Imperva SecureSphere

Data Security

DA T A SH E E T

Protect and audit critical data

Keeping pace with the threat of cyber security attacks and the increasingly stringent data
protection and privacy regulations is hard. For some IT and security teams, the budget
and staff necessary to implement effective security measures are not available due to
other business priorities. While executives and Boards are increasing aware of the risks,
the reality is that budgets will always require teams to do more with less. IT and Security
managers need a data protection solution that delivers security, compliance and a clear
business justification. Imperva CounterBreach and SecureSphere Database Firewall
monitor data and users, intelligently identify and prioritize risks and presents a clear
actionable picture of the risks discovered and stopped. This paper will focus specifically
on the SecureSphere Database Firewall (DBF) product family.

Best-in-class data protection and auditing

Imperva is the best choice for securing sensitive business data and applications in the
Imperva CounterBreach cloud and on-premises. SecureSphere Database Firewall satisfies a broad range of
and SecureSphere database compliance requirements while providing reliable protection with little or no
impact on database performance or availability. The solution’s multi-tier architecture
Database Firewall provide scales to support the largest database and Big Data installations. By automating security
data security, simplified and compliance tasks, thousands of organizations have simplified their audit process and
improved their data protection.
compliance and a clear
business justification

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Protect data at the source

SecureSphere use two monitoring channels – one for security policies and one for
Imperva audit policies. The independence enables resource and task optimization that is not
possible with a single channel.
SecureSphere
SecureSphere Database Firewall

Database •

•
Logs only what activity is necessary while monitoring all activity for security violations
Monitors and protects high-transaction databases

Firewall •

•
Blocks suspicious behavior when it happens – investigate in-context
Executes multi-action security alerts, eliminating bottlenecks and delays
• Interlocks database protection with the SecureSphere Web Application Firewall,
• Discover and help classify sensitive CounterBreach Insider threat protection, and malware protection, providing multi-
databases and data factored data security
• Find and remediate database and
system vulnerabilities
Meet compliance requirements
• Identify excessive user rights and
dormant users, and enable a SecureSphere helps organizations address compliance regulations including GDPR, PCI
complete rights review cycle DSS, SOX, POPI, and HIPAA.
• Protect RDBMS, data warehouses, • Addresses virtually all compliance requirements for databases with pre-defined
Big Data platforms, and policies and reports
mainframe databases and files • Rapid configuration and deployment of new and modified policies – no DBA required
• Alert, quarantine, and block • Privileged user monitoring, including local server access
database attacks and unauthorized • In-service and phone home updates minimize restarts and resulting gaps in audit data
activities in real-time
• Flexibility and responsiveness to address evolving IT environments
• Automate and schedule
and compliance requirements
compliance tasks and reporting

Data protection and audit is a company-wide necessity

Hackers and data thieves don’t care who “owns” data security or compliance within a
company – their intent is to steal data for personal gain. The use of multi-vector attacks
illustrates how they can use team and system silos to circumvent security. A DDoS attack
distracts, while another vector of the attack utilizes compromised user credentials,
obtained via a spear phishing email and malware, to steal thousands of data records.
Stopping the data theft is not feasible with manual monitoring and stand-alone security
measures. Correlated security dashboards help, but when alerts flood the system,
the “real” attack may go unnoticed for weeks or longer. Proactive security monitoring
deployed at the data level is the last opportunity to stop an in-progress data attack.
When integrated with a web application firewall, anti-malware solutions and other
security measures, the odds of keeping data secure shift in the company’s favor. Data
thieves thwarted; the IT, security, and compliance teams can reflect that together they
achieved their overlapping objectives of keeping data safe and demonstrating that they
are doing it in accordance with compliance mandates and regulations.

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Imperva Data
SecureSphere Discovery
Security Capabilities
and Assessment pinpoints
sensitive data locations Data security starts with data discovery
and provides a risk-based To protect and monitor data requires the discovery and classification of the sensitive
data. In smaller companies this may be achieved through manual surveys and reviews;
prioritization that can as the size of a company grows, the number of databases grow at a near-exponential
help companies plan their rate. Automated discovery and classification are the only reliable way to routinely and
consistently discover and classify new or modified database instances containing
risk mitigation programs, previously unknown sensitive data. SecureSphere Discovery and Assessment Server
systems, and policies (included with DBF and available as a stand-alone server) pinpoints sensitive data
locations, and provides a risk-based prioritization that can help companies plan their risk
mitigation programs, systems, and policies.

Continuous monitoring of sensitive data usage

Even with a high volume of database traffic, SecureSphere simultaneously monitors all
traffic for security policy violations and compliance policy purposes. The highly efficient
dual channel monitoring for separate purposes allows companies to address both
security and compliance requirements with a single unified solution.
SecureSphere analyzes all database activity in real-time, providing organizations with a
proactive security enforcement layer and detailed audit trail that shows the ‘Who, What,
When, Where, and How, of each transaction. SecureSphere audits privileged users who
directly access the database server, as well as users accessing the database through a
browser, mobile, or desktop-based application.

