Imperva has extended its SecureSphere Data Security Suite to look beyond databases and provide an appliance to prevent and log unauthorised access to unstructured data residing on file servers and network attached storage (NAS).

SecureSphere File Activity Monitoring (FAM) allows organisations to monitor access to sensitive file data, establish an audit trail for compliance and reduce data access rights to a business need-to-know level.

“Critical business data exists everywhere: databases, applications and, most commonly, file servers,” said Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman.

“Valuable business documents, intellectual property such as software source code, finance spreadsheets, and many other types of data are stored in these files. Yet, businesses today still lack the appropriate tools needed to monitor and secure sensitive file data within their organisation.”

The solution protects file systems that do not natively have the capacity to log who has access to information and keep a trail for audit or forensic purposes.

Pricing starts at $US30,000 for a platform that works by monitoring traffic through a network switch and keeping track fo user requests to view or download data network storage.

Companies can aggregate, review, approve or reject rights to sensitive files/folders; and audit, alert, and block access to sensitive files/folders. It is sold separately or as part of a single platform that can be used to secure both structured and unstructured data.