Blog

Tag: data visibility

Quick takeaways on how Fasoo enables zero trust data securityEnterprise Digital Rights Management (EDRM) encrypts files, enforces user access, and controls data in use – no implicit assumptions. It sets a least privilege baseline for sensitive data on which you can dynamically grant increasing levels of explicit access. It’s what Zero Trust is all about.

Inside the perimeter, implicit trust was turned on its head by digital transformation and the hybrid workplace. Zero Trust’s explicit, least privilege, continuous monitoring, and adaptive risk assessment are the new standards for data security in today’s world.

You likely have some set of DLP or Insider Risk Management tools, but these fall well short of the new standards. So how do you move to Zero Trust Data Security?

Learn more about how to bring DLP up to Zero Trust standards.

Consider integrating EDRM. It fortifies your existing tools with strong protection methods and explicit controls. And with Fasoo’s approach to EDRM, gain the high-resolution data visibility Zero Trust continuous monitoring and adaptive access standards demand.

7 Quick Takeaways

Here are 7 quick takeaways on how EDRM and Fasoo can set you on the path to Zero Trust Data Security.

1. File-Centric, Location Agnostic

Go to the source itself. The file. Quit chasing and trying to enforce data security and control at every new place the file may travel, reside, or a user accesses it. Traffic cops at every ingress and egress point are old school, perimeter thinking. Bind all security and privacy controls to the file itself so you can persistently enforce enterprise safeguards in the cloud, WFH, on BYOD, and at supply chain partners.

2. File Encryption

It seems obvious for an explicit-based model. But today’s DLP tactics are mostly a monitor-alert approach while you expose the data to risk. Instead, automatically encrypt sensitive files when users create or modify them. Use centralized policies and hold the keys so users don’t control your data. Use this no-nonsense, least privilege baseline to build explicit access to sensitive data.

3. User Access

You don’t want an insider wandering through an entire repository or even folders – it’s too implicit. Most insider breaches are mistakes in handling sensitive data, like storing it in the wrong location. It’s better to enforce explicit access decisions, for each file, every time a user opens it. That’s Zero Trust Data Security.

4. Control Data in Use

But what happens after an insider gains access to a file? It’s a free pass to copy, cut, paste share, and store sensitive corporate data as they wish. That’s not Zero Trust. If I simply need to read the document, why let me extract or share the data? A supply chain partner needs to edit a file. But why let them copy, print, or store the document locally? Use explicit granular document rights to enforce Zero Trust least privileges and control your data in use.

5. Visibility

Visibility is knowing how your data is used, how it moves about, and what users do with it. Zero Trust relies on data visibility for continuous monitoring. Not easy in today’s hybrid workplace with existing tools. At best, its reliance and reconciliation of disparate security, network, application, repository, and endpoint logs. Better to use file-centric controls to make the file self-reporting, recording all lifetime interactions to a Central File Log no matter where it travels or who accesses it.

6. Continuous Monitoring

Just because you had access before doesn’t matter. That would be implicit trust. Zero Trust wants an explicit, context-aware decision each time. To do so, you need to monitor user identity, prior file interactions, devices, times, and places for each of the thousand if not millions of documents in your inventory. In real-time. Impossible? The Central File Log makes it easy, staging up-to-date, file-specific log data for Zero Trust monitoring.

7. Adaptive Access

Access is no longer an “all or none” decision. More “if so, how much.” It must adapt based on current circumstances, informed by the findings of continuous monitoring, and enabled by deep file visibility. Once you assess the risk, employ a wide range of granular document controls that can enforce the appropriate Zero Trust privileges.

Start on Zero Trust Data Security Now

Adopting a least privilege, explicit access to your sensitive data is key to protect your intellectual property and comply with privacy regulations. Integrating EDRM fortifies your existing tools with strong protection methods and explicit controls that are the cornerstones of Zero Trust Data Security.

As users and data continue to move around, protecting the data itself with these strong controls is your best bet to protect your business and your customers.

