What Is File Integrity Monitoring?
A security mechanism that analyzes critical system files to check unauthorized modifications and cyberattacks.
What Is File Integrity Monitoring?
File Integrity Monitoring Definition
File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is a widely used security control mechanism in IT organizations. It examines the integrity of sensitive files, registry keys, and folders within the host operating system and checks whether files have been altered or compromised by tracking logs and comparing the current version to a known baseline. Companies can monitor file integrity by leveraging advanced file integrity monitoring (FIM) tools that help automatically track and alert IT admins to unauthorized modifications across critical files.
How to check/test file integrity
With regular file integrity testing, IT administrators can keep track of unauthorized file access, alert security professionals if an anomaly is detected, and mitigate cyberthreats. File integrity monitoring works by first creating a baseline, which acts as a reference point and is periodically analyzed to detect tampering or fraud.
New file changes are compared against the baseline to identify unauthorized and unwanted activities. The baseline then gets stored in a generated database as cryptographic hashes. The cryptographic hashes store the information regarding the original state of the files on the host and cannot be modified. Other details about the files stored in the database include their size, type, content, privileges, owner, group, and user credentials. If IT administrators notice modifications between the latest file state and its trusted baseline, they can raise the alarm and generate an alert for the cybersecurity team.
Many native auditing tools help check and test file integrity; however, they come with a set of limitations. These include lack of simplicity, zero advanced reporting capabilities, decentralized security logs storage, limited long-term storage for event logs, complex change reversals, and limited analysis of event logs due to low-level information. Because of these challenges, most organizations with large IT environments prefer automated and proven Security information and event management (SIEM) and file integrity monitoring (FIM) tools to track file integrity.
Unlike other security tools, FIM tools are primarily built to track changes in files. FIM tools can help an organization examine and detect changes in sensitive files for an entire underlying IT environment and its components such as servers, databases, network devices, operating systems, and cloud services. By analyzing the files, IT admins can get insights into who changed the files, the number of corrupted files, how they got corrupted, and steps to restore the modified files and prevent future illicit file access. Certain solutions integrate FIM tool functionality with a SIEM solution to provide a double layer of protection against data breaches and other security issues.
As file integrity checking can offer many valuable insights around changes in critical system files, combining it with a SIEM tool that’s efficient at collecting log data results in a more robust and intelligent security system than traditional FIM solutions. It centralizes the data collected for IT admins to efficiently perform file integrity monitoring and other critical analysis. The FIM features in these solutions can easily detect unwanted file modifications in real time and quickly alert the security team to act. It can correlate the information present in file audit events with other system log data collected by SIEM to get a broader picture of breach attempts, malware, and other threats.
These tools offer threat intelligence via intuitive dashboards, compliance reporting, alerting, and centralized log collection to help quickly diagnose anomalous activity across the IT infrastructure for fast troubleshooting. Additionally, companies can take advantage of SIEM functionalities such as automated and active incident response actions to stop suspicious activities and prevent further damage completely. For instance, security professionals can choose to shut down systems, log off users, and invalidate user accounts as responsive actions against threats.
Why is file integrity important?
Concerns related to cyberattacks and data breaches have grown among enterprises worldwide. Threat actors are continually looking to access valuable and sensitive business data such as system access details, confidential client information, employees’ financial data, and credit card information. Cyberattackers often start by targeting organizations’ critical systems to gain easy access to personal data. File Integrity is essential to protect sensitive host files, folders, and other vital assets within an organization. It helps identify whether a file has been tampered with by unauthorized users. Here are some of the reasons why file integrity is essential:
- Protection from unauthorized access: continuously monitoring file integrity acts as an additional security measure to detect unwanted intrusion across system files. It prevents illicit activities from causing significant disruption within an organization. By using FIM solutions to check file integrity, organizations can gain valuable insights into cyberthreats and the files targeted by threat actors. It can also help companies prevent advanced persistent threats (APT) that are hard to detect and use highly sophisticated techniques to access a network.
- Visibility into file changes: it’s not uncommon for an employee within an organization to accidentally change or delete a sensitive file. Validating file integrity lets IT admins gain visibility into the file change, the source and time of the change, and the reason behind the change. It helps them track whether the changes were made by an unintentional authorized party or a threat actor.
- Better control: checking file integrity is a great way to control critical system data. IT admins can manage file access privileges and permissions for different groups in an organization. It further helps ensure employees only have access to the data they need.
- Improved system health: file integrity is a good indication of whether a file got corrupted by unauthorized access after its creation. Monitoring file integrity helps quickly track intrusion, alert the cybersecurity team, and troubleshoot faster. It helps mitigate future unwanted access and encourages organizations to adopt better security measures, ensuring better system health. IT admins can also analyze patches and updates for specific files via advanced file integrity monitoring tools.
What Is File Integrity Monitoring?
File Integrity Monitoring Definition
File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is a widely used security control mechanism in IT organizations. It examines the integrity of sensitive files, registry keys, and folders within the host operating system and checks whether files have been altered or compromised by tracking logs and comparing the current version to a known baseline. Companies can monitor file integrity by leveraging advanced file integrity monitoring (FIM) tools that help automatically track and alert IT admins to unauthorized modifications across critical files.
