vArmour and Okera Partner to Secure Identity-based Access to Applications and Data Across Hybrid Environments

First end-to-end solution for securing user access to critical applications and data enterprise-wide

vArmour, the leading provider of Application Relationship Management, and Okera, the leader in secure data access and management at scale, announced today, a global strategic partnership to provide the first end-to-end solution for securing user access to critical applications and data, regardless of where the assets reside in the enterprise. With this new partnership, vArmour and Okera enable joint customers to reduce risk by understanding when users are accessing critical business applications and data across complex environments brought on by the highly distributed nature of today’s workforce.

Research shows that 80 percent of breaches involve compromised or weak credentials, and on average, take 206 days to identify. Even when proper identity access controls are in place, complex application relationships create hidden pathways between unauthorized users and data systems, making it difficult to quickly address security incidents—identify the blast radius, who and what devices may be involved, and contain it before a breach occurs.

The partnership solves this challenge. vArmour’s new Application Access & Identity Module understands every user access relationship to every application, across every environment, while Okera’s Spotlight performs deep data discovery, and effectively ‘spotlights’ which applications are housing sensitive data. Together, the joint solution provides unprecedented control and visibility over risky user access to critical data all across the enterprise.

“Understanding who is accessing sensitive data, at all times, is a massive problem in the enterprise,” said Kate Kuehn, Senior Vice President, vArmour. “Our strategic partnership with Okera integrates the locations of sensitive data with vArmour’s relationship-based view of all users, devices, and applications, enabling organizations to understand their risk exposure at a level never seen before. We couldn’t be more excited about our partnership with Okera and the value we’re providing for joint customers.”

“The combination of vArmour and Okera provides a rich level of telemetry and insight that is extremely powerful for organizations,” said David Fairman, vArmour Advisor and former Chief Security Officer of National Australia Bank. “The correlation of the relationship between the user, applications and data enables organizations to holistically manage their many risk and compliance needs.”

“The vArmour and Okera partnership is the first time a customer can expose suspicious access to applications while identifying forgotten or unknown copies of sensitive data. This joint solution will mitigate multiple attack vectors while enabling full compliance with emerging data privacy regulations,” said Nong Li, CTO and Co-Founder of  Okera. “We are excited to deliver this elevated level of security and compliance to our customers.” 

The vArmour and Okera partnership enables the following use cases around secure user access to data:

• Fully Visualize Application, User, and Data Relationships: Find out who is accessing what sensitive data and when. Determine the type of data an application has access to and if the data is sensitive, provide a data first approach to security
• Identify Suspicious or Malicious Actors: Identifying application access by accounts (whether incorrect usage or stolen) or patterns (e.g. location) that access new or out-of-policy systems
• Data First Approach to Security: Drill down to see beyond applications and their connections right into specific, sensitive data attributes being accessed
• Audit and Compliance Automation: Automated documentation and enforcement of compliance requirements that govern application access
• Identify Toxic Combinations: Visualize and control toxic application access combinations for improved governance and compliance (e.g. Trading users accessing Research applications; Non- privileged users accessing privileged systems)

About vArmour

vArmour is the leading provider of Application Relationship Management. Enterprises around the world rely on vArmour to control operational risk, increase application resiliency and secure hybrid clouds — all while leveraging the technology they already own without adding costly new agents or infrastructure. Based in Los Altos, CA, the company was founded in 2011 and is backed by top investors including Highland Capital Partners, AllegisCyber, Redline Capital, Citi Ventures, and Telstra. Learn more at www.varmour.com. 

About Okera

Okera enables the management of data access and governance at scale for today’s modern cloud data lakes. Built on the belief that companies can do more with their data, Okera’s Active Data Access Platform (ODAP) enables scalable fine-grained data protection and visibility on data lakes for both structured and unstructured data. This allows agility and governance to co-exist and gives data consumers, owners and stewards the confidence to unlock the power of their data for innovation and growth. Enterprise organizations receive immediate value from Okera, which can be implemented and deployed in less than a day. Okera is headquartered in San Francisco and is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, ClearSky Security Fund, Felicis Ventures, and Capital One Growth Ventures. Learn more at www.okera.com or contact us at info@okera.com.

Media Contact:
Mariah Gauthier, Highwire PR
vArmour@highwirepr.com
(951) 314-0760