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Transfer Protocol (FTP) logs for greater visibility into file transfer operations.
Reviewing these logs will ensure timely flags of compliance violations, provide insight
into reasons for errors (why a file transfer failed or when it failed), diagnose potential
threats such as repeated attempts at failed login, and provide an audit trail for
compliance. IT pros must gain full visibility and governance of all file transfer activity
on the network.

2. Encryption is Key: Whether it’s a small business or a Fortune 500 company, the
possibility of data leakage and breaches happening outside the private network—
when the data transmission reaches the Internet—is always there. In January, the
second largest healthcare provider in the U.S., Anthem, was the victim of a
sophisticated cyber-attack that resulted in the leakage of 80 million customers’
personal financial and healthcare data. If the cost of each customer breach is
approximately $201, Anthem could potentially be looking at massive financial
consequences, not to mention the unfortunate position its customers are now in.

While the Anthem breach was traced to a hacked administrator account and no
amount of encryption could have prevented the incident, IT pros should always err
on the side of safety and make sure they have control over security and encryption
levels of file transfers.

Based on day-to-day business requirements and the overall IT environment, it’s
critical to determine the best mode of file transfer and apply the right protocol and
encryption ciphers, certificates and private keys to enhance security.

To compound this layer of security, admins should also enable password protection
for external file transfers, where clients can be made to enter a password before
downloading a shared file from the file server. In addition, when file transfer with FTP
is not sufficiently secure, organizations can also use MFT solutions to gain enhanced
security with protocols such as FTPS (FTP over SSL) and SFTP (FTP over SSH).

3. Authenticate, Authenticate, Authenticate…and then Authorize: In this era of
corporate data breaches, ensuring users are indeed who they say they are is also
critical. The Anthem breach was the result of a hacked administrator account that
then allowed access to an unencrypted database. Authentication is not just a best
practice, but a necessity for companies in the age of cloud.

Settings and features that allow enable the granting and denying of access to
employees by leveraging integration with Active Directory and LDAP servers should
be sought out and used.

Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone in an organization needs the same level of
access to exchange files, and IT must have control limits and permissions for file
transfer, including who has access to send what type of file, what size of file and
when.

23 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2015 Edition
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