How to check/test file integrity
With regular file integrity testing, IT administrators can keep track of unauthorized file access, alert security professionals if an anomaly is detected, and mitigate cyberthreats. File integrity monitoring works by first creating a baseline, which acts as a reference point and is periodically analyzed to detect tampering or fraud.
New file changes are compared against the baseline to identify unauthorized and unwanted activities. The baseline then gets stored in a generated database as cryptographic hashes. The cryptographic hashes store the information regarding the original state of the files on the host and cannot be modified. Other details about the files stored in the database include their size, type, content, privileges, owner, group, and user credentials. If IT administrators notice modifications between the latest file state and its trusted baseline, they can raise the alarm and generate an alert for the cybersecurity team.
Many native auditing tools help check and test file integrity; however, they come with a set of limitations. These include lack of simplicity, zero advanced reporting capabilities, decentralized security logs storage, limited long-term storage for event logs, complex change reversals, and limited analysis of event logs due to low-level information. Because of these challenges, most organizations with large IT environments prefer automated and proven Security information and event management (SIEM) and file integrity monitoring (FIM) tools to track file integrity.
Unlike other security tools, FIM tools are primarily built to track changes in files. FIM tools can help an organization examine and detect changes in sensitive files for an entire underlying IT environment and its components such as servers, databases, network devices, operating systems, and cloud services. By analyzing the files, IT admins can get insights into who changed the files, the number of corrupted files, how they got corrupted, and steps to restore the modified files and prevent future illicit file access. Certain solutions integrate FIM tool functionality with a SIEM solution to provide a double layer of protection against data breaches and other security issues.
As file integrity checking can offer many valuable insights around changes in critical system files, combining it with a SIEM tool that’s efficient at collecting log data results in a more robust and intelligent security system than traditional FIM solutions. It centralizes the data collected for IT admins to efficiently perform file integrity monitoring and other critical analysis. The FIM features in these solutions can easily detect unwanted file modifications in real time and quickly alert the security team to act. It can correlate the information present in file audit events with other system log data collected by SIEM to get a broader picture of breach attempts, malware, and other threats.
These tools offer threat intelligence via intuitive dashboards, compliance reporting, alerting, and centralized log collection to help quickly diagnose anomalous activity across the IT infrastructure for fast troubleshooting. Additionally, companies can take advantage of SIEM functionalities such as automated and active incident response actions to stop suspicious activities and prevent further damage completely. For instance, security professionals can choose to shut down systems, log off users, and invalidate user accounts as responsive actions against threats.
Why is file integrity important?
Concerns related to cyberattacks and data breaches have grown among enterprises worldwide. Threat actors are continually looking to access valuable and sensitive business data such as system access details, confidential client information, employees’ financial data, and credit card information. Cyberattackers often start by targeting organizations’ critical systems to gain easy access to personal data. File Integrity is essential to protect sensitive host files, folders, and other vital assets within an organization. It helps identify whether a file has been tampered with by unauthorized users. Here are some of the reasons why file integrity is essential:
- Protection from unauthorized access: continuously monitoring file integrity acts as an additional security measure to detect unwanted intrusion across system files. It prevents illicit activities from causing significant disruption within an organization. By using FIM solutions to check file integrity, organizations can gain valuable insights into cyberthreats and the files targeted by threat actors. It can also help companies prevent advanced persistent threats (APT) that are hard to detect and use highly sophisticated techniques to access a network.
- Visibility into file changes: it’s not uncommon for an employee within an organization to accidentally change or delete a sensitive file. Validating file integrity lets IT admins gain visibility into the file change, the source and time of the change, and the reason behind the change. It helps them track whether the changes were made by an unintentional authorized party or a threat actor.
- Better control: checking file integrity is a great way to control critical system data. IT admins can manage file access privileges and permissions for different groups in an organization. It further helps ensure employees only have access to the data they need.
- Improved system health: file integrity is a good indication of whether a file got corrupted by unauthorized access after its creation. Monitoring file integrity helps quickly track intrusion, alert the cybersecurity team, and troubleshoot faster. It helps mitigate future unwanted access and encourages organizations to adopt better security measures, ensuring better system health. IT admins can also analyze patches and updates for specific files via advanced file integrity monitoring tools.
Improve your security posture and quickly demonstrate compliance with an easy-to-use, affordable SIEM tool.
View More Resources
What is File-sharing security?
File-sharing security is all about utilizing the right set of file security tools, transfer protocols, and procedures while exchanging sensitive business documents inside or outside the company network.
View IT GlossaryWhat Is Email Spoofing?
Email spoofing is a cyberattack that tricks users by sending malicious emails from forged users or trusted accounts.
View IT GlossaryWhat Is Network Access Control?
Network access control (NAC) can be defined as the set of rules, protocols, and processes that govern access to network-connected resources such as network routers, conventional PCs, IoT devices, and more.
View IT GlossaryWhat Is Cyberthreat Intelligence?
Cyberthreat intelligence provides critical knowledge about existing and evolving cyber threats and threat actors.
View IT GlossaryWhat is IT Risk Management?
IT risk management involves procedures, policies, and tools to identify and assess potential threats and vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure.
View IT GlossaryWhat Is SIEM? Security Information and Event Management Guide
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) consolidates Security Information Management (SIM) for real-time aggregation and analysis of log data and Security Event Management (SEM).
View IT Glossary