With Varonis, Central Connecticut State University Intelligently Empowers Professors and Staff With Control Over Data Access

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), a regional, comprehensive liberal arts public university, was required to report twice a year on who had access to what file shares – the process the school had in place was inefficient and frustrating. With student employees moving in and out of the university every year, and academic departments constantly shifting, understanding access privileges and ensuring that the right people did or did not have access was essential, but running reports on this on a regular basis was not feasible. The school needed a solution that could be trusted to automate the process.

The search led CCSU's IT team to Varonis Systems, Inc. and its DatAdvantage for Windows and DataPrivilege solutions. Varonis (NASDAQ:VRNS) is the leading provider of software solutions for unstructured, human-generated enterprise data. CCSU's IT team is now able to put control over file access in the hands of data owners, such as academic professors or supervisors, eliminating much of the burden previously placed on their team. They are also able to run fast reports that allow them to keep an eye on these access privileges and ensure that no one is getting access to data that they do not need.

Faster, Precise Data Permissions

With DatAdvantage, the CCSU IT team can easily identify everyone at the university who has access to each folder and alter those permissions if necessary. File activity is logged in a single interface for their IT team, providing a window into who has the access to data, who has accessed it, and when. With DataPrivilege operating in tandem with DatAdvantage, CCSU is able to take an important, and crucial, step further. DataPrivilege gives business users (CCSU professors and general employees) the ability to review, grant and revoke access to folders that they oversee through an easy-to-use web application.

According to Rick Johnson, Systems Administrator at CCSU, "One of the biggest complaints we get at CCSU, as is the case at most universities, is about the amount of time that it takes for individuals' access rights to get removed after they leave or switch departments, or for new people to get access. Once we showed everyone that they could now manage these permissions themselves without calling the IT help desk and with almost an immediate turnaround, employees became proponents of the Varonis software and are happy to utilize it."

Mitigating Risk with a Least-Privilege Access Model

Beyond improving the file permissions workflow for IT and data owners, DatAdvantage and DataPrivilege also give CCSU's IT team peace of mind in the security of the sensitive data that resides in these files. By allowing CCSU IT to conduct frequent, fast audits on data access, the software keeps them abreast of any holes in the permissions structure and any employees who have access to more data than they need to do their job. Eliminating these excess permissions greatly reduces the risk of accidental or intentional leakage of any sensitive data.

According to Donna Stevenson, Operations and Database Support Specialist at CCSU, "In today's world, we really have to understand our data and who is responsible for it in order to keep it secure, and placing access management in the hands of data owners with Varonis DataPrivilege has made this process incredibly easier for us."

Additional Resources

• Read the CCSU Case Study here.
• For more information on Varonis' solution portfolio, please visit www.varonis.com.
• Join the Varonis conversation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

About CCSU

Central Connecticut State University is a regional, comprehensive public university dedicated to learning in the liberal arts and sciences and to education for the professions. Comprising four schools--Business; Education & Professional Studies; Graduate Studies; and Science, Engineering & Technology, in addition to the Carol Ammon College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences--CCSU offers undergraduate and graduate programs through the Master's and sixth-year levels and the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. Committed to offering Connecticut citizens access to distinctive academic programs of high quality, the University is also a responsive and creative intellectual and economic resource for the people and institutions of our state's Capitol Region. More than 85 percent of CCSU graduates remain in Connecticut, contributing to the intellectual, cultural and economic health of the state.

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, 2015, Varonis had approximately 3,750 customers, spanning leading firms in the financial services, public, healthcare, industrial, energy & utilities, technology, consumer and retail, education and media & entertainment sectors.

CONTACT: News Media Contact: Natalie Rizk CTP 617-412-4000 x227 nrizk@ctpboston.com

Related Web URL: http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/09/29/7...