Enterprise Security Tool Targets Permission Sprawl
According to industry analysts, permission sprawl has reached epidemic proportions, with the average organization exposing more than 802,000 data files to risk. The problem is compounded by statistics showing 74% of data breaches involve privileged credential abuse, while 91% of employees retain access to company files after offboarding.
Panzura has introduced Access Control List analysis and automated remediation capabilities to its Symphony data services platform, targeting what the company describes as a trillion-dollar global crisis of permission sprawl affecting 58% of enterprises.
The new capability represents what Panzura claims is a first-of-its-kind solution. Unlike existing reactive security tools, Symphony continuously tracks, monitors, and automatically fixes permission inheritance problems before they can be exploited by malicious actors.
The financial impact is significant, with insider incidents averaging $US16.2 million in costs. Panzura notes that artificial intelligence amplifies these risks by enabling large language models to surface sensitive data to unauthorized users within seconds.
"Manual permission audits are a nightmare - teams are constantly chasing inheritance chains, investigating anomalies, and trying to resolve violations," said Sundar Kanthadai, Chief Technology Officer at Panzura.
"Automated remediation is the difference between organizational chaos and strategic control."
The Symphony platform now provides automated detection and mass permission changes across entire file system estates, regardless of underlying infrastructure.
Key features include Interactive Access Control List (ACL) analysis and automated remediation for identifying permission changes in directory trees, and a Repair ACLs Policy that automatically remediates broken inheritance for both Discretionary Access Control Lists and System Access Control Lists.
Beyond ACL remediation, Symphony provides the ability to apply custom metadata to files, enabling advanced policy automation and fuelling AI pipelines based on file attributes without content scanning. Support has been extended to Windows Alternate Data Streams (ADS) and Extended Attributes (EA) for greater visibility and automation.
Symphony provides actionable metadata insights, automating data movement between file systems, object stores, and cloud storage for petabyte-scale data orchestration, storage cost optimization, and AI workload placement. The platform uses and preserves metadata during data movement while simultaneously addressing challenges in permission hygiene and compliance – crucial for preparing the data landscape for AI initiatives.
Additional enhancements include support for Windows Alternate Data Streams and Extended Attributes, enabling advanced policy automation and metadata management. The platform also adds support for NetApp FlexGroup Volumes and IBM Storage Deep Archive for cold data storage.
Symphony is available immediately to existing customers through standard updates and to new customers through direct sales and Panzura's global partner network. The company offers comprehensive migration services and training programs, with special pricing available for organizations preparing AI initiatives.