In 2022, it’s not enough for businesses to rely on antivirus products or malware protection alone. Cybercriminals have been spurred into action by a growing number of vulnerabilities introduced by work from home culture and incentivized by the rise of cryptocurrency as a means of ransoming stolen information. As a result, bad actors are exploiting every available attack vector with increasing intensity.
IT professionals must choose data security systems that meet their organization’s specific goals, needs, and operational realities. Organizations need multifaceted solutions that account for encryption, password controls, data loss prevention, and even employee education. In this article, we’ll highlight 7 industry-leading data security systems for each of these categories to help IT professionals choose the right products for their networks.
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Data Security Posture Management
Discovery and Classification
Encryption
Password Control
Endpoint Protection
Employee Education
Data Loss Prevention
Learn more about how to keep you and your business’ information secure with the Symmetry Systems Complete Guide to Modern Data Security.
Data Security Posture Management
Data Security Posture Management is a modern data-centric security solution that provides organizations with a direct line of sight into all their data, a set of recommended next steps to reduce cybersecurity and compliance risk, and an ongoing detection and response service.
Symmetry DataGuard
Symmetry DataGuard provides unified and continuous visibility into data objects across all data stores, answering data security and compliance questions that traditional cloud security tools cannot. For example, what data is affected by a compromised credential, or an exploited web-service, or an off-boarded analyst?
DataGuard enables cloud and security operations to understand and systematically control data risk — defining the path to zero trust for data — while baking in compliance and incident response. DataGuard provides actionable insights into your data flow, unlike the traditional, static views offered by legacy technologies of roles and permissions and data.
Discovery and Classification
Modern enterprise platforms and networks are highly complex, making it difficult to secure sensitive data at scale. IT professionals use discovery and classification software to visualize data activity — whether at rest or in network traffic — so security teams can identify how it’s used or where it’s going.
Nightfall
Nightfall is a cloud-based discovery and classification solution that helps organizations protect data throughout their networks and apps. It uses machine learning algorithms to detect sensitive records in popular business products, including Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, and many others. With Nightfall, securitty teams can implement processes that automatically classify and secure data across any platform or storage location. Nightfall even offers a developer platform and API so businesses can integrate its features directly into first-party apps.
Encryption
Perhaps the most effective way to secure data is to encrypt files so unauthorized parties cannot read it. For businesses, that means encrypting files while still making the data accessible to authorized persons.
AxCrypt
One of the best examples is AxCrypt, a platform emphasizing usability and accessibility alongside robust security policies. While using AES-256 standards to protect sensitive records, AxCrypt can be automated to encrypt all new files within assigned folders, allowing for operational consistency. In terms of accessibility, end users can encrypt and decrypt files on the fly from a mobile app or use key sharing to distribute secure files among authorized parties. Finally, AxCrypt includes master key support, which lets senior IT personnel avoid permanent data loss in the name of data security.
Identity and Access Management
Identity and access management (IAM) systems let security teams monitor how employees access sensitive data, whether on-site or remotely. This approach ensures that only authorized accounts can access the necessary information to complete work tasks while flagging any suspicious activity.
Password Control
An important security aspect is password hygiene, but implementing good password hygiene practices across an entire business is challenging. Each user password must be unique, private, frequently updated, difficult to solve with brute force, and — somehow — stay readily accessible to actual human beings. Password control software provides secure management and retrieval tools to protect sensitive accounts without relying on fallible memories.
Keeper
Its services vary depending on account type and business category, granting security teams the right features for their respective industry. For example, Keeper will activate some combination of the following capabilities based on your membership plan:
- Dark web monitoring that watches for stolen usernames and passwords
- Account takeover protection that evaluates how many accounts and records are at risk
- Secrets Manager tool that applies credential protection techniques to cloud infrastructure
- Password control-specific training and administrative guides
- Business, enterprise, and government-level password management services
Endpoint Protection
Endpoint protection is an essential component of modern security strategies, combining antivirus and anti-malware solutions with machine learning algorithms to detect traffic anomalies. This combination of features makes it far easier to identify and prevent breaches while increasing the ability of security teams to resolve them when they do occur.
Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra
When it comes to endpoint protection software, Bitdefender is one of the best in the business. Its GravityZone Ultra platform offers a broad range of features, from automatic system disinfection to email protection. It also provides risk analytics and hardening tools to protect networks at the device level. With thirty layers of advanced security techniques at their disposal, IT departments will have no shortage of tools for implementing custom protection at the device level.
Employee Education
According to research from Tessian and Stanford University Professor Jeff Hancock, 85% of cybersecurity breaches can be attributed to human error. That makes employee-level security practices as vital as any combination of data security systems. Employee education tools help achieve these standards by identifying vulnerabilities in the workplace and teaching best practices to reduce risk.
KnowBe4
One of the leaders in this field is KnowBe4, offering an innovative browser-based training platform. Each employee takes a series of simulated phishing tests while machine learning algorithms analyze the results, creating a personalized list of essential training modules. This process avoids gaps in standardized training models while ensuring every user is more aware of security hygiene techniques.
Data Loss Prevention
Data loss can always occur despite your best efforts, and not only because of cyberattacks — natural disasters and power outages can disrupt data storage as effectively as any security breach. That’s why data loss prevention tools offer backups and redundancies that reduce the likelihood of operations becoming compromised.
Symantec Data Loss Prevention
Symantec offers one such solution, complete with discovery and protection capabilities. Its DLP product includes two core services — on-premises software that monitors networks and endpoints, and cloud-based risk detection of off-site storage. These features grant a high degree of visibility into any workplace network while providing opportunities to generate automated backups of operational data.
To paraphrase Howard Moskowitz, there is no perfect data security solution — but there are perfect data security systems. Therefore, IT teams must choose products that address their respective organizations’ specific goals, needs, and operational realities. At Symmetry Systems, for example, we help cloud security teams protect data using an evidence-based approach to identify potential gaps in least privilege and other zero trust for data best practices to minimize the impact of data breaches. Interested in learning how Symmetry DataGuard helps companies strengthen their data security strategies? Contact us today to learn more.
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