Data Security: How Varonis is Improving Insider Threat Reduction

Data Security: The Urgent Risk for CISOs to Solve

The recent data breach at the Pentagon has once again highlighted the urgent need for organizations to prioritize data security as the most important and urgent risk. While infrastructure can be rebuilt, data, once breached, can never be un-breach, making data security an essential concern for any organization.

The Challenge with Internal Data Breaches

Despite several preventive measures taken by organizations, internal data breaches still occur. According to Yaki Faitelson, the co-founder and CEO of Varonis, a leading cybersecurity company, “insider threats” play a significant role in such breaches. Seemingly trustworthy insiders, with access to information, can misuse their privileges for personal gain, malicious intent, or even unwittingly compromise security. This highlights the importance of constantly monitoring, managing, and controlling access to data within an organization.

Cloud-based Data and the Challenge it Poses

With data increasingly migrating to the cloud, the challenge of maintaining data security has become even more complex. As data moves outside of traditional on-premises data centers, legacy security solutions often fail to provide adequate protection. Data security measures must now extend beyond the traditional boundaries of an organization’s network to encompass cloud services, applications, and devices. As cloud-based data is continuously accessed and shared, it’s critical to have real-time visibility and control.

Varonis‘ Solution

To address these data security challenges, Varonis has developed a new SaaS-based platform. The platform provides real-time visibility and control over cloud and hybrid environments, including unstructured data, emails, and cloud-based applications. The solution analyzes and classifies data, identifies abnormal user behavior, generates security alerts, and provides actionable insights to prevent data breaches.

Editorial: The Human Factor in Data Security

While sophisticated technology can fortify data security, it’s the human factor that remains the most critical aspect of data security. Employee negligence, intentional or unintentional data leaks, and poor cybersecurity hygiene can make even the most sophisticated security measures pointless. Organizations must build a culture of cybersecurity that includes ongoing training, awareness-raising, and employee accountability.

Advice

To improve data security within organizational networks, CISOs need to implement a robust data security strategy continually. This strategy should include end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive access controls based on the principle of least privilege. Organizations should regularly monitor and audit access controls, data permissions, and user activities to identify suspicious activity in real-time. Additionally, organizations must keep security systems up to date, maintain strong and unique passwords for privileged accounts, and develop an incident response plan to mitigate data breaches and respond accordingly.

Conclusively, data security must remain a top priority, and CISOs cannot afford to let their guard down. Organizations must diligently mitigate risk factors and focus on reducing insider threats and improving cybersecurity hygiene among employees.