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New Governance and Compliance SharePoint Reporting in DocAve 6 Service Pack 5

A recent emedia study reported by Infosecurity Magazine discovered that only 35 percent of organizations surveyed have security policies in place that encompass Microsoft SharePoint. This statistic is even more alarming when coupled with the fact that Forrester’s “Understand the State of Data Security and Privacy” report found that some of the biggest threats to an organization’s sensitive data come from within – with the majority of breaches stemming from misuse of data by employees.

Statistics like these explain why concerns around the protection of an organization’s security are top-of-mind for many today. No matter the industry, business leaders are searching for solutions that can provide the extra shielding needed to ensure information is protected. AvePoint certainly recognizes that need, which is why DocAve Report Center in DocAve 6 Service Pack (SP) 5 includes a new Usage Pattern Alert capability. This new SharePoint reporting feature gives companies a watchdog tool to help protect against potential leaks of SharePoint content and to manage the actions of users with elevated privileges.

What is Usage Pattern Alerting?

To set up Usage Pattern Alerting, the SharePoint Administrator must build specific usage rules to look for user activity that is outside the norm of expected patterns within a time period. What constitutes as suspicious activity can be defined in many ways. For example, a user suddenly downloads a large amount of files within an hour, or a highly sensitive document that normally has very few views suddenly generates a large number views in a short amount of time. The definition of abnormal behavior is wide and varied, and Usage Pattern Alerting gives organizations the flexibility to customize based on their individual circumstances.

Once the rules are set, administrators can then decide what to do once unusual activity is detected. Custom actions can be set up within Usage Pattern Alerting to immediately notify and/or mitigate the offending issues. Email notifications can be set up to alert specific users about questionable activities that could greatly impact their organization.

Additionally, Usage Pattern Alerting allows users to import custom .exe and PowerShell scripts to instantly perform actions that stop further encroachment such as changing the permissions of the user to prevent him or her from downloading any more documents. To view the specific violations, a dashboard is available within DocAve Report Center that contain the user’s name, the date/time of the offense, and the offending action that took place.

Usage Pattern Alerting in DocAve Report Center
Usage Pattern Alerting in DocAve Report Center

What can Usage Pattern Alerting do for me?

Organizations not only need to protect themselves against outward threats, but also be just as vigilant against internal ones. Investing in proactive and preventative measures helps organizations better manage privileged access within their own borders. Such oversight is essential to ensure special access is not abused and misused.

Usage Pattern Alerting in DocAve Report Center gives organizations the ability to supplement their existing watchdog mechanisms to help prevent malicious behaviors that occur in their SharePoint environments and to protect themselves from unwanted intrusions. It also gives SharePoint administrators as well as security and compliance officers another weapon – along with our Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) management platform AvePoint Compliance Guardian – to identify and prevent harmful attacks.

To learn more about DocAve Report Center, please visit our product page, request a demo, or download a free trial today.

Have a specific question about this new feature? Leave a comment on this blog post or join us in our product discussion forums.

6 COMMENTS

  1. 35 percent? Wow…. I’m thinking in germany are not more as 10 percent!
    Why? Because the last years, managers said “Security costs money”, “IT management costs money”…
    so, we miust say “Thank you” for all the discussions about Security and Compliance breaches the last two years. Now the managers saying “how fast can we implementing compliance?” 🙂
    A cool Update to help our daily working in a cloud based world. Thank you

    • Hi Michael,

      I definitely agree that the tune has changed. It costs much more for a company when the proper security and compliance policies aren’t applied. Looking forward to a more secure future :)!

  2. I feel this is the area that MS has neglected the most over the years as it has improved the SP Platform. Not enough time has been spent putting thought into governing the information that is placed in SharePoint and it is an arduous task for compliance managers to set up governance after the fact.

  3. Yes, AvePoint has recognized the need for automated GRC management tools to alleviate some of the burden compliance managers have been faced with. That’s why we have made governance and compliance one of our top priorities in the last few years. Feel free to check out the solutions and thought leadership AvePoint is providing in this space: https://www.avepoint.com/solutions/compliance/! Also, come by the AvePoint booth at Ignite for more information. Hoping to see you there!

  4. One of my areas of focus for the next year with our move to SharePoint Online! Can’t wait to learn more at Ignite.

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