Use case: access control and change management
06.08.2020
Back to blog listData security and access rights
The solution boosts risk assessment ensuring that access rights are properly managed and privileged user activity is under control, data access policies are in place and kept updated. SearchInform FileAuditor supervises your system and scans it detecting suspicious operations on your data, storage of sensitive files in unprotected locations, movement of folders with actionable information.
Access rights become key problem when it comes to ensuring data security, protection of file storage, user account management, data breach prevention and particularly change auditing.
Change management tool
To ensure solid change management framework proper data access governance is required. Besides standard, normal or emergency changes, including any changes made to infrastructure, production process, number of servers, there can be such changes as amendment to policies or internal regulations, alterations in access rights, necessary modification of configurations, procedures, change of sensitive data storage location, changes made to user accounts or installed software. Some change might trigger privilege escalation. Many data breaches ensue from weak access control.
An automated data classification solution incorporating access right audit feature, critical documents archiving and user activity monitoring helps you keep track of your settings, file permissions and critical events detection. Data is frequently affected due to unauthorized change, undermining confidential documents’ security, exposing it to deliberate misuse or occasional sharing due to lack of protection measures and compromised user accounts. Shared folders are an easy target if user accounts aren’t managed properly – detection of dangerous scenarios and quick response based on smooth automated mechanisms evaluating threat level constitute a solid risk management framework and prevent unauthorized access.
Visibility for keeping data in order
Storage transparency and overall file system visibility save space, make it easy to detect and deactivate accounts of no longer working users or clean up inactive and duplicate user accounts and archaic versions of critical documents. One of the most common threats which companies often learn about only after an incident occurs is keeping the accounts of dismissed employees active and failing to revoke excessive rights in case employees changed their job responsibilities within a company – many user accounts which should be disqualified stay active. Make sure your system follows sensible and strict data access patterns, data privacy policies are abided by and permissions are configured. The monitoring solution will help you identify access attempts and avoid litigations involving data owners and prove compliance.
Unsanctioned changes can be made in order to access sensitive data located on file servers. One of the key features of SearchInform solution is usability – detection of security threats is made simple owing to the elaborate report system. You will get a detailed report with tagged file containing sensitive information as data classification is performed automatically, you will see user activity and each operation on corporate files, including reading, editing, deleting, etc.
The adverse effect of strict data access management becomes obvious when users can’t access the sources to implement their tasks, especially when the tasks are urgent. Proper data access governance is crucial when it comes to access rights delimitation. Configurations should be controlled properly and their change is to be provided by a smooth automated mechanism, but this procedure should remain flexible – denying as many requests as possible isn’t beneficial for the efficiency of business processes.
Prove compliance
Don’t collect excessive data which falls under any major regulation, this might lead to unnecessary operations on information, such as personal data misuse, exposure or incorrect storing. The responsive solution is (mapped to controls) set so that it alerts you to any kind of abuse of authority regarding work with data.
Sensitive data discovery
Sensitive data can be identified early so that the access to confidential details gets properly configured and protected from potential violators. Special monitoring software allows you to determine which data is at risk, whether there is any highly valuable data located outside of secure folders, and the safety of which documents should be prioritized. Access rights are a major issue, but knowing where your data resides and the amount of information stored is by no means less important. If data is put in order, then access rights are easier to manage – file system auditing solution makes document arrangement automated.
Involve data owners
Make sure you have it transparent for data owners as soon as they send a request – the amount of data and its appropriateness should conform to all the recent and relevant regulations. Data owners should be provided with all the personal details which get processed by a company in accordance with the data protection laws.
Suspicious behavior and unauthorized change attempt
Visualize user activity, detect patterns, receive graphic reports which make signs of malicious intent vivid. At the same time the monitoring solution is capable of recognizing a false alarm and analyzing the extent of a potential threat and danger to data security.