May 15, 2015 By Lynne Murray 3 min read

Many organizations are struggling with the growing gap between the vulnerability of critical data and security defenses. New dynamics such as cloud, social, mobile and big data computing are breaking down the traditional perimeter and forcing us to look at security differently. When you’re reviewing your current data security strategy, are you asking yourself these basic questions?

Where Is Our Critical Data?

Do you know where your data is stored? You can’t protect sensitive data unless you know where it resides and how it’s translated across the enterprise. With enterprise expansion activities and adoption of new platforms, as well as consolidation, migrations, mergers and acquisitions, there is always the potential for sensitive data repositories to go undiscovered or undetected. These could very well be the most vulnerable systems to defend from the next attack. Since data is a critical component of daily business operations, it is essential to ensure privacy and protect data no matter where it resides, whether it’s in databases, file shares, data warehouses or Hadoop-based systems. Using data classification can help you discover sensitive data, and vulnerability assessments can help find soft spots in your infrastructure.

What Is Our Critical Data?

What data needs to be protected? Different types of information have different protection and privacy requirements. You need to prioritize your most valuable or sensitive data. Whether it’s data assets such as personal identifiable information, customer data, financial data, intellectual property or other sensitive intelligence, you will need to classify and define these data types, plus determine metrics and policies to ensure protection and report findings. In addition, you can’t lose sight of the importance of the integrity of your data, including unauthorized changes, erroneous modifications and suspicious activity. You need complete transparency in all data processes, which often includes an audit trail that supports separation of duties.

Who Has Access to It?

Not all data and users are created equally. Regulatory mandates and security requirements are compelling organizations to adopt strong, multifactor authentication methods to protect against unauthorized and unidentified access. To safeguard against breaches and attacks that look for vulnerabilities and configuration flaws, you need to set policies for patterns of use and enable alerts when those patterns are not within policy. These vulnerabilities become the gateway that malicious attackers use to circumvent security protections and steal, alter or destroy data. By automating the detection process, you can quickly determine when privileged users or other trusted insiders attempt to access and tamper with data. When an attack is detected, the event can be disconnected or quarantined, following predefined policies.

How Can It Be Compromised?

It’s only a matter of time until hackers find new ways to infiltrate your critical data environments. Detecting new forms of advanced malware and hunting for anomalies requires adding different data sources to your analysis and observing patterns across many event types. You also need to leverage advanced security analytics capabilities to examine and gain insights hidden in large volumes of security data, even across operational silos.

By leveraging sophisticated data monitoring, forensic investigations and security intelligence analytics, you can analyze previous breach patterns to predict potential areas of attack, mine employee systems behavior to identify patterns of potential misuse and monitor the external environment for potential security threats.

How Can I Learn More?

Watch the on-demand webinar, “Bridging the Gap Between Your Security Defenses and Critical Data,” where you will learn how you can gain actionable insights to reduce security risks at all layers and boost compliance across the enterprise. This webinar will cover:

  • Architecture and integration points;
  • Real-time alerts and reporting;
  • Vulnerability assessments according to your risk score;
  • Security intelligence event log collection and analytics;
  • Actionable insights from security events.

Learn more about protecting your critical data with integrated security intelligence

More from Data Protection

Why safeguarding sensitive data is so crucial

4 min read - A data breach at virtual medical provider Confidant Health lays bare the vast difference between personally identifiable information (PII) on the one hand and sensitive data on the other.The story began when security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered an unsecured database containing 5.3 terabytes of exposed data linked to Confidant Health. The company provides addiction recovery help and mental health treatment in Connecticut, Florida, Texas and other states.The breach, first reported by WIRED, involved PII, such as patient names and addresses,…

Addressing growing concerns about cybersecurity in manufacturing

4 min read - Manufacturing has become increasingly reliant on modern technology, including industrial control systems (ICS), Internet of Things (IoT) devices and operational technology (OT). While these innovations boost productivity and streamline operations, they’ve vastly expanded the cyberattack surface.According to the 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the average total cost of a data breach in the industrial sector was $5.56 million. This reflects an 18% increase for the sector compared to 2023.Apparently, the data being stored in industrial control systems is…

3 proven use cases for AI in preventative cybersecurity

3 min read - IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 highlights a ground-breaking finding: The application of AI-powered automation in prevention has saved organizations an average of $2.2 million.Enterprises have been using AI for years in detection, investigation and response. However, as attack surfaces expand, security leaders must adopt a more proactive stance.Here are three ways how AI is helping to make that possible:1. Attack surface management: Proactive defense with AIIncreased complexity and interconnectedness are a growing headache for security teams, and…

Topic updates

Get email updates and stay ahead of the latest threats to the security landscape, thought leadership and research.
Subscribe today