Controlling data is the foundation of data security. It is the essence of all compliance requirements and establishing control is at the core of what we do in cybersecurity.

As we navigate the end of the year and prepare for the next, let’s look back and examine this basic requirement. From our experience, many organizations struggle with the basics but read on and see where you stand.

What is control?

Controlling data means controlling access to it. In other words, it means to control the activity. But what does it mean in practice, and how can we do it?

What everyone knows is that managing access to data involves two activities:

• Users and permissions – Who are the users, and what access do they need?
• Monitoring activity – What’s happening in reality?

Everyone tends to focus on the first and mostly ignore the second. But doing so is a mistake. Because it is impossible to secure data without knowing what’s happening with it. You cannot protect what you cannot see. This statement seems obvious to those who have visibility and seems unnecessary or impossible to those who lack it. But regardless of your perspective, it is true – controlling activity you do not understand is impossible.

It is futile to try and establish control over users and their access without knowing what is happening in reality. Not only do you lack visibility into whether the controls you established are working as intended, but you don’t even know what things are happening that you need to stop. You assume your users and permissions behave as you imagined, but that assumption is usually wrong.

Knowledge is power

Knowing what’s going on is the foundation of any security. Imagine a blind and deaf security guard wandering the halls. He will not be able to stop criminals. Visibility is the key to success.

Are you in control?

Unfortunately, many organizations fall short when it comes to visibility. They lack the tools needed to answer basic questions such as:

• Who accessed my data last week?
• What programs are used to access the data?
• How much data was accessed?

It’s impossible to establish effective controls without answers to these and similar questions. How could you determine what to pay attention to and focus on? How will you decide what reports and alerts you require? What do you need to stop?

For example, when we ask customers why they set up the particular alerts they have, we often get vague answers like “This was the recommendation,” “It’s a best practice,” “It seemed like a good idea,” and so on.

There is never any data to support these claims, and once inspected, these controls offer little or no security value. It’s, therefore, not surprising that these controls rarely raise security events. A lack of false positive alerts is indicative of ineffective security because it means there are many false negatives (undetected events).

Visualize your activity like never before

Security has changed a lot in the past 20 years. Technologies and solutions born in the early 2000s are now considered obsolete. Modern solutions like Core Audit offer unprecedented visibility into activity using Proactive Forensics. Gaining visibility through Proactive Forensics is the recommended first step in all deployments.

With Core Audit Proactive Forensics, you can:

• Visualize activity sources to understand who is executing the activity, how much, from where, and when
• Investigate activity types to understand who is performing them, when, and how much
• Drill down into activity subsets, visualize each one, and determine how best to control it

Proactive Forensics is one of the many features of Core Audit. Other capabilities include anomaly analysis, declarative auditing, preventive controls, and more. However, Proactive Forensics is the first step in implementation since it helps understand the activity profile and determine which controls to implement.

Don’t settle for less

If you think you have a good understanding of what’s going on inside your databases and applications, congratulations! But if not, it’s time to consider an alternative. Schedule a demo to see what Core Audit can offer you, and then try it on your systems to experience real visibility.

Contact us today and embrace the future of database security.