Sisense’s commitment to security

As you may be aware, Sisense experienced a security incident this past April. Our team quickly mobilized to communicate with our customers and contain the incident and its impact. Since then, we’ve taken a critical look at where we could do better, especially when it comes to security. Our CEO, Ariel Katz, shared his perspective and lessons learned as a result of the incident.

At Sisense, security is a fundamental imperative and a central focus of our product strategy, both now and in the future. This dedication is not just a reflection of my accountability as CISO, but a testament to our ongoing commitment to protecting our customers’ data with industry-leading standards. Security is embedded in every facet of our operations through seven guiding principles. Our platform boasts continuous monitoring from one of the industry’s best Managed Detection and Response providers. The core of our security stack is the identity and access management processes and controls. We embed security into our product development with rigorous testing and secure configurations. Our cloud security leverages continuous monitoring and encryption to protect data. We secure our software supply chain through thorough assessments and integrity checks and proactively manage vulnerabilities. Lastly, we maintain stringent compliance standards, achieving industry certifications and conducting external penetration tests to ensure data safety.

This incident helped shed light on where we could become stronger, and I’ll share the actions we’ve taken since this incident. Transparency is key to building trust, so I want to share a closer look at how we protect our data and our customers’ data while continuously enhancing our security measures.

Actions taken

Sisense has taken measures to proactively protect, rapidly detect, and effectively respond to threats. This includes architecture hardening, such as validating our infrastructure, our system, and network security configuration, as well as enhanced security for cloud configuration, among other measures.

We have partnered with a reputable organization to deploy a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, which helps us quickly detect and respond to security threats using advanced threat intelligence. Our ‘Shift Left Program’ (Product and Application Security) has been enhanced to integrate security earlier in the development process, adopting a proactive stance rather than a reactive one.

Additionally, we have strengthened our security tech stack with advanced tools and technologies. To address the software supply chain security concerns, Sisense enhanced the mentoring of all partners whose software components are used in the orchestration of the Sisense platform.

Security enhancements

Our team reviewed and remediated identified vulnerabilities while establishing security enhancements on our product moving forward. This included:

• Deployed an advanced Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform with next-gen behavior analytics and threat intelligence capabilities to strengthen endpoint protection across the organization
• Improved security around credential and key vaulting mechanisms
• Verified access to backups is restricted to authorized personnel
• Enhanced Managed Detection and Response (MDR) technology and security monitoring capabilities from an industry-leading service provider

Proactive preparedness

Throughout my career, I have learned that companies must continuously review their protocols and procedures. In today’s data-driven world, it’s not ‘if’, but ‘when’ an organization will come under threat. The key is to stay vigilant and continuously adapt to evolving dangers and nefarious methods.

At Sisense, we understand preparation is key. Conducting regular tabletop exercises and continuously enhancing our incident response plans are crucial. We’ve learned we must be constantly alert to all threats—whether malicious or negligent—by increasing training, examining access controls, and implementing monitoring systems.

Moving forward

We understand the importance of transparency with our customers and are committed to maintaining clear and straightforward communication. We are proud to have provided support where needed and when appropriate.

We continue to have regular review meetings for security with our executive team to ensure our security practices remain robust and effective. At the end of the day, I believe positive outcomes can come from challenging experiences. We can learn from every experience and apply this learning toward ever-stronger security measures to protect our customers’ data.

As we move past this incident, my hope is also for our challenge to serve as a reminder to others, and all businesses can become more vigilant and prepared for any possible threats.

If you are interested in the specifics, visit our Security Trust Center for detailed information on our security protocols and commitment to protecting your data.