 

RELATED READING
Learn more about Enterprise Digital Rights Management
Learn more about how Fasoo implements Zero Trust Data Security

Organizations are working to bring existing security capabilities up to date with Zero Trust standards.  An organization’s path to Zero Trust Data Security often starts with an existing DLP solution set.

Zero Trust is all about explicit risk assessments, monitoring, and control.  One that extends beyond just managing access to data but to control how you use the data.  An approach that uses continuous monitoring to make dynamic, explicit decisions each time a user accesses sensitive files.

Traditional DLP falls short of these standards.

Here are three essential capabilities to bring your existing data security up to Zero Trust standards.

1. Centrally Apply File Encryption

DLP solutions monitor data – Allow/Block – but the sensitive data itself is left unprotected.

Zero Trust principles dictate stronger measures like file encryption. This eliminates implicit access to files and sets a clear reference point to make Zero Trust explicit access decisions.

Zero Trust Data Security also cares about “who” encrypts the file. Many solutions rely on the user to encrypt sensitive files and in some cases, a user sets a password. This can lead to errors in protecting data and requires the encryptor – your employees – to grant access to your own critical data.

A centralized policy platform is foundational to Zero Trust Data Security. With centrally enforced policies, a file with sensitive data can be automatically encrypted when created or modified, all transparent to the user. It lifts the burden from the user, eliminates errors, and keeps workflows moving.

This also gives you control over the encryption keys – not the user, cloud provider, or any other third party. This is increasingly important in hybrid and multi-cloud workplaces as privacy regulations become more proscriptive regarding data residency and access rights.

Consistently and proactively centrally applied file encryption is a big step toward achieving Zero Trust Data Security.

 

2. Control Data-In-Use

Insider threats expose a major gap in DLP solutions. It’s the poster child example for implicit trust that Zero Trust looks to eliminate.

With DLP, once a verified user gains access to the file, it’s a free pass to use corporate sensitive data. Users can copy, cut, and paste sensitive data into new file formats; share the data across multiple collaboration applications; and store and print sensitive files on personal (BYOD) devices.

DLP binary actions, full or no access, are no longer enough. Zero Trust principles are based on a continuous, explicit risk assessment that takes a least-privilege approach to access and use. It considers the sensitivity of the data and the context in which it’s being used.

Zero Trust Data Security requires the availability of a broader range of file permissions to control data-in-use. For example, a user that only needs to read a document should be restricted from extracting or sharing the data. Allowing a user to edit a file, but restricting copy or print, are other examples of granular document controls. Disabling screen sharing when displaying sensitive data, and print watermarking are other necessary capabilities in a Zero Trust world.

Upgrading DLP with granular document rights controls provides the data-in-use options that enable Zero Trust Data Security.

 

3. Monitoring Depends on Visibility

The ability to continuously monitor data activities so you can make explicit decisions each time someone tries to access sensitive files is central to a Zero Trust approach. How you use data, how it moves about, and what users do with it is an essential input to an explicit model.

However, traditional DLP and network tools create a patchwork approach to data visibility with some organizations employing over 40 IT and security tools to trace data. Visibility is also thwarted in today’s hybrid workplace by cloud and work-from-home environments where data can be stored in unauthorized locations and devices.

To move toward Zero Trust Data Security, you should upgrade your DLP solutions with a file-centric approach, making the file itself the source of reporting. A unique ID embedded in each file logs every access (network/application/individual), what was done with the file, and other context-aware information like device and geographical location.

Implement a file-centric approach to achieve the visibility necessary to enable Zero Trust Data Security.

 

Update DLP to Zero Trust Data Security

Implementing a Zero Trust approach to an existing security model is gradual.  The Fasoo Data Security Platform helps you achieve success without ripping out your current DLP infrastructure.  This protects your existing investment but gives you true Zero Trust Data Security to meet your governance and regulatory requirements.

Categories
Book a meeting