Monitor Big Data, z/OS, and files

While databases remain the prime target for cyber theft, sensitive data exists across the
enterprise in many types of systems. SecureSphere automates the most challenging
aspects of uniform policy deployment and monitoring across databases, Big Data,
SharePoint and file storage systems.
• SecureSphere Agent for Big Data extends SecureSphere Data Activity Monitor to
leading Big Data offerings including MongoDB, Cloudera, Cassandra, IBM BigInsights,
and Hortonworks products.
• SecureSphere Agent for z/OS extends SecureSphere classification, monitoring and
blocking capabilities to the z/OS mainframe database and file environments.
• SecureSphere File Firewall delivers real-time file monitoring, auditing, and
ransomware protection for files stored on file servers, and network attached storage
(NAS) devices.

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Detection of unauthorized access, fraudulent activity

SecureSphere identifies normal user access patterns to data using Imperva patented
Dynamic Learning Method (DLM) and Adaptive Normal Behavior Profile (NBP)
Unlike solutions that
technology. It establishes a baseline of all user activity including DML, DDL, DCL, read-
require DBA involvement only activity (SELECTs), failed events and usage of stored procedures. SecureSphere
detects material variances when users perform unexpected queries triggering further
and reliance on expensive
investigative or blocking action.
professional services, Multi-action alerts, temporary quarantines and if appropriate blocking of unauthorized
SecureSphere provides the activities can be used to protect data without the need to disable the profiled account
avoiding potential disruptions in critical business processes. Automated remediation
necessary management workflows drive multi-action security alerts that can send information to Splunk, SIEM,
and centralization ticketing, or other third-party solutions to streamline business processes.

capabilities to manage Detect and contain insider threats

thousands of databases, Protect enterprise data from theft and loss caused by compromised, careless or

Big Data nodes, and files. malicious users by seamlessly integrating the SecureSphere activity log with Imperva
CounterBreach. CounterBreach uses machine learning and peer group analytics to
establish a full contextual baseline of typical user access to database tables, and then
detects and prioritizes anomalous activity. A dashboard of actionable results explain
the issues, possible ramifications, and prioritize them. Once dangerous behaviors
are identified, enterprises can quickly quarantine risky users in order to protectively
prevent or contain data breaches.
The CounterBreach algorithms are specifically built for analysis of SecureSphere logs.
This differs from the generic algorithms utilized by SIEM tools that must normalize logs
fed to it from multiple sources. CounterBreach has other advantages over SIEM based
user behavior analytics, including access to the complete log of activity. Most SEIM
tools are provided with database activity logs that are pre-filtered by defined policy
rules designed to either remove the “normal” system activity or alert only on known
suspicious behavior. By pre-filtering the baseline data, the algorithm will be incapable
of defining “normal” or completing an accurate pattern analysis. The direct connection
between SecureSphere and CounterBreach ensure that all activity is analyzed in full
context.

Unified policy deployment and enforcement

Another advantage of SecureSphere is the built-in subject matter expertise. Many
organizations struggle to maintain sufficient in-house resources that have the pre-
requisite skill set required for deploying and operating security and audit systems
that rely on scripts and custom development. A successful implementation of
access controls and audit processes requires making them repeatable. Centralized
management of audit and assessment of heterogeneous systems simplifies the
management of these processes, while automation reduces the amount of resources
needed to maintain compliance, and provides a positive return on investment.
Unlike solutions that require DBA involvement and reliance on expensive professional
services, SecureSphere provides the necessary management and centralization
capabilities to manage thousands of databases, Big Data nodes and files. Pre-defined
policies, remediation workflows, and hundreds of reports markedly reduce the need
for SQL scripts and compliance matter expertise. Elimination of the need for on-going

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DBA involvement ensures compliance with the separation of duties requirement. By

utilizing the of out-of-the-box capabilities, existing personnel can deploy, and manage
Stopping attacks in real the system.

time is the only effective

Streamlined compliance reporting
way to prevent hackers Imperva SecureSphere includes hundreds of pre-defined reports addressing the most
from getting to your data. requested needs of our clients. Additionally, the solution includes a custom report
writer for enterprise-specific reporting requirements. Embedded workflows and
SecureSphere DBF monitors automation ensure compliance tasks and reporting is done on-time across the entirety
all traffic for security policy of the data set.

violations, looking for

Effective user rights management across databases
attacks on the protocol
Virtually every regulation has requirements to manage user rights to sensitive data.
and OS level, as well as Complying with these requirements is one of the most difficult tasks for enterprises
unauthorized SQL activity to manually perform across large data sets. SecureSphere automatically evaluates
user rights across heterogeneous data stores, and helps establish an automated
access rights review process to eliminate excessive user rights. It facilitates a routine
demonstration of compliance with regulations such as GDPR, SOX and PCI DSS. The
automation of these mundane, but critical tasks, lowers labor costs and reduces the
risk of error or reporting gaps.

