Data security solutions are essential for all organizations today because they help prevent costly data breaches and business disruption. They are also vital for implementing the stringent data security controls required for compliance with regulations such as SOX, PCI-DSS, GDPR and CCPA.
To keep your data secure, solutions of many types are available. Here are the top 12 types of data security solutions to know about for protecting sensitive data and achieving and proving compliance.
#1. Data Discovery and Classification Solutions
In order to protect your data effectively and prevent breaches, you need to know exactly what sensitive information you have. This process has two parts. The first is data discovery: scanning your data repositories for the types of information you consider important. The second part is data classification: sorting the data into categories (such as how sensitive it is or which compliance regulations it falls under), and labeling it with a digital signature denoting its classification. You can then use the labels to focus your data security efforts to implement controls that protect data in accordance with its value to the organization.
Having users try to perform these processes manually is highly problematic for multiple reasons. One is that manual processes simply can’t scale to the huge volume of existing data that needs to be classified, let alone handle all the new data being created and collected. In addition, users often neglect the work altogether because they are busy with their primary responsibilities, or they rush through it, which yields inaccurate labels that put security and compliance at risk. Indeed, even when the process is given proper attention, the results are often inconsistent and unreliable.
Tools like Netwrix Data Classification make data discovery and classification much easier and far more accurate.
#2. Firewalls
Firewalls are one of the first lines of defense for a network because they prevent undesirable traffic from passing from one network to another. In addition, you can open only certain ports, which gives hackers less room to maneuver to get in or download your data. Depending on the organization’s policy, the firewall might completely disallow some or all network traffic, or it might perform a verification on some or all of the traffic.
Firewalls can be standalone systems or be included in other infrastructure devices, such as routers or servers. You can find both hardware and software firewall solutions.
#3. Backup and Recovery Tools
A backup and recovery solution helps organizations protect themselves in case data is deleted or destroyed. All critical business assets should be backed up periodically to provide redundancy so that if there is a server failure, accidental deletion, or malicious damage from ransomware or other attacks, you can restore your data quickly.
#4. Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is one of the most widely adopted security tools for both personal and commercial use. Antivirus solutions help detect and remove trojans, rootkits and viruses that can steal, modify, or damage your sensitive data.
There are many different antivirus software vendors on the market, but they all use the same core techniques to detect malicious code: signatures and heuristics.
#5. Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems
Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs) are a great help with data protection. To stop hackers using either exploits or malware, they perform deep packet inspection on network traffic and log potentially malicious activity. Here are the key differences:
- An IDS can be configured to evaluate system event logs, look at suspicious network activity, and issue alerts about sessions that appear to violate security settings.
- An IPS offers detection capabilities as well, but can also terminate sessions that are deemed malicious. There is almost always an analytical step between alert and action — security admins assess whether the alert is a threat, whether the threat is relevant to them and whether there’s anything they can do about it. Usually these are limited to very crude and obvious attacks, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
#6. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Solutions
Security information and event management solutions provide real-time analysis of security logs collected by network devices, servers and software applications. SIEM solutions aggregate and correlate the information that comes in, and perform deduplication by removing multiple reports on the same event. They use analytics to zero in on important activity, such as events related to data security, and then issues alerts or takes other action based on defined rules and criteria.
#7. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Systems
Data loss prevention systems monitor workstations, servers and networks to help make sure that sensitive data is not deleted, removed, moved or copied. Using defined rules, they watch for suspicious activity and then take the appropriate action.
For example, a DLP might detect a user’s attempt to copy sensitive data onto removable media in violation of corporate policy, and immediately block the action or even suspend the account and notify the security administrator.
#8. Access Control Systems
Access control is one of the most fundamental security concepts. At its root is the principle of least privilege: Each user, application and so on should be granted only the access rights required for its business role. In addition, authentication should be required before access is granted to sensitive data and systems.
