Today’s Security Challenges
Some of the biggest challenges facing database professionals today include pressure to comply with a variety of regulations and maintain database security while providing data and application access to business users with no disruption or decline in database performance. And, all of this must be achieved with limited resources and within extremely complex data environments.
When it comes to database security and compliance, automating the monitoring of databases and data usage could potentially save database professionals thousands of hours--time spent performing manual tasks such as examining database logs and reporting on database changes or suspicious or non-compliant activity. Automation could also improve database security and compliance by providing real-time information on potential incidents to the people who need it when they need it. In the past, monitoring databases had a profound and negative effect on the performance of databases. This is no longer the case.
Challenges facing Database Professionals
The security team is asking you to monitor and audit all database activity for compliance and internal audit. You know that native database logging isn’t the answer. You can’t afford the performance penalty as well as the additional hardware and manpower required to manually search through logs and build reports.
You need a data-centric solution that will help you answer the following questions:
- How do I audit database activity without using native logging or triggers
- What are the privileged users doing with critical data?
- What applications are accessing the data?
- Where is my most sensitive data located?
- Who’s accessing the data and what are they doing?
- Is there any suspicious behavior taking place?
- What data is leaking from the core database systems?
- How do I create reports for the auditors and managers?
Database monitoring and protection is just such a solution.
Database Activity Monitoring
Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) provides visibility into what users are doing with data at core data servers with no negative effect on the performance of databases or the network. DAM provides information on data location, database changes and user access behavior. It can detect and, if needed, take action in response to misuse of data. Similar to what DLP does at the edge of the enterprise (for laptops and email) DAM ensures data security and data compliance at the core databases where the biggest data risk exists. And, it does this without effecting existing systems or applications.
Mantra Database Monitoring and Protection
Deploys faster, no negative impact on databases, easiest to use
Mantra is the most intelligent and easiest to use DAM solution on the market today. Mantra deploys quickly in even the most complicated data environments and is productive within hours. Mantra database monitoring is policy-driven. With drag and drop policy creation and policy templates and wizards, database professionals can quickly and easily create the right policies for their environment.
Most enterprises don’t know where data resides—it’s all over the place. Mantra’s discovery capabilities locate sensitive data, by data type such as Social Security numbers and credit card numbers, see how data is being used and by whom, and automatically create security policies based on discovery findings. Mantra discovery can proactively locate databases on your network and locate and classify data at rest as well as in-flight.
Mantra plays well in the data center. It is non-intrusive and complements existing and legacy technologies and systems even if you are dealing with multiple database vendors and versions. One Mantra appliance can cover multiple databases and multiple types and versions of databases.
Netezza's customers use Mantra to address difficult database monitoring challenges such as SOX, PCI, GLBA, data privacy and as a core database security layer. Netezza customers chose Manta over other DAM solutions because it delivers value almost immediately, scales to the largest data center, deploys very quickly and is the easiest DAM solution to use and manage. Read more about Mantra.
Mantra Highlights
- Network based monitoring – no native auditing is required. It’s totally transparent and does not affect database performance.
- Automated data discovery—discovers data at rest, data in flight and databases on the network
- Privileged user monitoring of all activity including DDL, DML, DCL and more.
- Application monitoring – know which applications and tools are being used to access databases.
- Automated compliance reporting and workflow for easy creation of a variety of executive level and detailed reports as well as automated, multi-level review and signing
- Forensic tools for extracting and replaying events in an incident.
- Non-inline Blocking – stops unauthorized activity in real time.
- Drag and Drop policy creation and policy wizards for rapid creation of security and compliance policies
- Behavioral Fingerprinting® automatically identifies suspicious behavior in real time, eliminating the need for complex baseline policies which generate volumes of false positives.
- Content Scanning locates any type of sensitive or regulated data and includes in-the-box scanning policies for locating cardholder numbers for all major credit cards
- Unstructured data –first product to provide unified auditing and monitoring of file shares