Overview
Varonis is a comprehensive data security platform designed to protect and manage enterprise data across various environments, including on-premises, cloud, and multi-cloud settings. Here’s a detailed overview of what the product does and its key features:
Data Protection and Discovery
Varonis focuses on protecting enterprise data by continuously discovering, classifying, and monitoring sensitive information. It crawls the entire network, including file servers, databases, cloud storage, and endpoints, to identify all sensitive data, even within unstructured files like emails, documents, and images. The platform uses advanced algorithms and pre-defined policies to automatically classify data based on sensitivity levels and content types.
Data Classification and Enrichment
Varonis employs a patented Metadata Framework to collect, enrich, and normalize metadata from various data stores and applications. This includes scanning file contents and properties, collecting file and folder structures and permissions, and aggregating access events in real-time. The Data Classification Engine uses techniques such as proximity matching, negative keywords, OCR, and algorithmic verification to achieve pinpoint accuracy in data classification.
Threat Detection and Response
Varonis features robust threat detection capabilities through real-time monitoring of user activity, file access patterns, and data changes. It uses machine learning to build baseline profiles for every user and device, enabling the detection of abnormal user behavior, such as accessing unauthorized data or unusual file modification patterns. The platform provides real-time alerts with detailed information about potential threats, including ransomware, data exfiltration, and insider activity. It also offers forensic tools to investigate suspicious incidents and trace user actions.
User Activity Monitoring
Varonis tracks every user access to sensitive data, providing granular visibility into who accessed what, when, and from where. This helps in identifying anomalous behavior and potential insider threats. The platform also focuses on monitoring activities of privileged users to prevent the misuse of sensitive data.
Automation and Remediation
Varonis automates various security and compliance tasks, such as self-healing permissions, auto-repairing broken access controls, and auto-quarantining rogue sensitive files. It can revoke excessive access, remove stale privileges, and disable third-party apps, all of which help in reducing the blast radius and enforcing data security policies.
Edge Security
The Varonis Edge component extends security to the network perimeter, correlating data access with edge telemetry to detect suspicious VPN, DNS, and web activity. It stops brute-force attacks, command and control (C2) communications, and data exfiltration attempts, providing real-time awareness of risky configurations and early indicators of compromise.
Integration and Reporting
Varonis integrates seamlessly with existing security tools and platforms, including SIEM and SOAR systems. It generates comprehensive reports and audit trails, providing valuable insights into user activity, data access patterns, and potential security issues. These reports help in simplifying compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Managed Data Detection and Response (MDDR)
Varonis offers MDDR services, which include a global team of cybersecurity experts who monitor data, user activity, and networks for threats. This service investigates and responds to alerts 24x7x365, focusing on threats to data rather than just endpoints and networks.
Conclusion
In summary, Varonis is a powerful data security platform that combines advanced data discovery, classification, and threat detection with automated remediation and compliance reporting. Its ability to monitor and protect data in real-time, across diverse environments, makes it a robust solution for enterprise data security needs.