There are many types of access control mechanisms that work together. They include role-based access control (RBAC), Active Directory security groups, delegation, access control lists (ACLs) and NTFS permissions.
#9. Cloud Storage Security Solutions
Organizations are no longer limited to on-premises data storage options like, network attached storage (NAS) and storage area networks (SANs). Many are opting to move at least some of their content to cloud storage. This approach offers multiple benefits, but one of the most valuable is quick scalability, since you do not have to worry about purchasing, installing and configuring storage technology in your local data center.
But while your cloud storage provider handles those details, the security of your data remains your responsibility. In particular, you need to make sure you have proper encryption services and backup & recovery controls in place.
Businesses can get help from cloud security providers that sell security as a service (SECaaS). The services offered can include authentication, antivirus, antimalware/spyware and intrusion detection.
#10. Activity and Change Auditing Tools
To protect your sensitive information properly, you also need to both monitor for changes to key systems, such as Active Directory and Group Policy, and audit all attempts to access sensitive information.
However, IT systems are full activity, most of which is legitimate. Therefore, you need solutions that can effectively analyze the flood of data in your network and identify on relevant information, such as sensitive data being accessed in ways that violates your policies. There are third-party tools that help simplify change management and auditing of user activity, such as Netwrix Auditor.
#11. Data Encryption Tools
Data encryption is another important component of any information security strategy. Many attacks are aimed at stealing sensitive information like medical records, intellectual property and so on. But if the data is encrypted, the adversary cannot access the content — and your organization is spared costly consequences like lawsuits and compliance penalties. Therefore, all critical data should be encrypted, both at rest and while in transit over the network.
Various controls provide encryption protection, including both software and hardware-based options. For example, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is used to protect credit card data in online transactions. Encrypting the hard drives of laptops and desktop systems will help protect the important data stored on them. And the advanced configuration settings on some BIOS configuration menus allow you to enable a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, which can assist with hash key generation and help protect smartphones and other portable devices.
Encryption can also be used by hackers. For example, they often misuse the encrypted web access provided for customer security. Even advanced network intrusion detection systems designed to sniff network traffic for attack signatures are useless if the attacker is using an encrypted communication channel.
#12. Physical Security Controls
Physical security is often overlooked in discussions about data security, but having a poor physical security policy can lead to data leakage at SMBs and enterprises alike. Examples of physical security measures including ensuring that workstations, servers and other systems cannot be physically removed from their designated locations, and locking their cases to prevent anyone from removing their hard drives and other internal components.
Another physical security concern is modern smartphones and other mobile devices, which can often take high-resolution photos and videos and record good-quality sound. It is very hard to detect a person taking a photo of a monitor or whiteboard with sensitive data, but you should have a policy that disallows camera use in the building. In addition, monitoring all critical facilities in your company using video cameras with motion sensors and night vision can help you spot people taking photos of sensitive data, entering restricted areas or improperly accessing your file servers or other machines.
Each person’s workspace and equipment should be secure before being left unattended. For example, check for unlocked doors, desk drawers and windows, and don’t leave papers on your desk. All hard copies of sensitive data should be locked up, and then completely destroyed when no longer needed. Also, never share or duplicate access keys, ID cards, lock codes and so on.
Before discarding or recycling a disk drive, completely erase all information from it and ensure the data is no longer recoverable. Old hard disks and other IT devices that contained critical information should be physically destroyed; assign a specific IT engineer to personally control this process.
Which Solution Is Right for You?
