IBM Security recently read that another vendor had released what it was calling new and innovative capabilities. Great marketing hype, but let’s check the facts: Those innovations are rather similar to capabilities that were introduced two years ago in the IBM Security portfolio. Jump on the insider threats bandwagon, throw in some machine learning and it’s a perfect “me, too!” strategy that can leave you with imperfect data security.

We are flattered when our competition follows our lead in building capabilities that help customers solve real problems. Let’s dig a little deeper into what these customers really need to get a handle on data protection so imperfect data security doesn’t get them down — or get them into trouble.

One-Stop Shop for Data Security

The variety of threats organizations face today requires mature, proven capabilities that have been consistently deployed in the most demanding production environments around the world. Those features must support sufficient automation, scale and manageability to keep your data safe. Deep, specialized analytics capabilities that can help stop breaches before they take root are a must to stop perpetrators from getting to your crown jewels.

Watch the on-demand webinar: Is Your Sensitive Data Imperfectly Secured?

When it comes to data security, it’s possible and advisable to implement one solution to secure sensitive data against both insider threats and external risks. Using the same solution allows technology to aggregate more threat information and become more intelligent. Today’s dynamic data environment requires a solution that scales to your burgeoning data needs and learns as it looks across the entire environment for all types of threats.

How to Prevent Imperfect Data Security

There are a few best practices and capabilities that can help organizations improve their data security:

• Entitlement reporting enables a real-time understanding of who can do what with your data and offers the ability to integrate with privileged identity management.
• Real-time monitoring tracks data in files, databases, Hadoop distributions, NoSQL platforms and more.
• Suspect behavior analytics provides advanced, automated analytics that run in real time and are actionable. Proactive action can be taken to quarantine users or dynamically alert, block or mask data.
• Specialized threat detection analytics scan and analyze data to detect attack symptoms, such as SQL injections and malicious stored procedures, before they take root.
• Deep data protection covers data at rest and in motion, including encryption, masking and redaction.
• Adaptability to keep up with an environment that is constantly changing and growing. The platform architecture must be able to adjust to changes in the IT environment (e.g., automatically support larger volumes and architectural requirements, stay current with new applications and technologies, etc.) to keep costs low and ensure you have a manageable environment.

IBM Security Guardium is a proven data protection solution that delivers all these capabilities to thousands of customers across the globe. Relying on imperfect data security solutions puts your company at risk and increases your exposure; don’t let it bring you down.

To learn more about how to safeguard sensitive data against internal as well as external threats, watch our on-demand tech talk, “Guarding Against Insider Threats to Hadoop: What’s New in Guardium.”