Guardium Rated at the Top of the Class in InformationWeek Lab Test.

"Guardium has thrown in practically every feature you'll need to lock down sensitive data" with "capabilities that stand out from other products we've tested" and a "well-designed and attractive Web interface that shows off the maturity of the 6.0 release"

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Guardium, the database security company, was rated "at the top of the DBEP [database extrusion prevention] class" with a "solid feature set that should please security pros looking to take back control of database security" in a recent lab review of database monitoring and security solutions published by InformationWeek magazine.

The review concludes that Guardium SQL Guard[TM] V6.0 provides "capabilities that stand out from other products we've tested." These products include Imperva's SecureSphere Database Security Gateway and RippleTech's InformantContact.

Conducted by John Sawyer, Senior Security Engineer at the University of Florida, the lab test examined key criteria including ease of installation and configuration; breadth of database support; visibility into database activity; detection and notification and/or blocking of attacks; product features; and price. The article, entitled "Put Your Databases In Good Hands," appears in the August 13th print issue of Information Week, a CMP publication.

The review summarizes its testing by saying that the Guardium appliance "did a stellar job protecting our test systems."

Protecting Enterprise Data

The lab test examined each product's ability to handle unauthorized or suspicious activities such as large amounts of credit card data being extracted from the database, or data being retrieved using unauthorized applications such as Microsoft Excel rather than via line-of-business Web server applications:

"SQL Guard 6.0 delivers true database extrusion prevention." Its security rules "provide a lot of flexibility" since "we could trigger on any combination of information related to database activity including client/server IP, database name/user, data patterns, SQL command, source application, field name, time of day and more." It also notes that "one of the most useful rule-creation features was the policy simulator that would test our rule against data currently logged in SQL Guard."

Reducing Compliance Time and Effort via Automation

IT security and database professionals are now faced with additional workload because auditors are requiring them to implement tighter internal controls and detailed compliance reports related to the activities of database users, especially privileged users. For example, this is typically required for compliance with corporate governance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and privacy regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

"Automation is one of SQL Guard's strengths" since "practically every task, from database server discovery to classification of data, can be automated." The review continues, "Day-to-day management was a breeze thanks to a thorough, well-designed and attractive Web interface that shows off the maturity of the 6.0 release."

Appliance with Preconfigured Reports for Addressing Auditors' Requirements Quickly

In order to rapidly meet compliance monitoring requirements, in the article Sawyer notes that Guardium provides "more than 100 preconfigured reports" which "should satisfy everyone from your pointy haired boss to the corporate auditors." In addition, "creating custom reports is as simple as dragging and dropping items of interest."

With respect to ease-of-installation, the review states that Guardium's appliance-based solution "came to our University of Florida Real World Lab on a beefy Dell 1U server that can be deployed either inline or out-of-band" and that, "in either scenario, it acts as a true extrusion prevention system, dropping traffic when inline or sending TCP reset packets to the attacker and database server when out-of-band."

Unlike traditional database logging solutions, Guardium's solution monitors all database traffic at the network level, thereby having no impact on database performance. In order to monitor privileged user activity via local-access connections such as local consoles, shared memory, named pipes or Oracle BEQ - or in environments with virtualization or no access to SPAN ports on network switches - it also monitors database traffic on the database sever itself via a lightweight software probe called S-TAP[TM]. The review reports that "we installed the S-TAP on our Windows Server 2003 R2 systems with no problem" and "all database activity generated from the local SQL management console was reported in SQL Guard."

The article concludes that Guardium's "deployment options and wide database support should make it a fit for most enterprises."

Native Database Logging Tools Not Sufficient

Sawyer highlights that "native database logging capabilities cannot provide the in-depth analysis and auditing capabilities found in specialized DBEP products."

With respect to SIEM solutions - which typically rely on "feeds" from native database logging tools to provide information about database activities - the article also states that "Given the extensive reporting capabilities and various status dashboards, most shops will be able to get by without an external SIEM, although support is included for products such as ArcSight and Network Intelligence."

The full review can be found at: http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201300353.

Validation from Other Industry Publications

InformationWeek's review follows on the heels of two recent accolades: Bank Technology News named Guardium one of 10 technology companies to watch - stating the company is "in the right place at the right time with the right partners." SQL Server Magazine honored Guardium with a 2007 Editor's Choice Award in the "Auditing and Compliance" category, marking the second year in a row that Guardium has received an Editor's Choice Award from the magazine, having been recognized in the "Security" category during 2006.

"Organizations are looking for practical data-centric solutions that allow them to move beyond 'check-box" compliance in order to truly protect their digital assets," said Phil Neray, VP of marketing at Guardium. "At the same time, they're looking for ways to increase IT efficiency with centralized and automated solutions that reduce the cost of compliance monitoring and reporting."

Guardium delivers the most widely-deployed solution for preventing information leaks from the data center and ensuring the integrity of corporate information. The company's appliance-based solution uses real-time policies and continuous comparisons to baselines of normal activity to immediately identify both external attacks and insider threats. Guardium's solution creates a granular audit trail of all database activities - including privileged insider activities - without impacting performance or requiring changes to databases or applications, unlike traditional database logging solutions.

About Guardium

Guardium, the database security company, develops the most widely-used solution for database activity monitoring, security and auditing, with a blue-chip customer base that spans organizations in all major geographies and industries. Founded in 2002, Guardium was the first company to address the core data security gap by delivering a practical, appliance-based platform that both protects databases in real-time and automates the entire compliance auditing process.

Guardium's investors include Cisco Systems and leading venture capital firms. The company has partnerships with Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Sybase, BMC, EMC and RSA and is a member of IBM's prestigious Data Governance Council.