Meet PCI-DSS and Compliance Requirements With File Integrity Monitoring Tools (FIM) From Atomicorp - Atomicorp - Unified Security Built on OSSEC

Meet PCI-DSS and Compliance Requirements With File Integrity Monitoring Tools (FIM) From Atomicorp

(File integrity monitoring tools are crucial for meeting security and compliance requirements, but they’re also critical to answering the most important question when something happens: What changed? The following blog and FIM whitepaper explore compliance challenges and empowering agents such as FIM.)

Compliance challenges. Manually going through logs. Auditing. Tired human eyes missing evidence of a cyberattack, fraud, or a configuration error that leads to a wide spread or deep damage.

What if you had an easier way?…

File integrity monitoring (FIM) is the automated process of verifying the integrity of operating systems and application files to identify a compromise or threat. FIM employs a trusted baseline by which to benchmark if a system or file has been inappropriately changed.

Why is FIM functionality so important in complying with laws and standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST, GDPR and others? 

FIM provides the ability to detect configuration changes, detect when a sacrosanct file has been altered, detect when sensitive data has been sent to the wrong place. It’s a crucial security capability to have. With FIM, you notice the presence or trace of an intruder/miscreant (e.g., a portal left open, malicious software installed, destination rerouted, privilege escalations, deleted log evidence of an activity), and you can do something about it quickly.

FIM protects your data, and for this reason is crucial in specifications for most compliance laws and industry standards. FIM is a requirement vs. a need. PCI-DSS, NIST, NRC and JSIG frameworks and regulations require file integrity monitoring explicitly. To meet HIPAA’s and GDPR’s performance requirements, you’ll need FIM too.

And then there’s this cloud thing, both public and private, obscuring where organizational data goes and how you monitor and protect that data. A FIM tool must be lightweight, versatile, and affordable and rise to meet this hybrid cloud reality by permeating the cloud’s fabric, VM, container and all.

What Leading File Integrity Monitoring Tools Do

In addition to providing precise FIM functionality, leading file integrity monitoring tools should also provide:

  • Intrusion detection – Detect anomalous behaviors on endpoints, desktops, laptops, servers and cloud workloads.
  • Automatic logging – Manage log events automatically and visualize data in a SIEM.
  • Security information and event management (SIEM) system – View alerts of unusual activity in an integrated SIEM dashboard. Get snapshots and bigger reports for compliance audit agility. Elevate analysis beyond the command line, into a visual and interactive management console.
  • Vulnerability scanning – If you don’t know it exists, how can you protect it? For example, anything that touches cardholder data is part of your state of security, and it must be included in your security program for PCI-DSS compliance. You must know which connecting devices and locations are vulnerable to compromise and usage in lateral movement, and be able to extend security services out to defend authentic end users and inward pathways.
  • Cross platform security. Orchestrate security detection rapidly out to the assets you want to protect. Be able to successfully conduct this security, even if you’re using multiple cloud, public to private cloud, cloud- to-premises workloads, or are in a hybrid environment that may include legacy systems. Be able to work across all major operating systems, and platforms including AWS, Azure, and Google.
  • A compliance platform across distributed endpoints and cloud workloads that supports PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST and FISMA, GDPR, and other security and compliance regulations and standards.

Read the file integrity monitoring (FIM) whitepaper.

Atomic OSSEC is a file integrity monitoring tool and intrusion detection system all in one. It’s less expensive than your typical endpoint and cloud workload protection system because it is based on open source principles and Open Source Security (OSSEC). It brings more than a file integrity monitoring solution; it brings a platform for synergized security, flexibility, visibility, and wide compliance.

Read the PCI compliance whitepaper.

Add endpoint and cloud workload protection to your FIM toolset. Learn about Atomic Protector.