Discover & Classify
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Automatically locates, classifies and secures sensitive information
As organizations create and maintain an increasing volume of digital information, they are finding it harder to locate and classify sensitive information.

This is especially challenging for organizations that have experienced mergers and acquisitions, or environments where legacy systems have outlasted their original developers.  Even in the best of cases, ongoing changes to application and database structures—needed to support new business requirements—can easily invalidate static security policies and leave sensitive data unknown and unprotected.

Organizations find it particularly difficult to:

  • Map out all database servers containing sensitive information and understand how data is being accessed from all sources (line-of-business applications, batch processes, ad hoc queries, application developers, administrators, etc.)
  • Secure information and manage risk when the sensitivity of stored information is unknown
  • Ensure compliance when it isn’t clear which information is subject to the terms of particular regulations

With Guardium, you use database auto-discovery and information classification to identify where confidential data is stored, and then use customizable classification labels to automate the application of security policies that apply to particular classes of sensitive objects.  These policies ensure that sensitive information is only viewed and/or changed by authorized users.

Auto-discovery and mapping of application and database servers
Guardium’s auto-discovery capability performs a network discovery of the database environment and creates a visual access map showing all interactions among database servers, tables, clients, and applications.  This helps quickly identify authorized and unauthorized users, applications, database servers, etc.

Database auto-discovery can also be scheduled to execute on a regular basis, in order to prevent the introduction of rogue servers and ensure that no critical information is “forgotten.”

Database content classification and policy
Using a list of databases mapped out by the auto-discovery process, Guardium’s Classifier module automatically discovers and classifies sensitive data inside databases.  The Classifier uses an intelligent database crawler to efficiently search for customizable patterns such as 16-digit credit card numbers and 9-digit Social Security numbers (based on regular expressions).

Once sensitive objects have been located, they are automatically tagged with meta-data classifications such as “Privacy-Restricted” or “Regulated Record” and added to groups of items with similar properties.  This ensures that appropriate policies are automatically applied to groups of objects with similar properties.  In addition, executing the classifier process on a scheduled basis ensures that your policies are always up-to-date, even as developers change locations of sensitive objects.

When a sensitive object is located, the Classifier can generate immediate security alerts to help you quickly identify and resolve faulty business or IT processes that store confidential data such as magnetic stripe or PIN block information.  Guardium’s Compliance Workflow Automation module can track the resolution of these incidents with electronic sign-offs and escalations.