As part of an evolving cybersecurity landscape, insider risk management (IRM) has become a cornerstone for organizations aiming to protect sensitive information from both external and internal threats. The newly released Forrester Insider Risk Solutions Landscape, Q2 2024, in which Next is a representative vendor, sheds light on this crucial area, emphasizing the challenges and business requirements shaping the market.
Understanding the Insider Threat
According to Forrester data, 22% of data breaches in the past year were due to internal incidents. This statistic not only highlights the prevalence of insider threats but also underlines the continued necessity for robust IRM systems capable of mitigating such risks. Insider incidents can stem from both negligent and malicious actions, emphasizing the need for a nuanced approach to data security.
The Need for Comprehensive IRM Capabilities
In the Insider Risk Solutions Landscape, Forrester notes that capabilities such as behaviour monitoring and data security are key when it comes to successfully managing insider risk. Next DLP’s Reveal Platform is perfectly positioned to do just this, and addresses these needs through advanced data security measures, behavioral analytics, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities, ensuring organizations are equipped to handle the complexity of modern insider threats.
Addressing the Market's Challenges and Disruptions
Within the Landscape report, Forrester highlights the primary challenge in the IRM market as balancing effective risk monitoring with the protection of individual privacy. Next DLP understands that protecting user privacy is paramount, and is not only a compliance requirement but a cornerstone of user trust and security. The Reveal Platform is designed to meet this critical need by:
Ensuring Privacy and Monitoring Balance:
Reveal employs sophisticated data obfuscation and role-based access controls to safeguard user privacy while facilitating powerful insider threat investigations. These features ensure that personal data is protected and only accessible under strict conditions that comply with privacy laws and corporate policies.
Using Scoped Investigations:
Expanding on its privacy-centric features, Reveal's Scoped Investigations module further empowers organizations to meet stringent employee privacy expectations and comply with information security regulations. This module enhances the investigative process by:
- Limiting Access: Scoped Investigations restricts the scope of data accessible to security analysts during forensic analysis, adhering to the principle of least privilege.
- Time-bound Permissions: Access permissions are time-bound, ensuring that analysts have access only for the duration necessary to perform their investigations.
- Reversible and Audited Access: Access is not only revocable but also closely monitored and logged, providing a clear audit trail of who accessed what data and when.
Moreover, Forrester identifies a top market disruptor: "Vendors combine user behavior, data context, and identity intelligence to make risk-based, automated data access and security decisions." The Reveal Platform integrates these elements seamlessly, utilizing AI-driven analytics, with XTND AI, to enhance detection capabilities and enable rapid, automated responses to insider threats.
Addressing Core Insider Risk Use Cases with Next DLP's Reveal Platform
The Forrester Insider Risk Solutions Landscape, Q2 2024, details the core insider risk use cases that are most in demand by buyers, emphasizing the necessity for effective solutions capable of detecting, mitigating, investigating, and responding to insider threats. The Reveal Platform is uniquely tailored to meet these key use cases, with strong alignment to market needs and the capability to address complex insider risks. Here's how the Reveal Platform responds to these fundamental requirements as outlined in the report:
Enable Investigations
How Reveal Does This:
Reveal accelerates the investigation process with its content and context-based reporting across all touchpoints. The platform's Activity Feed offers analysts a comprehensive, streamlined, and time-sequenced view of user, data, and device activity, providing valuable insights before, during, and after an incident. This capability ensures that security teams can quickly understand the scope and impact of insider actions.
Prevent Data Loss
How Reveal Does This:
The Reveal Platform learns what normal data movement looks like within your environment and distinguishes between user mistakes and malicious intent. It protects critical assets on and off the network, offering unparalleled visibility and control to prevent data loss. Reveal Beyond extends these capabilities to cloud environments like Microsoft O365 and Google Workspace, and personal devices, ensuring comprehensive data security without the need for endpoint agents or on-premises technology.
Manage Insider Incident Response
How Reveal Does This:
Reveal includes a patent-pending, endpoint-native Machine Learning system that detects unique and anomalous activities. In combination with the XTND AI sequence detection system, it predicts high-risk activity before exfiltration occurs. The platform correlates and risk-scores data exfiltration activity, enabling analysts to prioritize incident response effectively.
Capture Forensic Data
How Reveal Does This:
Reveal logs all events for forensic analysis, allowing teams to take appropriate actions when risk levels exceed thresholds. Options such as screen capture and file shadow forensics help analysts determine whether activities were malicious and provide evidence to stakeholders.
Discover and Classify Sensitive Data
How Reveal Does This:
The Reveal agent autonomously evaluates, classifies, and identifies sensitive data such as PII, PHI, and PCI at creation, usage, and movement. This content inspection engine operates rapidly and automatically, ensuring that sensitive data is protected across all platforms without the need to transmit endpoint file data into the cloud.
Educate Users and Change Behavior
How Reveal Does This:
Reveal promotes a positive security culture by empowering employees and building a dynamic “human firewall.” Its adaptable security measures and real-time training initiatives enhance productivity and minimize the risk of data breaches.
Control Insider Access
How Reveal Does This:
Reveal enhances visibility into cloud app data access and usage on both managed and unmanaged devices, vital for maintaining compliance and safeguarding against unauthorized access. Additionally, the SaaS App Security module offers comprehensive insights into SaaS application use within the organization. This module helps identify unauthorized app usage, such as the use of generative AI tools, and monitors data flows, supporting the development of robust insider risk and data protection policies. This integration is crucial for a mobile-first work environment and ensuring comprehensive data security.
Conclusion
The Forrester Insider Risk Solutions Landscape, Q2 2024, underscores a critical reality: managing insider risks is complex and requires a sophisticated approach to both detection and prevention. Next DLP's Reveal Platform embodies this approach, providing a robust set of tools designed to safeguard organizations against the evolving nature of insider threats. By leveraging Reveal, organizations can ensure they are equipped to detect risky insider behavior, conduct thorough investigations, and prevent significant data loss, thereby protecting their most valuable assets and maintaining trust with stakeholders.
