Introduction
DCAP systems were unknown to many people three years ago, including Gartner researchers and information security professionals. Yet, the arrival of many personal data management laws, like GDPR, significantly increased its popularity. GDPR sets a turnover penalty for data leaks and requires operators to report any breaches to regulators within 72 hours. Comparable legislative laws are being created or accepted in a variety of jurisdictions. The growing number of laws that regulate the use of personal data is one factor leading to this trend.
DCAP system and what are its requirements?
Data-centric audit and protection, or DCAP, is a technology for automating data audits in file systems, identifying breaches of user access, and keeping track of changes in important documents.
Understanding the data managed by employees, its privacy, and who has access to it is crucial considering the expanding volume of data processed and stored in a company’s infrastructure. Interaction with data is critical, and information security officials and senior executives must be able to search for and arrange access to various documents. A DCAP system can identify access levels and do basic activities like file content search and document setup. The needs for DCAP solutions get increasingly complex as threats and technology evolve. Customers want DCAP systems to classify data, assign access rights, and provide active protection, such as preventing activities if access rights are breached.
The need to ensure the security of data transfer outside of an organization’s infrastructure is one of the most crucial current trends in information security since the method of working only within the local network is still inadequate.
1) Case Analysis
A big financial company employed FileAuditor, a DCAP solution from SearchInform, to classify and control data inside its infrastructure. After identifying the owners of sensitive and critical data, the InfoSec team successfully limited access to assure security. The InfoSec team completed these activities with the assistance of FileAuditor.
We performed research to determine which aspects of a DCAP system are most wanted. The outcomes are as follows: 10% of respondents say that the system’s primary job is to optimise the data-keeping process. This approach makes a lot of sense, considering that at least 30% of a storage area network (SAN) in an enterprise is frequently filled with ‘dump’ files. DCAP is used by around 26% of companies to inventory information assets; 25% of companies use DCAP to prevent leaks and unauthorized access; and almost 11% of companies use DCAP for automobile access management. Other frequent duties include account auditing, file marking, encryption, and access restriction.
DCAP systems must restrict file access and prevent activities while monitoring file operations. Customers stress the necessity of recognizing who established a folder when it was done, and the transfer path. Data loss prevention systems may track data flows but not file storage.
2) Case Analysis
Data meant for the first contractor was unintentionally sent to the second contractor by the company. The DLP system can stop transfers to avoid this; however, it needs to establish prohibited data types. Data must be marked and added with the help of DCAP to ensure that it is transmitted only to the designated recipient.
DLP thus can not by itself prevent problems but rather identify possible data breaches
- Excessive data access privileges being disclosed
- Logging unusual user behaviour while interacting with data
- Discovering a breach of the confidentiality rules
As they are aware of the secrecy and value of the document, interaction with file authors is important for document marking and tagging. The consensus among experts is that automated tagging is required to avoid security system errors and that having too many tags is unnecessary.
In the area of handling personal data, new regulations are being enacted. How can I monitor them?
Regulations like the GDPR and Data Protection Act are promoting the use of DCAP systems as companies are being forced to secure personal data on a greater scale. These rules require quick victim notification and apply turnover penalties in the event of data exposure. Through obtaining information from incidents, DCAP also aids in establishing innocence, saving businesses from turnover fees. Adding DCAP to DLP gives users more choices for investigating events, locating data employees, and figuring out data transportation routes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we may say that the time for DCAP systems has come. Nowadays, systems collect e-discovery capabilities (which allow for context-based data classification), audit file activities and data, and tag them. Since employees are aware of precisely which links in the corporate infrastructure need to be protected, DCAP helps businesses secure data while also ensuring that they comply with various data protection laws.
