data-security

University details key features of a proactive data security solution


IT leaders take proactive steps to protect sensitive data.

data-securityLoyola University Maryland will team with Varonis Systems, Inc., in a proactive move to protect data security and avoid a major data breach.

In the months following news of universities suffering data attacks, Loyola CIO Louise Finn explored various solutions that could mitigate risk in the event of a similar attack, but the technologies she probed could not provide reliable and detailed insights.

Finn and her IT team decided to set up a trial of Varonis Systems, Inc.’s DatAdvantage solution.

After their trial of the solution, the Loyola University Maryland IT team determined that DatAdvantage met their needs, especially in terms of the level of accuracy and breadth of features demonstrated during the DatAdvantage trial.

(Next page: Key features of the security solution that resonate with university IT leaders)

“A real differentiator between Varonis DatAdvantage and the other solutions we explored was its breadth of features. It finds your sensitive data, gives you the ability to track it and assess it against baseline end-user activity, and automatically alerts you when abnormal behaviors begin to happen,” Finn said.

“If an employee is leaving the institution, they often decide to download whatever they want, maybe not realizing those files belong to the university. DatAdvantage allows us to see what’s happening and gives us the ability to take action if we need to.”

Tom Podles, Director of Infrastructure at Loyola University Maryland, said, “There are two things that you want do for security. You want to prevent people who aren’t supposed to get to your sensitive data, from getting to your sensitive data. But you also need to be able to audit your data inventory to moderate access and ensure that those who need access to the data have it, and that they are using it correctly. Varonis is one of the few security solutions that actually does both.”

The level of functionality and information that DatAdvantage provided the Loyola University Maryland IT team was previously unobtainable, IT team members said.

Without DatAdvantage, IT would have had to manually go through each folder to get the level of accurate insight that Varonis provides – a futile task. Loyola plans to roll out Varonis DataPrivilege in the next few months, putting file access management in the hands of data owners and freeing up more time for the IT staff.

According to Dave Opitz, the university’s Senior Security Analyst for Technology Services, “The new insights allow us to quickly prioritize our security efforts and educate employees on data storage practices.”

Material from a press release was used in this report.

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Laura Ascione

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