Varonis Systems, Inc., the leading provider of comprehensive data governance software, today released details of how it has helped Boston University bolster its data loss prevention (DLP) strategy and address its data governance concerns. Having initially investigated traditional DLP technologies, this leading university found that the majority of the solutions could only answer one aspect of DLP – where sensitive data was located – but could not determine who had access to it or who was using it. As the only solution able to provide deeper insight to the data, Varonis DatAdvantage and the Varonis IDU Classification Framework are now enabling Boston University to better ensure that sensitive data is only accessible to authorized users, while also providing extensive audit trails that detail how the data is being used.

 Quinn Shamblin, Executive Director and Information Security Officer for Boston University, explains, “Data loss prevention is primarily concerned with ensuring that the right person has access to information, while preventing the wrong person from doing so. All the DLP technologies that we looked at, with the exception of one, could only tell me where sensitive data was; they couldn’t tell me who had access to it or who was using it. Knowing the location of sensitive data without knowing who has access to it is almost irrelevant. Varonis offered a very strong combination of features and capabilities without having to go to multiple products and incur multiple licensing fees. And it does what I need it to do, help us be even more effective in dealing with the challenge of data loss prevention.”

 Varonis DatAdvantage aggregates Active Directory user and group details, ACL information and all data access events - without requiring native OS auditing – which means Boston University can answer one element of DLP by building a complete picture of who can and who is accessing data. By monitoring these file touches, the intelligence leads Quinn’s team to the rightful data owners, who can then be involved in making sure the right people have appropriate access and usage. Varonis’ IDU Classification Framework provides the other piece of the puzzle, the ability to accurately identify files that contain sensitive information, allowing IT to immediately identify folders with excessive permissions that contain quantities of sensitive data, for remediation.

An additional benefit from the solution, as Quinn explains, is that Varonis DatAdvantage is able to answer a question that has challenged the university for many years. “Because of what it does, recording all file access events, it can answer the core question the audit group are always asking:  who has access to and who accessed what. For example, say Bill Smith was to leave the university – we need to know what Bill has access to. Without a centralized solution, we had to work with each individual system administrator across all the different schools and departments across both campuses, getting them to manually review their systems to document Bill’s permissions. Varonis DatAdvantage does this for us with a canned report. That’s just one use and there are many other ways we hope it will revolutionize our processes. Varonis has value not just for my team but also the system administrators and auditors within the organisation.”

Boston University is a leading research university, with more than 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 140 countries along with 10,000 faculty and staff, 16 schools and colleges, and 250 fields of study,

For the full Varonis case study on Boston University, visit http://www.varonis.com/customers. To find out more about Varonis and DatAdvantage, visit www.varonis.com.

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About Varonis

Varonis is the foremost innovator and provider of access, governance, and retention solutions for human-generated data, the fastest-growing and most sensitive class of digital information. Based on patented technology and a highly accurate analytics engine, Varonis solutions give organizations total visibility and control over their data, ensuring that only the right users have access to the right data at all times from all devices, all use is monitored, and abuse is flagged.

Varonis makes digital collaboration secure, effortless and efficient so that people can create and share content easily, and organizations can extract more value from their content while being confident that it is protected and managed efficiently.

Voted one of the "Fast 50 Reader Favorites" on FastCompany.com, and winner of the SC Magazine Innovation, Product or Service of the Year, and Best Network Security Awards, Varonis has more than 5,000 installations worldwide and is headquartered in New York, with regional offices in Europe and Asia.

Varonis, the Varonis logo, DatAdvantage®, DataPrivilege® and the IDU Classification Framework® are registered trademarks of Varonis® Systems in the United States and/or other countries and Metadata Framework™, DatAnywhere™, and Data Transport Engine™ are under a registration process in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.