When it comes to data security, do you feel you have the full story? And if you do, is that full story captured in one book or across different volumes?

Due to what some in the industry have lovingly called ‘tool sprawl,’ the average IT and security team spends its day referencing anywhere from 10 to 30 different solutions.

If even a fraction of those solutions are related to security, then visibility over your whole landscape is suddenly fragmented. After all, different consoles and databases may not play nicely with one another. Your team will need to take manual steps to consolidate reports and logs for risk, audit and other data. This takes time the average enterprise simply does not have. 

But the answer can be found in modern data security tools that are built for the hybrid cloud landscape. They make deployment more flexible, enhance insight, add advanced analytics to uncover hidden threats and spot real-time risk insights based on what users do.

A modern data security solution can be deployed anywhere to address any use case an entity may need to tackle. That ranges from complying with new laws to spotting insider threats. This modern solution turns tool sprawl into a net positive by becoming a hub aimed at boosting the value of each tool.

Join experts from the IBM Security Guardium Insights for IBM Cloud Pak for Security for a live webinar at 1 p.m. ET, Nov. 17, 2020. 

As we seek to find out what modern data security is capable of, let’s examine three use cases.

Gaining Insight on Which Tasks to Tackle

Yesterday’s data security tools present defenders with an array of challenges. They can’t unify fragmented landscapes or retain data for long periods of time. They’re unable to generate real-time reports to pinpoint potential risks and issues. And they involve lengthy reporting, with retention times capping at 30 days, and different configurations for dissimilar databases that mean blind spots.

Modern data security platforms address these flaws head-on. Their reports show up right away and are based on years’ worth of stored, context-rich data security and compliance logs. Those logs can be streamed in from public cloud, private cloud and on-premises sources. This creates a singular hub to build a knowledge base.

Zeroing in on Threats to Your Data Security

The last thing any admin wants to do is respond to false positives while maybe leaving the door open for true threats. In the past, data security tools could not analyze and use machine learning the way they can today.

These tools enhance threat analysis and defense by not only detecting anomalies in user behavior but also helping to identify patterns — or false alarms — by cataloging and scoring each uncovered threat. This allows security teams to prioritize issues and tackle the most pressing. Since time is a luxury most teams do not have, this approach makes the best use of what little time is available.

Protecting and Responding

Once risks have been understood and put in order, the next step is a quick response. An unspoken piece of this pillar is teamwork between data security specialists and the security operations center (SOC). In the end, protection and response come in the form of data sharing between these two teams, allowing the data team to send along insights and analysis of suspicious events for quick response by the threat team.

During this period, the data team can also use their modern solution to block access by users involved in suspicious events while the other team checks out and stops the threat. They can accomplish all of this through a single console in a matter of a few clicks.

So, that about covers it, right? Not entirely. One loose thread you may or may not be wondering about is the earlier mention of deploying anywhere. What does that mean in the context of data security?

The Power of Deploying Data Security Anywhere

To answer that fully, we need to zoom out to the overall structure of a modern SOC. Tool sprawl is not exclusive to data security, spanning the entire security stack. Teams need to be efficient, and that is born from being flexible.

The modern SOC is supported by a flexible, open-source platform that can be installed anywhere in an organization’s stack — whether on the cloud or on-premises. This platform ingests data from all corners of the business without actually moving that data. It’s a streaming platform meant to orchestrate and respond to threats without creating more issues by mistake, like clunky legacy tools have the potential to do.

With that explained, let’s zoom back in on data security. The modern hub does not mimic the SOC; rather, it adds value to its deployment. It includes an open-source backbone that keeps it flexible. Easy deployment means you get results right away. Every group has different deployment needs, and the last thing that should hold up coming into the modern era is a concern that those needs cannot be met.

We started by talking about data security as a story, and this chapter on modernization is being written by IBM. In this new interactive demo, take a deep dive into IBM Security Guardium Insight for Cloud Pak for Security and more through narrated videos of the platform in action.