SharePoint Security Playbook 5 Lines of Defense You Need to Secure Your SharePoint Environment
Contents IT S TIME TO THINK ABOUT SHAREPOINT SECURITY Challenge 1: Ensure access rights remain aligned with business needs Challenge 2: Address compliance mandates Challenge 3: Respond to suspicious activity in real time Challenge 4: Protect Web applications from attack Challenge 5: Take control when migrating data Conclusion: SharePoint Security Checklist ABOUT IMPERVA
It s Time to Think about SharePoint Security The increasing use of Microsoft SharePoint to store sensitive business data and extend access and collaboration to partners, customers, and suppliers has outpaced native SharePoint security capabilities. More and more organizations are storing and accessing sensitive, regulated information through this platform. To improve business security, organizations must invest in organizing, managing, and protecting these valuable assets. By implementing the five lines of defense outlined in this playbook, you will be able to overcome operational challenges and protect your SharePoint deployments against both internal and external threats.
CHALLENGE #1 Ensure access rights remain aligned with business needs. Unstructured data now accounts for more than 90% of the Digital Universe. -IDC 2011 SharePoint Security Gap Without an aggregated, centralized system to view rights information, SharePoint permissions for each site collection must first be extracted to an Excel spreadsheet and then combined by hand to analyze. And, that analysis must be done manually within Excel or exported yet again to a third-party analytics platform.
CHALLENGE #1 Ensure access rights remain aligned with business needs. The Play Aggregate permissions across the entire SharePoint deployment and automate the review process to keep rights aligned with business needs. The Advantage - Understand who has access to what data or, conversely, what data any given user or group can access, and how that access was assigned or inherited. - Simplify the process of identifying where excessive access rights have been granted, if there are dormant users, and who owns each item and document. - Help administrators and data owners establish a baseline snapshot of access rights and conduct rights reviews.
CHALLENGE #2 Address compliance mandates. 60% of organizations have yet to bring SharePoint into line with existing data compliance policies. -AIIM 2011 SharePoint Security Gap Native SharePoint activity monitoring lacks an intuitive, easy-to-use interface for reporting and analytics. Without a third-party solution, businesses must first decode SharePoint s internal representation of log data before they can access meaningful information.
CHALLENGE #2 Address compliance mandates. The Play Use enterprise-class technology that combines permissions and activity details to automate compliance reporting. The Advantage - Generate compliance reports on-time and tailored to each recipient s needs. - Drill down, filter, and organize data. - Enrich native data with relevant information, such as type of data, department, and data owner.
CHALLENGE #3 Respond to suspicious activity in real time. 96% of breaches were avoidable through simple or intermediate controls. -Verizon Data Breach Report 2011 SharePoint Security Gap Native SharePoint activity auditing does not provide the ability to automatically analyze access activity and respond with an alert or block.
CHALLENGE #3 Respond to suspicious activity in real time.?! The Play Use a policy framework to build rules across SharePoint s Web, file, and database components to identify suspicious behavior and complement native access controls. The Advantage - Monitor, control, and respond to suspicious activity in real time. - Balance the need for trust and openness with security concerns.
CHALLENGE #4 Protect Web applications from attack. 31% of organizations are using SharePoint for externally facing Web sites, and another 47% are planning to do so. -Forrester Research, Inc. 2011 SharePoint Security Gap Native SharePoint does not include Web application firewall protection.
CHALLENGE #4 Protect Web applications from attack. Keep Out (PLEASE) ADMIN DATABASE SharePoint The Play Deploy a proven Web application firewall (WAF) technology. The Advantage - Provide a powerful defense against common attacks, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. - Streamline and automate regulatory compliance. - Mitigate data risk.
CHALLENGE #5 Take control when migrating data. SharePoint 2010 deployments grew 5x in the past six months. -Global 360 2011 SharePoint Security Gap SharePoint enforces access controls for files using Access Control Lists (ACLs). What makes native permissions challenging, however, is that SharePoint lacks an automated way to ensure that ACLs remain aligned with business needs.
CHALLENGE #5 Take control when migrating data. The Play Identify where excessive access rights have been granted, and use file activity monitoring to locate stale data that can be archived or deleted. The Advantage - Keep rights aligned with business needs. - Free up storage space and reduce the amount of data that must be actively managed.
SharePoint Security Checklist Jump start your Microsoft SharePoint security efforts with this quick reference guide Get ahead of all SharePoint deployments Implement a SharePoint governance policy Put security requirements in place when SharePoint instances go live Look beyond native SharePoint security features Specify what kind of information can be put on SharePoint Concentrate on business-critical assets first Start with regulated, employee, or proprietary data, and intellectual property Streamline access to a business need-to-know level Identify and clean up dormant users and stale data Alert on unauthorized access Establish a regular review cycle for dormant users, stale data, and excessive rights Protect Web sites from external attack Identify SharePoint Web applications that work with sensitive data Deploy a Web application firewall to monitor and protect sensitive SharePoint Web sites, portals, and intranets Respond to suspicious activity such as external users accessing admin pages Enable auditing for compliance and forensics Who owns this data? Who accessed this data? When and what did they access? Have there been repeated failed login attempts? Work with data owners to manage user access Locate data owners Create permission reports so data owners have visibility into who can access their data Validate with owners that access to data is legitimate Create usage reports so owners can see who is accessing their data
About Imperva Imperva data security solutions provide visibility and control of high-value business data across critical systems within the data center. Imperva SecureSphere includes database, file, and Web application security solutions that prioritize and mitigate risks to business data, protect against hackers and malicious insiders, and streamline regulatory compliance. Find Us on the Web Contact Us Direct Read our Blog Facebook Twitter SlideShare YouTube Imperva Headquarters 3400 Bridge Parkway, Suite 200 Redwood Shores, CA 94065 Tel: +1-650-345-9000 Fax: +1-650-345-9004 Toll Free (U.S. only): +1-866-926-4678 www.imperva.com Copyright 2012 Imperva, Inc. All rights reserved. Imperva, the Imperva logo and SecureSphere are trademarks of Imperva, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.