Varonis is a data security platform that helps organizations protect their sensitive data from cyberthreats and data breaches. Varonis provides visibility into an organization’s data, identifies areas of risk, detects threats, and prevents data loss. Some of the key capabilities and uses cases for Varonis include:
Data Security
Varonis helps secure an organization’s unstructured data, which includes files stored on file shares, collaboration platforms like SharePoint and Box, and email systems. Varonis provides capabilities like:
- File activity monitoring – Tracks activity like file reads/writes, permission changes, and content changes.
- Data classification – Automatically scans and classifies sensitive data like PII, PHI, and IP.
- Data risk assessment – Analyzes permissions and access controls to identify areas of overexposure.
- Threat detection – Uses machine learning to detect suspicious user behavior and cyberthreats.
- Audit reporting – Provides reports for compliance audits and forensics.
These capabilities help organizations monitor their data, get control over permissions, detect insider threats and external attacks, and prevent data breaches.
Compliance
Varonis strengthens an organization’s compliance posture by providing capabilities that help meet requirements for regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. This includes:
- Audit logging – Logs user activity for compliance reporting and forensics.
- Data discovery – Automatically scan to discover regulated data like PII and PHI.
- Data minimization – Remove stale, redundant, and permissions to non-relevant data.
- Data residency – Enforce data residency policies by monitoring data movements.
- Access controls – Consistently limit access with least privilege model.
Varonis provides dashboards, alerts, and reporting that help security and compliance teams demonstrate compliance controls are in place and effective.
Data Governance
Varonis enables stronger data governance by providing visibility into unstructured data. Capabilities that support data governance include:
- Data discovery – Map out all enterprise data and metadata.
- Data classification – Automatically tag and classify sensitive data.
- Data lineage – Understand data flows and dependencies.
- Permissions management – Model and enforce least privileges.
- Storage utilization – Identify stale and redundant data for cleanup.
These capabilities help IT admins, data owners, compliance officers, and other stakeholders implement policies, processes, and controls to manage data as a strategic asset.
Threat Detection and Response
Varonis uses machine learning and behavioral analytics to detect cyber threats and enable an immediate response. Detection and response capabilities include:
- Behavioral threat models – User behavior baselines to detect anomalies.
- Enterprise threat models – Identify patterns of lateral movement.
- Malware detection – Indicators of compromise search for malware.
- Automated killing and quarantine of threats – Contain threats with precision.
- Incident timelines – Detailed forensic analysis of attacks.
This allows security teams to detect attacks early in the kill chain, automatically contain threats, and perform root cause analysis to prevent future incidents.
IT Operations
Varonis provides IT ops teams with visibility and controls to secure enterprise collaboration platforms. This includes capabilities for:
- Permissions management – Consistent least privilege model for file shares and collaboration platforms.
- Storage audits – Map out stale and redundant data for cleanup.
- Migration planning – Data discovery and classification for migration projects.
- Office 365 security – Secure SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams environments.
These capabilities help IT admins troubleshoot permissions issues, remediate risk, and optimize Active Directory and collaboration platforms.
Conclusion
In summary, Varonis provides a data-centric security platform that enables organizations to:
- Get visibility into their enterprise data – both on-prem and cloud.
- Protect sensitive data from cyberattacks and insider threats.
- Enforce least privilege and mandatory access controls.
- Detect and respond to advanced threats in real-time.
- Comply with regulations like GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA.
- Implement policies and controls for data governance.
- Optimize permissions and storage for IT operations.
Varonis gives organizations capabilities across security, compliance, IT ops, and data governance – all centered around protecting their critical enterprise data from compromise.
FAQs
What types of data does Varonis protect?
Varonis secures an organization’s unstructured data, including:
- File shares on NAS devices like NetApp and Dell EMC.
- Windows file servers.
- SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts.
- Exchange and Office 365 email.
- Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud apps.
- Network folders and home directories.
What are the components of the Varonis data security platform?
The Varonis platform is comprised of these core products:
- DatAdvantage – Visibility into file, email, and collaboration platform activity and data.
- Data Classification Engine – Automatic scanning and classification of sensitive data.
- DataPrivilege – Recommends and enforces least privilege permissions.
- IDU Classification Framework – Machine learning for advanced threat models.
- Data Transport Engine – Detects abnormal data movements.
Does Varonis integrate with other security tools?
Yes, Varonis integrates with security tools like SIEMs, threat intelligence platforms, and IT ticketing systems via APIs and out-of-the-box integrations. Varonis supports integration with Splunk, Micro Focus ArcSight, IBM QRadar, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, and more.
What industries use Varonis for data security?
Varonis customers come from industries with highly sensitive data like:
- Financial services
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Technology
- Energy
- Government
- Education
- Manufacturing
- Insurance
What are the benefits of the Varonis data-centric security model?
The key benefits of a data-centric security approach include:
- Protects critical data wherever it lives – on-prem or cloud.
- Non-invasive deployment requiring no agents.
- Machine learning models tailored to each organization’s environment.
- Automated remediation to contain threats.
- Unified view across platforms like Active Directory, Exchange, and Office 365.
By focusing on data behavior analytics, Varonis provides more insight than perimeter or endpoint-centric security tools.
Does Varonis support cloud platforms like Office 365?
Yes, Varonis provides data security capabilities for popular SaaS platforms including:
- Microsoft Office 365
- SharePoint Online
- OneDrive for Business
- Microsoft Teams
- G Suite
- Box
- Dropbox
- Salesforce
- ServiceNow
Security teams get visibility and threat protection across cloud apps and services.
Data Type | Visibility | Threat Detection | Compliance |
---|---|---|---|
Files | File activity monitoring | Anomalous access | Audit logging |
Emails | Exchange monitoring | Malicious links | eDiscovery |
SharePoint | Site activity monitoring | Compromised accounts | Access reviews |
OneDrive | Access tracking | Ransomware detection | Data lifecycle management |
Varonis Alternatives
Some alternatives and competitors to Varonis include:
Microsoft Information Protection
Microsoft offers native data protection capabilities for Office 365 including data loss prevention (DLP), encryption, and retention policies. This requires an E5 license.
Mimecast
Mimecast provides email security including targeted threat detection, email continuity, and email hygiene services. It offers limited file protection.
Proofpoint
Proofpoint focuses on securing email, but also offers capabilities like insider threat detection and cloud app security.
Digital Guardian
Digital Guardian takes a data-centric approach across endpoints, servers, and cloud apps. It’s mainly focused on data loss prevention.
Forcepoint
Forcepoint creates behavioral user profiles and provides data loss prevention across web, email, and endpoints.
Netwrix Auditor
Netwrix provides visibility through database activity monitoring, security log analytics, and reporting for compliance audits.
Getting Started with Varonis
Organizations interested in implementing Varonis should follow these steps:
- Identify sensitive data systems and priority use cases.
- Collect metadata on file shares, Active Directory, and other platforms.
- Ingest metadata into Varonis for data classification and modeling.
- Tune permissions and access controls based on Varonis recommendations.
- Monitor user activity patterns and data movements.
- Investigate threats and simulate incident response.
- Expand deployment across other data systems and platforms.
Key success factors are gaining executive sponsorship, aligning with business goals, and starting with high impact pilots. Varonis provides potential customers with a risk assessment and data security evaluation.