across both current and historical risks.

DoControl’s Bulk Remediation > Nightfall’s Visibility Without Resolution

Industry Challenge → SaaS Needs Depth, Not Just Breadth

Enterprises rely on hundreds of SaaS applications, and while broad coverage is important, real security requires depth — granular integrations that provide visibility and control at the application level. 

Biggest Downsides of Shallow SaaS Security Coverage

1. Limited visibility into EACH app creates blind spots.

↳ Broad coverage is great - but does it really matter when you can’t see what in that app even needs coverage in the firstplace? Broad coverage without depth leaves blind spots inside business-critical SaaS applications - which is exactly what needs protecting.

2. Insufficient control of data that defeats the purpose.

↳ Without granular integrations, security teams don’t know really whats going on within the applications they seek to protect, and therefore can’t enforce policies or remediate risks effectively at the application level.

3. Unaddressed critical risks that compound over time.

↳ Key vulnerabilities within core SaaS tools remain exposed, undermining overall enterprise security and weakening the impact of the entire security program.

Nightfall’s Approach

Nightfall covers a wide range of apps, but lacks depth within individual SaaS platforms. While this breadth provides surface-level visibility for companies with a large tech stack, it does not deliver the fine-grained control required to truly secure platforms like Google Workspace or Slack at scale.

DoControl’s Advantage

DoControl was built for SaaS-first environments, with deep and extensive integrations across the SaaS ecosystem. Our standout support for Google Workspace and Slack ensures security teams can monitor, manage, and remediate risks in the platforms where collaboration - and sensitive data - truly live.

DoControl’s Deep SaaS Integrations > Nightfall’s Shallow Coverage

Conclusion

Nightfall has carved out its niche by focusing on DLP and sensitive data detection across SaaS and cloud platforms. This makes it a strong option for organizations that want to quickly identify sensitive data.

But in SaaS- and cloud-first environments, its high false positives, lack of historical remediation, and shallow SaaS coverage leave major gaps for organizations seeking scalable, modern security.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to data security. Whats needed now is a layered approach of best-of-breed DLP solutions that can minimize gaps and all play a part in securing the environment. 

It’s impossible to think one solution can cover ALL aspects of an enterprises’ data loss prevention strategy. Organizations should take a layered approach to their DLP - ensuring each avenue is covered as best as possible.

The modern enterprise needs solutions that can adapt quickly, integrate deeply, and provide accurate detection, remediation, and control across SaaS ecosystems.

In terms of SaaS driven DLP, the industry is moving toward API-driven, context-rich solutions that combine real-time monitoring with flexible workflows and the ability to remediate both current and historical risks.

For organizations that want to secure SaaS environments without sacrificing productivity, DoControl isn’t just an alternative to Nightfall - it’s the future of SaaS and data security.