Big Data Security

At the recent Misti Big Data Security conference many forms of securing big data were discussed from encrypting the entire big data pool to just encrypting the critical bits of data within the pool. On several of the talks there was general discussion on securing Hadoop as well as access to the pool of data. These security measures include RBAC, encryption of data in motion between hadoop nodes as well as tokenization or encryption on ingest of data. What was missing was greater control of who can access specific data once that data was in the pool. How could role based access controls by datum be put into effect? Why would such advanced security be necessary?

Identity in the Secure Hybrid Cloud

When it comes to the secure hybrid cloud, Identity has many different definitions from a device a user is using to the combination device, location, password, and other multi-factor authentication means. Even with all the technology there is still the question of where the identity store lives (the bits that contain the identity for all users, devices, etc.) as well as how do you prove identity once the user goes somewhere within the cloud which is outside your control?

Analytics within the Secure Hybrid Cloud

A big part of the secure hybrid cloud is the need for multi-tenant analytics to determine when security events and compliance issues happen. However, analytics cover many different aspects of security within the hybrid cloud from being a control point for compliance to handling vulnerability scanning. What are the requirements for multi-tenant analytics?

End User Computing within the Secure Hybrid Cloud

When we look at the secure hybrid cloud, the entry point to the hybrid cloud is the end user computing device, whether that device is a tablet, smart phone, desktop, laptop, google glass, watch, etc. We enter our hybrid cloud from this device. From there we spread out to other clouds within our control, clouds outside our control, or to data centers. How these devices authenticate and access the data within these various places within the hybrid cloud becomes a matter of great importance and has been a concentration for many companies. How we protect the data that ends up on the end user computing device is also of great importance.

Securing the Hybrid Cloud

The secure hybrid cloud encompasses a complex environment with a complex set of security requirements spanning the data center (or data closet), end user computing devices, and various cloud services. The entry point to the entire hybrid cloud is some form of End User Computing device whether that is a smart phone, tablet, laptop, or even a desktop computer. Once you enter the hybrid cloud, you may be taken to a cloud service or to your data center. The goal is to understand how the data flows through out this environment in order to properly secure it and therefore secure the hybrid cloud, but since it is a complex environment, we need a simpler way to view this environment.

Big Data Security Tools

On the May 30th Virtualization Security Podcast, Michael Webster (@vcdxnz001) joined us Live from HP Discover to discuss what we found at the show and other similar tools around the industry. The big data security news was a loosely coupled product named HAVEn which is derived from several products: Hadoop, Autonomy, Vertica, Enterprise Security, and any number of Apps. HAVEn’s main goal is to provide a platform on top of which HP and others can produce big data applications using Autonomy for unstructured data, Vertica for structured data, Enterprise Security for data governance and hadoop. HP has already built several security tools upon HAVEn, and I expect more. Even so, HAVEn is not the only tools to provide this functionality, but it may be the only one to include data governance in from the beginning.