Real-time blocking of SQL injection, DoS, and more

Stopping attacks in real-time is the only effective way to prevent hackers from
getting to your data. SecureSphere monitors traffic for security policy violations,
looking for attacks on the protocol and OS level, as well as unauthorized SQL activity.
SecureSphere can quarantine activity pending user rights verification or block the
activity—without disrupting business by disabling the entire account.
Blocking is available both at the database agent and network levels enabling the fine
tuning of the security profile to balance the need for absolute security with the need
for performance on critical high-transaction databases.
Imperva SecureSphere Web Application Firewall and SecureSphere File Firewall
extend the protection to include web applications and protection from file
ransomware. Additional integrations with malware protection, including FireEye, SIEM,
and other specialized security systems help organizations align processes and close
security gaps.

Audit analysis for incident investigation and forensics

Imperva SecureSphere provides a unified solution enabling independent functional
operations while connecting the dots for the security, compliance, and legal teams
during an investigation. Imperva provides access to both historical and real-time data,
giving incident response teams accurate and contextual visibility into activity as it is
happening. The real-time capability, user tracking, remediation workflows, correlation
with SecureSphere WAF, and many pre-defined compliance and forensic reports, are
all key differentiators for Imperva.

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Dedicated Splunk app for database activity analysis

SecureSphere provides standard integration with a wide variety of SIEM products
Deployment and including ArcSight, QRadar, and Splunk. In version 11.0 Imperva introduced a dedicated
API set for Splunk enabling users to add custom activity feeds to their Splunk security
configuration
dashboards and reports. With the release of the free Imperva Database Activity Analysis
automation is a primary Application for Splunk, SecureSphere users have a pre-built dashboard and report
set optimized for analyzing SecureSphere database alerts and logs. The deployment
factor in time-to-value requires no Splunk development experience and users may create customized reports
using the pre-built reports as templates.

Automated health
monitoring capabilities Imperva Enterprise-Class
detect configuration
problems and system
Readiness
errors, thereby reducing Predictable performance at scale
administrative overhead Imperva achieves scalability through highly efficient audit logging technology. Unlike
competing solutions that rely on standard relational databases for the data monitoring,
and down-time
Imperva utilizes techniques found in big-data analytics solutions. The ability to write fast
and read even faster gives Imperva the ability to scale far beyond the competition.
The system may be configured to monitor all activity for security policy violations while
monitoring and logging a different set of activities for audit purposes. The separation
can result in a substantial improvement in data security, performance, audit log size, and
relevance when compared to other solutions.
SecureSphere supports high-availability by eliminating single points of failure with active
redundancy built into the solution. SecureSphere implements intelligent high-availability
features, including agent connections that can balance themselves and move around
the Gateway cluster as needed, thus helping to maintain a fault-free data program and
uninterrupted audit log.

Rapid deployment and on-going system health monitoring

Imperva takes a comprehensive view of the enterprise with a centralized management
console capable of providing command and control at a global level. The top-level
management console enables the rapid deployment of global policies and automation
of tasks such as data classification, thereby speeding implementation time
Automated health monitoring capabilities detect configuration problems and system
errors which reduce administrative overhead and down-time.
Imperva also recognizes the value of IT provisioning, providing API sets to facilitate
seamless software distribution, configuration updates, policy distribution and data
discovery.

Hybrid activity monitoring

Imperva goes beyond the typical deployment scenario where agents are required on
all database servers; SecureSphere supports multiple deployment methods, including a
local agent, a network transparent bridge option, and a non-inline sniffer mode. By using
a combination of deployment methods, the enterprise can meet a wide variety of needs
without being locked into a single “one-size fits all” model.

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Cloud-enabled
Imperva SecureSphere for AWS extends the security and compliance capabilities
to the Amazon Web Services environment. SecureSphere is the only enterprise-
Imperva includes the
class data protection and compliance solution available for AWS. Running natively
capability to look at the in the AWS, the BYOL version of SecureSphere leverages the same market-leading
capabilities as the on premises version.
environment and match
SecureSphere provides protection for databases deployed in the Microsoft Azure
it to known vulnerabilities cloud environment using the standard SecureSphere Database Agents.
providing a clear picture of
Assessment and virtual patching of database vulnerabilities
exactly what data is at risk
With the enterprise data being stored around the world in a variety of databases,
each at a potentially different release and patch level, it is imperative to have a
simplified way to seek out known vulnerabilities. Imperva includes the capability
to look at the environment and match it to known vulnerabilities, providing a clear
picture of exactly what data is at risk. SecureSphere virtual patching blocks attempts
to exploit specific known, but unpatched vulnerabilities. Virtual patching helps
minimizes the window of exposure, and drastically reduces the risk of a data breach
while testing and deploying database patches.
The new Imperva RiskSense Vulnerability Manager enables efficient workflow
management and mitigation of database vulnerabilities discovered using the
Imperva Discovery and Assessment Server (DAS).

Rapid time-to-value
The flexible SecureSphere architecture enables growth without disruption to the
existing environment, and allows businesses to do more with less. Imperva brings
predictable enterprise scalability to the table. A Fortune 500 company switched to
Imperva because they were unable to plan or budget confidently for the future with
their existing solution. With Imperva, the company was not only able to significantly
reduce the monitoring footprint and operational costs, but they were also able to
plan and budget accurately for their future growth.

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