Customer: Research Organization (anonymized)
Industry: Scientific Research / Life Sciences
Solutions: Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
About the Customer
The customer is a non-profit research organization supporting scientific initiatives in the life sciences sector. Its activities involve collaboration with research institutions, healthcare organizations and academic partners, requiring the secure management and exchange of sensitive scientific, clinical and operational information.
Working across a distributed research ecosystem, the organization relies on data sharing to support scientific progress and collaboration. Protecting this information is essential to maintaining research integrity, safeguarding intellectual property and preserving the confidentiality of sensitive data.
The Challenge: Protecting Sensitive Research Data Beyond Organizational Boundaries
Research organizations operate in increasingly distributed environments, where sensitive information is regularly accessed, shared and transferred between internal teams and external collaborators.
For the customer, traditional infrastructure-based security controls provided limited visibility into how files were accessed, used or modified once they moved between users, devices and environments.
The organization faced several interconnected challenges:
- Protecting sensitive information, including research results, operational data and confidential information exchanged with partners.
- Maintaining visibility over data usage, with the ability to understand who accessed files, when and how they were used.
- Securing data beyond the corporate perimeter, including files shared across endpoints, cloud platforms and external organizations.
- Managing security efficiently, without introducing excessive complexity for a lean internal security team.
The objective was to establish a security model in which protection remained associated with the data itself, regardless of where files were stored or shared.
“We needed a solution that could give us full visibility over how sensitive data is accessed, shared, and used across our organization and with external collaborators. Traditional controls were not sufficient to provide this level of insight in a distributed research environment.”
Head of Information Systems, Research Organization
The organization therefore sought a solution capable of combining persistent data protection, continuous visibility and centralized policy enforcement while supporting the collaboration essential to its research activities.
The Solution: Data-Centric Protection
To address these requirements, the organization worked with HWG Sababa to select and implement ITsMine, a data-centric security platform designed to protect sensitive files throughout their lifecycle.
Rather than relying exclusively on controls applied to networks, endpoints or infrastructure, the solution applies security directly to the data, maintaining protection even when files move beyond the organization’s environment.
HWG Sababa supported the selection, integration and operational adoption of the platform, aligning its configuration and security policies with the customer’s existing processes and governance requirements.
Persistent encryption and controlled access
One of the central capabilities introduced was persistent file encryption. Sensitive files are automatically encrypted when created or stored within a secure Virtual Vault. Protection remains active even when files are copied, transferred or shared externally.
This enables the organization to maintain control over access to critical information, ensuring that protected files remain accessible only to authorized users.
Continuous visibility into data usage
The platform provides ongoing monitoring of sensitive file interactions, enabling the organization to track who accessed specific files, when access occurred, and how information was used or modified.
This visibility helps security teams better understand how sensitive information moves across the research environment and identify potential risks associated with access and sharing.
Consistent protection across environments
The data-centric security model extends protection across on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments, endpoints and user devices.
By maintaining security controls at the file level, the organization can support collaboration between distributed teams without depending solely on the security of the infrastructure through which information passes.
Automated policy enforcement also reduces reliance on manual controls, helping maintain consistent protection while limiting the risk of human error.
Integration and operational support from HWG Sababa
HWG Sababa coordinated the deployment and integration of ITsMine within the customer’s existing IT environment. The activities included platform configuration, security policy tuning and alignment with established security processes.
This approach enabled the organization to introduce data-centric protection without placing an excessive operational burden on its internal teams or disrupting ongoing research activities.
The Results: Greater Control Over Sensitive Data and Reduced Exposure Risk
Continuous visibility across the data lifecycle
The organization gained greater visibility into how sensitive files were accessed, used and shared across different environments. This improved its ability to oversee data interactions and maintain control over information exchanged between internal users and external collaborators.
Persistent protection beyond infrastructure boundaries
With encryption applied directly to sensitive files, protection no longer depended exclusively on the security of individual devices, networks or storage locations. The organization could maintain access controls even when protected information moved outside its infrastructure, reducing exposure to unauthorized access and data leakage.
Simplified security governance and operational management
Automated policy enforcement and centralized configuration helped simplify the management of data protection requirements. With HWG Sababa supporting implementation and integration, the organization was able to introduce the new capabilities while maintaining continuity in its core research activities.
Secure collaboration across the research ecosystem
The project strengthened the organization’s ability to protect confidential information while supporting collaboration with research institutions, healthcare organizations and external partners.
By combining persistent encryption, continuous monitoring and automated policies, the customer established a more consistent approach to data security across its distributed research environment.
The collaboration between HWG Sababa and ITsMine demonstrated how data-centric security can help research organizations balance information protection, operational efficiency and the need to share data securely.
