This month we released File Dynamics 6.1 – a product and version number that might need a little bit of explanation. As I mentioned in a previous article, File Dynamics is a new data governance product built from the Identity-Driven policy management technology of Micro Focus Storage Manager for Active Directory, but greatly enhanced to include an expansive set of new Target-Driven policies. Version 6.1 signifies the maturity of much of this technology.

A major focus of File Dynamics is security and the protection of data through access controls via policies. File Dynamics policies are the means of automating the security and protection of files located on “High-Value Targets” on the network. In other words, the network folders containing important, confidential, personal, or sensitive data and whose loss, unauthorized access, or corruption could be devastating.

Maintaining its focus on security and data protection, File Dynamics 6.1 introduces new Security Notify policies. These new Target-Driven policies allow you to analyze and be notified of the changes in security permissions for a selected target path. Notifications are sent via email and specify the added, modified, or removed permissions for users and groups.

Many organizations must comply with security regulations that require vigilance in user access to areas of the network containing personal data or other restricted or sensitive information. An HR folder containing employee Social Security numbers or a Legal Department share would both contain files whose access permissions would need to be regularly analyzed for access and security compliance.

Security Notify policies let you specify the shares or folders to be analyzed, the frequency of this analysis through scheduled scans, and the administrators who are to be notified when changes in access permissions take place.

Analysis is performed through scans conducted by the File Dynamics Phoenix Agents and stored in the SQL Server database.

Establishing a Security Notify policy is as easy as specifying a name, target path, the email addresses of the recipients to be notified when permissions to the target path change, and a schedule.

A sample email detailing the changes in permissions to the target path.

In addition to the changes in permissions specified in an email, you can view more details about the changes on the Security Analysis page. The upper portion of the page specifies user permissions that have been updated. The lower portion specifies group updates. All removals and modifications are indicated in red. All additions are indicated in green.

Security Notify policies are just the first of a set of planned Target-Driven policies that will be available with File Dynamics. Future Target-Driven policies include Classification policies, Defensible Deletion policies, Data Location policies, Audit policies, Archive policies, and more.