Unified Multi-Cloud Audit Logging for Unstructured File and Object Data

multi-cloud audit logPandemic-driven increases in work from home initiatives along with incidents such as the recent Solar Winds data breach have increased the security imperative for  data auditing.

Access to structured data is, for the most part, audited via database logs and application audit trails. On the other hand, for access to unstructured data, the fastest growing component of corporate data, there exists little to no unified access logging. This problem is compounded because organizations of even moderate size typically deploy storage across multiple data platforms – on premises NAS and windows filers, cloud applications such as MS OneDrive, Google Drive, SharePoint and, DropBox, to native cloud data stores as S3, Azure and GCP.

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File Fabric Feature Focus – File Sharing Link Security and Governance

One of the challenges that many companies face with regards to Governance and Compliance is that of understanding why shared links were created and shared, something we refer to as Shared Link Contexts.

This is important not only for organisational security but is also effective when  there is a requirement to respond to the ‘why’ data was shared aspect of information compliance.

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Doug On HIPAA

HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. Any company that handles protected health information (PHI) must ensure that strict protocols and protective security measures are adhered to. But maintaining the HIPAA standards of security over electronic information can be difficult especially with outdated storage systems.

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Cloud Computing Use Case: Working with Amazon S3 data from a terminal over SFTP

We quite often assume that when working with Cloud data it will be from the web or from mobile “on the go” devices. To be fair this can often be the majority of cases, but the Enterprise throws up all sorts of different use cases and I thought it would be useful to go over one of the more esoteric ones.

One of the customers that use the Storage Made Easy on-premise Enterprise File Share and Sync Cloud Control product is a medical company. They use the SME product as a hybrid on-premise cloud product that is able to offer storage locally and on Amazon S3. Both sets of storage use the Amazon S3 API. The SME Appliance is able to make local storage accessible over an S3 compatible API and then off-board this storage to Amazon S3 as required. This meant that the companies scripts and applications could easily work locally and with Amazon S3 with very minimal configuration changes.

Hybrid Cloud S3 API

Their field staff quite often find themselves in a situation where, when working remotely, their only means of access is using a terminal ie. there is no direct web access and mobile devices are blocked and cannot be turned on.  In the past this meant that the consultant used to carry around CD’s / DVD’s in which information that may be required is burned off.

The consultants did however have direct  access to terminals which were internet enabled.   As the SME EFSS product also include a protocol gateway this mean it was possible to get direct terminal access to remote files using SFTP.

Cloud Storage SFTP

 

As the SME EFSS Gateway product integrated with the companies Active Directory services then terminal access was still using Single Sign On and the Active Directory credentials for each user access

User access can be obtained directly from the command line as per the example below..

Mac sftp google drive

Once authenticated the user can do a simple “ls” to get a file listing.

Mac SFTP

Once connected the view of the folder/files is available and can be worked with via the command line.

Mac SFTP S3

All access to the files are also logged and audited, including the username, the IP address and the types of interactions occurring, all part of a the HIPPA compliant process the customer implements. These reports can be exported and made available in excel to any compliance officer.

Summary:

Secure access to files and data can take many forms and in the Enterprise the edge cases also need to be catered for as well as the more common access use cases.

 

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The Top 5 things to Consider for Business File Sharing

20130309-165632.jpgFile Sharing is a key part of a companies ability to collaborate and share corporate data, which increasingly can be stored in many disparate services. The purpose of this post is to offer suggestion businesses should consider for their corporate file sharing strategy:

Many business just let employees share files with no control and no checks. This needs a policy. This is the businesses core asset and it needs to be protected and secure. Also, compliance and legislation of data is increasingly becoming important. The business needs to ensure it does not get caught in a compliance trap.

Point 1: Implement a control mechanism for your users. For example Storage Made Easy enables users to share files using links that can be password protected and in which the link can be set to expire. This protects against the user forwarding file. The file link can be set to expire on first download for example or set to download after 24 hours (or any other specified time period). If the file is password protected, even if the file is forwarded by the recipient then the file cannot be accessed unless the password is provided. A control mechanism promotes best practice security management of files and reduces operational risk.

Point 2: Point Solution or not ? Consider whether your strategy should be a point solution or whether it works with your existing data sets. Many vendors may purport to promote managed secure file sharing but often you find you have to move your data to their Cloud to have the solution work for you. Storage Made Easy works with private on-premise data, public cloud data such as DropBox, SkyDrive, Box etc and also with SaaS services such as BaseCamp. This promotes a ‘joined up’ strategy for company file sharing.

Point 3: Integrates with what you have ? Consider whether the solution works how you work so that it does not get in the way of business or productivity. For example Storage Made Easy integrates directly in the desktop as a network drive with simple right click options to share files. This behaviour supports Windows, Mac and Linux.  Also integration has been done with other core business productivity tools such as Microsoft Outlook and Mac Mail to promote easy secure file sharing using links directly from the corporate mail client. Similar integrations exists for core productivity tools such as Microsoft Office and Open Office or Libre Office.

Point 4: Compliance, Compliance Compliance – Compliance is fast catching up with all verticals when it comes to storing and accessing corporate files off site. There is specific industry legislation related to this, such as HIPPA in healthcare and FERPA in education, but  there are various legislation proposals being processed at various levels in the USA and EU and it is a safe bet that  the ability to track historic file events will become more of a requirement not less of a one. Also for companies, the ability to search against historic file sharing or data access should be just part of an overall joined up corporate security policy.

Point 5: On-Premise, Hybrid or Cloud ? The last point is to do with implementation. You should be able to decide how you manage data or metadata associated with storing files and sharing files. This can be behind the corporate firewall, totally on Cloud., or some combination of both. The key word here is choice.

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