The following table summarizes the key benefits and challenges of each of these types of data security solutions:
| Solution | Key Features | Use Cases | Challenges |
| Data discovery and classification | Scans data repositories to identify sensitive data. Categorizes and labels data. Avoids the inconsistent and unreliable alternative of having users classify data manually. | Use data discovery and classification to inform information protection strategy and comply with information privacy regulations. | Establishing consistent and comprehensive classification criteria Keeping up with changing regulatory requirements |
| Firewall | Prevent undesirable traffic from accessing a network | Firewalls help reduce the risk from a wide variety of attacks on the network. | Requires a deep understanding of network architecture Requires keeping up with evolving cyberattack techniques |
| Backup and recovery | Enables recovery of accidentally or maliciously deleted data to avoid data loss and compliance penalties Minimizes business downtime | Backup and recovery systems help with accidental data deletion, hardware failures, natural disasters, and ransomware attacks. | Increased storage costs Need to ensure data integrity Speed and reliability of recovery |
| Antivirus | Detects malicious code in real time using signature-based scans, behavioral analysis, heuristics | Antivirus software helps protect most personal and enterprise systems from viruses. | Need to keep the tool up to date Can slow down network performance |
| Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) | Provides real-time threat detection and rapid response to attacks | Use IDS/IPS to detect and respond to suspicious activity and prevent malware infections. | Requires accurate and fine-tuned rules to minimize impact on network performance Need to keep up with evolving cyber attacks |
| Security information and event management (SIEM) | Collects, correlates and analyzes log data from multiple sources Alerts upon incident detection | SIEMs help with threat detection, incident investigation and response | High costs and complex setup, tuning to reduce false-positives, skilled personnel to get and respond to alerts. |
| Data loss prevention (DLP) | Helps prevent the loss of sensitive data through real-time monitoring and detection of policy violations | Use DLP to prevent loss or leakage of important data, thereby reducing the risk of business impacts and compliance penalties. | Complex installation Alert fatigue from false positives |
| Access control | Varies by type of access control, such as ACLs or NTFS permissions | Use access control to help ensure that important information can be accessed only by authorized personnel, thereby preventing breaches and compliance penalties. | Requires constant updates as the user base and IT systems change. |
| Cloud storage security solutions | Helps secure data that resides in cloud storage, whether you use a private, public or hybrid cloud | Cloud storage security tools provide a more robust defense against threats to data in cloud storage. | Ensuring consistent security policies across multiple cloud providers Keeping up with the risks associated with a remote or hybrid workforce |
| Auditing and change management | Monitors changes to systems and attempts to access data | Auditing provides visibility into what’s happening on your network so you can spot threats promptly. Netwrix Auditor is one option. | Alert fatigue from tools that are not properly tuned or sufficiently advanced |
| Data encryption | Depends upon the specific option, such as encrypted communication protocols or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. | Use data encryption to protect information from unauthorized access, even if it has been stolen. | Managing encryption keys securely Interoperability across different systems |
| Physical security | Helps prevent data breaches using measures like include locks, digital surveillance cameras, biometric authentication and secure facility design. | Physical security measures are especially important in high-risk environments with sensitive information, such as data centers and server rooms. | Balancing security against user convenience Lack of control over user-owned devices (BYOD). Managing remote facilities |
How Netwrix Can Help
Today’s ecosystems are complex, but every element still needs to be secured and continuously monitored. That includes all the types of data you store and process, the applications you use, and all your workstations, servers and network devices.
Netwrix provides an integrated solution that provides a multi-layered approach that covers data, identity and infrastructure. Netwrix’s digital product portfolio is designed to address the five functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. From identifying risks to recovering from cyber incidents, we provide a comprehensive suite of tools that can meet your organization’s unique requirements.
FAQ
What is data security?
Data security involves safeguarding critical data by using a variety of tools and techniques. Good data security prevents file corruption as well as unauthorized access through improved visibility into threats and fast and effective response to security breaches.
What is the difference between data protection and data security?
Data protection involves data compliance laws and regulations that focus on how data is shared, deleted, managed or gathered. Data security focuses on securing and safeguarding data by taking steps to prevent unauthorized access.
What is important to consider when choosing a data security solution?
To choose appropriate data protection solutions and data privacy solutions for your organization, start by assessing your cybersecurity risks and current security controls. Then, read through the key features of different kinds of data security products above to see what aligns best with your needs. You will almost certainly want more than one type of solution.
