CyberArk has launched the equivalent of a cyber Justice League: The C3 Alliance brings together a super-group of companies for the purpose of boosting privileged account security best practices.
No doubt, it’s an area in critical need of rooting out some evil-doing. Consider: According to data collected by Varonis during 2015, there are 35.3 million files stored in four million folders, meaning the average folder has 8.8 files. However, 1.1 million folders, or an average of 28% of all folders, has “everyone” group permission enabled (open to all network users), while 9.9 million files were accessible by every employee in the company regardless of their roles.
The data disturbingly found that in one company, every employee had access to 82% of the 6.1 million total folders. Another company had more than two million files containing sensitive data (credit card, social security or account numbers) that everyone in the company could access.
The new alliance means to right this festering wrong. It includes BMC Software, Duo Security, FireEye, ForeScout, Intel Security, LogRhythm, Qualys, Rapid7, SailPoint, SecureAuth, Symantec, Tenable Network Security, Tripwire and Varonis. Together with CyberArk, the members have committed to incorporating CyberArk privileged account data into their own offerings, especially in the areas of proactive protection, detection and response.
The idea is to boost the level of insight and threat response for customers. As an example, ForeScout's CounterACT requires administrative credentials for all of its customers' network endpoints, servers, systems and devices. With the CyberArk integration, it can securely store and manage those credentials, ensuring that customers' most privileged user accounts have around-the-clock protection.
Similarly, the integration of SailPoint IdentityIQ and the CyberArk Privileged Account Security Solution allows for a unified view and centralized control of all identities, all accounts and all privileges, enabling enterprises to better assess risks and streamline operations.
“Privileged account security has become increasingly critical, since compromised privileged account credentials are a common denominator of many modern attacks,” said Garrett Bekker, senior security analyst at 451 Research. “With certified integrations between CyberArk and alliance members’ products, the C3 Alliance should make it easier for customers to extend the power of privileged account security across their organization and enhance their overall security posture.”
C3 Alliance members represent enterprise software, infrastructure and security solutions, including security information and event management (SIEM), identity and access governance, asset and vulnerability discovery, security management and authentication services.
“Our recent M-Trends report identified privileged account harvesting and abuse as the single most consistent attack vector witnessed during our engagements last year,” said Ed Barry, vice president, Cyber Security Coalition, at FireEye. “We’re pleased to be part of the CyberArk-led C3 Alliance and through tight integration of our respective solutions we enable our customers to respond much more quickly to these sophisticated attacks.”
Photo © Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley