This is the fourth installment of my series of interviews with companies exploring innovative and emerging technologies impacting global markets and the digital landscape. With the proliferation of sophisticated cyber-attacks by threat actors, securing corporate data is more important than ever. The DataStealth platform developed by a company called Datex based out of Canada may be an equalizer against new automated threats and is already proving itself invaluable in protecting sensitive data from cyber threats. In the interview below I speak with Ed Leavens, CEO of Datex about their paradigm-changing DataStealth Platform.
Ed, Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Can you tell me about your company and your unique approach to Data Privacy and Governance?
Having been in the business of data security for many years, we noticed a trend. Organizations are constantly being breached, whether by a malicious insider or from adversarial/nation-state attacks. Despite best efforts and deploying best-of-breed technologies which protect the endpoint, the perimeter, or within the cloud. Sensitive data is still accessed and exfiltrated.
The Solution:
While these technologies are still very necessary, organizations need to look beyond traditional approaches to cybersecurity and incorporate a strategy to protect their sensitive data. This is why the DataStealth platform was developed.
No CEO/CISO wants to be a headline for losing employee/customer personal information or even sensitive documents pertaining to their product/solution. Sensitive data is now under the microscope more than ever. Even the newly released National Cybersecurity Strategy administered by the Biden Administration speaks to this. One of the Objectives is to hold stewards of sensitive data accountable for protection.
Can you elaborate more about what is DataStealth? How can it be used and what industries are most suited?
DataStealth:
The DataStealth platform has one goal -To protect sensitive data and documents.
- DataStealth is proven.
- It is deployed in some of the largest and most sophisticated enterprise companies in the world.
- DataStealth is unique.
- The core technology of DataStealth is patented.
How It Works:
DataStealth is a network layer solution deployed in the path of network traffic that applies a data protection policy to network traffic in real-time. A DataStealth data protection policy can perform many functions;
Inspect Network Traffic
Identify Sensitive Data
Classify Sensitive Data
Protect Sensitive Data
Uniqueness:
- Easy to deploy.
- A simple network change is usually all the is required.
- Unlike other vendors, DataStealth is easy to install.
- No agents. No plugins. No collectors. No APIs.
- No development
- No development or other changes to any applications.
Industries:
- DataStealth customers are typically organizations where privacy, regulatory, compliance or governance are of concern.
- For example, where privacy legislation requires an organization to take responsibility for the care and control of data, and non-compliance leads to significant financial penalties (i.e., EU’s GDPR, Canada’s Bill C-27, Australia Data Privacy Act).
- Industries that gravitate to DataStealth include financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail, and government.
- although these industries seem to vary, the commonality is that they are all concerned about data privacy, regulatory, compliance, or governance.
Can you provide a synopsis of a case example for a Data Stealth user?
Sure, DataStealth can solve many problems faced by organizations today.
Use Cases:
One of our key use cases that we talk about on almost a daily basis with customers, is our ability to reduce the audit scope for PCI-DSS 4.0 (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). This standard impacts all entities that store, process, and/or transmit cardholder data. Which essentially encompasses Hospitality, Retail, Financial, Telco, Government and the list goes on. There is also a requirement for Real-time content protection that has come from the update to 4.0 which the platform is able to deliver.
The more generalized use cases found within Data Privacy and Governance requirements are ideal for all data-driven Enterprises as our platform delivers a unique approach to Data Discovery and Classification, Test Data Management, Dynamic Data Masking, Audit and Logging, Metrics Monitoring and Alerting, and Cloud Migrations, all while protecting data assets at scale.
Below is a case study on one of the client’s loyalty and payment programs.
Case Study:
- Points
- Loyalty Commerce Platform
- trusted partner to close to 60 of the world’s largest loyalty programs.
- 1 billion loyalty member accounts and processes over 92 billion transactions annually across six continents and in over 50 different currencies
- The Problem
- Payment cards exist across all Points IT environments.
- Presents a data security concern.
- Presents a requirement for an annual PCI DSS third-party audit.
- The Solution
- DataStealth intercepts all payment card data before it reaches Points environment.
- Payment card data is replaced by tokens, substitute values that look and act like payment cards but have no real payment card data.
- No payment card data exists in Points environment.
- The Outcome
- “We just set up some network routing rules, and it was really quite easy and seamless.”
- “We never have to handle any credit card information.”
- “If we don’t have the credit card data, we can’t expose the credit card data.”
- “The biggest benefit over the past five years is peace of mind.”
- Alan Owens, VP Information Security, and Privacy
What do you see as the most challenging threats to securing data and networks in the near future? (For example, artificial intelligence, IoT, Quantum…)
While we believe there are certainly great developments to be had in cyber, let’s take a more holistic look at the approach itself.
- Status quo
- Status quo is not a solution.
- Organizations need to stay ahead of nefarious actors.
- Doing the ‘same old’ and expecting something to change is insanity.
- “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity” – Albert Einstein
- Not doing anything
- Hope is not a strategy.
- The Silver Bullet
- There is no silver bullet.
- Organizations need to start thinking holistically.
- What sensitive data do I have?
- Where do I store it?
- How and when do I need to use it?
- How can I protect it?
What are your plans for expanding into the US market and how can prospective partners work with you?
We spent the last few years perfecting DataStealth; Understanding our customer’s challenges. Understanding our customer’s requirements. Creating a ‘Customer First, Second Nature.” culture and solution that achieves exactly what our enterprise customers want and need. We have customers across the globe; Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, European Union, and more. We are looking for additional partners across the globe, particularly in the United States. The time has come the take the ‘stealth’ out of DataStealth and introduce this amazing technology to more organizations across the globe.
How can readers find out more about DataStealth?
Our website is https://datexdatastealth.com/ or we can be reached via email if folks would like to set up a time to chat. [email protected]
Thank you for a very informative Interview!
