Varonis Keeps Emerson Industrial Automation Secure

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 27, 2014) - Varonis Systems, Inc. ( NASDAQ : VRNS ), the leading provider of software solutions for unstructured, human-generated enterprise data, today disclosed how its product suite has helped Emerson Industrial Automation regain control of its file shares and increase efficiency at the same time. The UK-based manufacturer was crippled by a variation of the Conficker virus just over two years ago. The virus exploited folders that were incorrectly configured or too accessible, which are very difficult to spot and remediate with manual methods. Since deploying the combined power of Varonis DatAdvantage, Varonis DataPrivilege, Varonis IDU Classification Framework, and Varonis Data Transport Engine, Emerson has been able to reduce risk, increase operational efficiency, reduce storage costs, and improve productivity.

Mukid Meah, Systems Engineer, Group IT for Emerson Industrial Automation, explained, "Since deploying DatAdvantage, I now have complete visibility of the entire network. Using the information collected, I'm able to click on a server, click on a file share and see exactly who has access. Not only that, I can immediately see what type of access they have, how often they connect to that folder and the data they're using. From the same system, I can modify, add or even remove permissions."

By feeding the DatAdvantage intelligence into DataPrivilege, the combined solution automatically identifies and tracks ownership for folders. The owner then assumes responsibility for granting access to their data, removing the middle man -- IT -- with everything processed through the DataPrivilege portal. Meah noted, "We've quickly discovered the efficiency of the combined system. When we train our data owners and end users how to use the software, they're impressed by its simplicity and think it's fantastic. I've not had any problems from anyone saying that they're a bit lost -- probably because it's simply click on the folder that you manage and grant or deny access for each user. So provisioning access requests, that previously could take anything from a few hours to a couple of weeks depending on everyone's availability, can now be resolved in as little as five minutes."

Emerson has recently trialled Varonis IDU classification to search through its files and folders for instances of its source code -- identified either by its extension name or a significant keyword. IDU then reports which file shares contain the sensitive data and warn if it's overly exposed, allowing IT to take remediate action.

A final challenge Varonis is helping Emerson to address, with its Data Transport Engine, is its imminent data migration away from a Windows 2003 to 2008 system before support is cancelled by Microsoft. In addition, Data Transport Engine can act as an automated archiving solution. Emerson simply personalises the settings, so it reports what data hasn't been touched in 'x months', moves it and leaves a stub file. For the user, they still easily obtain the data from what looks to them to be the same location, when actually it's stored somewhere else on a different, and more economic, server.

Meah concluded, "We keep finding, with each of Varonis' products, that they do more than we initially wanted, which is great. It means that justifying the business case and getting the budget approved are that much easier. Overall, it's fair to say I've been very impressed."

For more information on Varonis' entire solution portfolio, please visit www.varonis.com .

About Varonis Varonis is the leading provider of software solutions for unstructured, human-generated enterprise data. Varonis provides an innovative software platform that allows enterprises to map, analyze, manage and migrate their unstructured data. Varonis specializes in human-generated data, a type of unstructured data that includes an enterprise's spreadsheets, word processing documents, presentations, audio files, video files, emails, text messages and any other data created by employees. This data often contains an enterprise's financial information, product plans, strategic initiatives, intellectual property and numerous other forms of vital information. IT and business personnel deploy Varonis software for a variety of use cases, including data governance, data security, archiving, file synchronization, enhanced mobile data accessibility and information collaboration. As of June 30, 2014, Varonis had approximately 2,750 customers, spanning leading firms in the financial services, public, healthcare, industrial, energy & utilities, technology, consumer and retail, education and media & entertainment sectors.