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Ask An Expert

Data Governance Questions

What is a Data Governance Framework? Do I already have one?

Organizations that have a data governance program leverage data governance frameworks to implement systems and processes that prescribe how data should be acquired, handled, stored, archived and accessed by people and systems. For most businesses today, data (which includes customer information, contracts, source code, intellectual property etc.) is their most valuable asset. It is therefore necessary to govern and secure this data effectively. Chances are that your organization has some documented or informal processes that govern how data should be handled, but few organizations have comprehensive and well thought-through data governance programs.

Egnyte offers an industry-leading data governance solution that can act as the centerpiece of your data governance program. Egnyte Protect is a SaaS solution that helps you locate your organization’s sensitive, confidential and regulated data, and define granular controls around who can access and share this data. It also detects risks and vulnerabilities, and enables you to mitigate them before they impact your business. Learn more about Egnyte Protect (video).

Why do many organizations fall prey to insider threats and fail to prevent data leaks?

Data breaches are a growing phenomenon across the world, and at least as many breaches are caused by organization insiders as by hackers and other malicious outsiders. Because employees, contractors etc. have direct and immediate access to your organization’s informational assets, monitoring and mitigating insider threats is critical for the continued operation and success of your business. Many organizations fail to prevent insider data breaches because they lack insider threat awareness, and therefore operate on the basis of trust. As a result, they don’t have a comprehensive insider threat program. While most insiders may be trustworthy, it only takes one careless or malicious insider to inflict colossal damage on your business.

Egnyte Protect helps organizations detect, prevent and mitigate insider threats. It does so by proactively and continuously monitoring data residing on-premises and in the cloud, and alerting you when vulnerabilities are detected. Many vulnerabilities (like publically accessible file links) can be fixed instantly. This helps intercept insider threats and eliminate them before they turn into data leaks. Learn more about insider threats and how you can prevent them.

How can I quickly assess my insider threat mitigation plan?

While preventing and detecting insider threats is vital, it is equally important to mitigate threats that have been detected. The longer your business remains exposed, the greater your operational and regulatory liabilities will be.

To assess your insider threat mitigation preparedness, begin with the following questions:

  1. Who are the stewards of your organization’s data?
  2. Does your organization have well-documented processes that govern the aggregation, use and retention of data?
  3. What sensitive, confidential and regulated data does your organization deal with?
  4. Where does sensitive, confidential and regulated data reside?
  5. Does your organization have a central monitoring and control mechanism for data?
  6. Does your organization have a pulse on who has access to confidential and regulated data?
  7. Does your organization have systems to track the movement of confidential and regulated data?

If the answer to any of the above questions is a No, your insider threat detection and insider threat mitigation preparedness is likely to be inadequate.

Egnyte Protect is comprehensive solution for insider threat detection and mitigation, to support your corporate data governance program. It only takes minutes to start monitoring your data residing on-premises and in the cloud. With advanced capabilities like real-time alerts and vulnerability remediation, Egnyte Protect empowers security and compliance teams, and allows employees to focus on their core functions instead of data security. Sign up for a Free Insider Threat Assessment today.

How does data-centric security neutralize insider data breaches?

Data-centric security, offered by Data-centric Audit and Protection (DCAP) solutions takes a data-first approach to security, with the primary objective of preventing insider data breaches and ensuring that applicable data privacy regulations are complied with. Unlike intrusion detection and antivirus solutions, DCAP offers an added layer of intelligence which enables the identification of confidential or regulated information based on standard (like credit card information and social security numbers) and custom (account numbers, customer names etc.) matching patterns. DCAP solutions also monitor user access privileges and file-sharing behaviors, flagging and alerting security personnel when vulnerabilities are detected.

Egnyte Protect is a SaaS solution that offers best-in-class data-centric security, protecting your organization from insider data breaches and violation of data privacy regulations like GDPR. It offers a robust set of capabilities that help you detect and control user access to sensitive information. Learn more about Egnyte Protect.

How can I stop malicious employees from downloading sensitive information?

While it may be impossible for organizations to defend against every malicious insider threat, they can put robust controls in place to limit incidents and minimize their businesses impact. Examples of such controls include:

  1. Identifying and tracking the movement of confidential or regulated information
  2. Detect and notify a departmental head or admin when a large number of files are being transferred out of organization’s repository
  3. Monitoring for sensitive content being downloaded to users’ individual devices
  4. Monitoring for broad folder and file access entitlements that may be disproportionate to the role of the user
  5. Monitoring for top-level folder access (e.g. an intern having access to the top-level HR folder that may contain payroll data and Personally Identifiable Information)
  6. Identify sensitive content and restrict it to specific “Whitelisted” folders
  7. Prevent sensitive content from being saved to specific “Blacklisted” folders

Egnyte Protect helps organizations protect their corporate data and stop data breaches. It monitors your content repositories for abnormal downloads and other risk factors, delivering instant IT alerts to enable timely preventive or mitigative action. Insider threats are a growing risk for businesses, with increasing incidents of unintended and malicious activities resulting in data breaches. With Egnyte Protect, your organization can prevent insider threats and protect sensitive information without impacting user experience. Request an Egnyte Protect demo today.

How can Egnyte help reduce compliance fines when a data breach does occur?

When a data breach occurs, every additional minute of exposure adds significant risk to your business. Non-compliance fines often increase with the duration of exposure and with the time taken to detect a breach. Egnyte Protect monitors your content repositories for exposure - including publically shared folder and file links, permissions to top-level folders that expose the entire folder hierarchy, misaligned permission entitlements (e.g. sales manager has access to HR folder) etc. Designated IT/security team members or departmental heads are instantly alerted when a vulnerability is detected. Moreover many vulnerabilities can be eliminated with a single-click from Egnyte Protect.

A data governance solution like Egnyte Protect is vital for ensuring data security, preventing data breaches and hefty fines that may result from non-compliance. When you consider the penalties for non-compliance with regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which can amount to to €20 million per incident, deploying a data security solution like Egnyte Protect becomes a no-brainer. Click here to learn more about Egnyte Protect (video). Or sign up for a free threat assessment today.