While data privacy has gotten the attention of legislators in recent years, enforcement of new laws seemed to lag.

From the General Data Protection Regulation to the California Consumer Privacy Act, regulatory bodies have certainly been taking action against any irresponsible use of consumer data. Yet while the enforcement of those laws may not have been widely felt yet within the enterprise world, that doesn’t mean the day of reckoning isn’t coming. As one key executive in the security space sees it, companies better have the right data protection policies in place or else be prepared to face some hard scrutiny.

“They told us in 2016 GDPR was coming, they told us in 2018 it’s here, and they’re telling us in 2020 they’re serious about this and here’s the fines,” said Rich Gaston (pictured), global solutions architect, Security Risk and Governance, at Micro Focus International PLC. “You’d better be aware they’re coming to audit you and, when they do, they’re going to be asking some tough questions. If you can’t answer those in a timely manner, you’re going to be facing some serious consequences, and that’s what’s getting attention.”

Gaston spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the virtual Vertica Big Data Conference. They discussed how the Micro Focus solution provides data-centric encryption for Vertica users and the need for protection across multiple platforms. (* Disclosure below.)

Protecting the data lifecycle

Concerns around an appropriate level of readiness for regulatory enforcement have led enterprises to seek solutions that provide both protection against data breaches and an effective audit trail to understand what the data is and where it resides. Micro Focus’ Voltage SecureData offering sits atop the Vertica database management solution to provide persistent file encryption across multiple platforms.

“Let’s add some defense in depth to your data,” Gaston said. “We apply that to the data itself by changing the actual data element of ‘Rich Gaston.’ I will change that name into cyphertext, and that yields a whole bunch of benefits throughout the organization as we deal with the lifecycle of that data.”

For Voltage users, if someone registers as a new customer and they’re going to perform e-commerce transactions on a website, the solution will guard data from end to end.

“We’ll take that data and protect it right at the point of capture,” Gaston explained. “We can now flow that through the organization and decrypt it at will on any platform that you have. Cryptography is really hard stuff, and we take care of all of that.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the virtual Vertica Big Data Conference. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Vertica Big Data Conference. Neither Vertica, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE