Anthony Di Bello
Yet, most organizations don’t give it the
attention it deserves. Here’s why it’s hard, and what you can do to do it
right.
When we talk about protecting enterprises
from attack, we are really talking about protecting our data. After all, it is
the data that is so heavily regulated. It’s data - when comprised - that causes
breach notifications. And it’s that valuable data that one ultimately doesn't
want to fall into the wrong hands.
So it’s surprising why so few companies -
companies that spend so much capital and effort on security technologies to
defend their networks - actually seek to know where their sensitive,
confidential, and regulated data reside. Perhaps it’s because they don’t see
the real value in doing so. Perhaps it’s because the process has proven to be
insurmountable at some point in the past. Regardless of the reason: it’s a
serious oversight.
Why? First consider the benefits of
understanding sensitive data location. Understanding and controlling the location of sensitive
data can help to significantly reduce risk as that data can be consolidated
into fewer data stores as it’s identified. It can also help streamline data
leak prevention deployments, help with litigation readiness, (for data
disclosure requests) and can improve data retention policies. So why isn't it
being done?
Part of the challenge is that auditing
endpoint data, without the right tools, isn't ;easy. First, many of the tools
require that endpoint data be fully indexed before it can be searched. That’s
just ludicrous today, as the process will take weeks, if not a month or more to
complete. With the velocity at which data moves today, the locations and nature
of the data will change before the indexing process is even completed. Not to
mention that much of the data will be on highly-mobile notebooks. Additionally,
unstructured data is a big challenge for most tools. This includes finding data
in emails, attachments, and local files.
Also, policies alone, without technological
enforcement, isn’t enough. Users will always find a way to bypass policies that
aren’t monitored and enforced either accidentally or intentionally. So sensitive
data discovery technology should also provide remediation: it’s the only way to
deliver critical enforcement capabilities to ensure sensitive data is not
anywhere against your data policies.
Despite these difficulties, endpoint data
classification is something that must be done. Not only because having
sensitive data scattered about significantly increases risk exposure, as well
as the costs associated with eDiscovery requests - but it’s also a requirement
among many regulations. Some of those include Nevada’s Security of Personal
Information Law (NRS 603.A), the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standard (PCI DSS).
For these regulations, and for un-regulated
confidential data, the ability to discover sensitive data on endpoints is
crucial for reducing the risk and costs of incidents, remaining compliant, and
enforcing policies to avoid mishaps and regulatory findings. When looking for a
solution, there are certain requirements you need consider:
- Broad Encryption support
- Broad OS support
- Ease and Flexibility of deployment and configuration
- Forensic-grade visibility
- Review capability
- Policy enforcement mechanism
- Integration with other systems
EnCase Cybersecurity enables organizations
to find sensitive intellectual property, personally identifiable information,
and classified data on endpoints. Also, with disk-level and volatile RAM search
ability, EnCase Cybersecurity can target and locate sensitive data wherever it is stored - even if it has already been deleted. Additionally, organizations can target
data based on self-defined and pre-defined criteria. Then, when critical data
is found in unauthorized areas, the data can be collected to a central
repository if needed and then removed in such a way as to be unrecoverable.
This way risk is not only instantly reduced, but policy is also continuously
enforced going forward as employees will know that endpoint data policy
violations will be identified, and won’t be tolerated.
There’s no doubt that endpoint data
identification and auditing will be a challenge for some time to come. If you’d
like to learn more, you’re invited to watch the on-demand webinar
Dude, Where’s My
Data – Finding & Securing Sensitive Data, which provides more
detail on the challenges of endpoint data auditing and identification, and how
EnCase Cybersecurity will help.
