Big data implementations are deployed across the organizations of 55% of the 206 respondents to take the 2015 SANS survey on Security of Big Data Environments, while an additional 28% plan to develop such implementations in the next two years. They are using their big data analytics systems for business and competitive intelligence, consumer trending, science/diagnostics and other business purposes, according the survey.
“Big data can have big benefits for business but it also presents a big target for cybercriminals,” said John Pescatore, SANS director of emerging technologies and advisor on the survey, in a news release. “Building security into and around big data storage and analytics systems will be key to avoiding expensive, large scale breaches of sensitive business and customer data.”
For example, sensitive data relating to customers and corporate intelligence are commonly stored in big data applications, many of which are now migrating to the cloud.
In the survey, sponsored by Cloudera, 73% of respondents identified personally identifiable information as being stored in big data applications; while 72% say they store corporate information and intelligence.
“Over the course of the next couple years, respondents appear to be focusing more on the data- or information-oriented security controls such as encryption and strong authentication so that the controls can travel with the data rather than just happening at the application layer,” said Barbara Filkins, SANS Analyst and author of the survey results paper, in the release. “Those interests echo the need for comprehensive security controls that maintain the benefits of big data without compromising security.”
Today, 54% of respondents are focused on integration with existing identity and access management infrastructure, 45% on implementation of role-based authorization controls (RBAC) and 27% on monitoring around data aggregation. Over the next twelve months, respondents indicated that their organizations will increase focus on implementing the information-oriented elements of a big data architecture.
“The survey shows that over the next year respondents will focus on data classification, access controlled by tagging and policy-aware infrastructure (ABAC),” Filkins added. “Respondents say their organizations are also focusing on data de-identification and monitoring their session and service controls in support of use business analysis cases.”