The Top 5 File Activity Monitoring Tools in 2024

Organizations must maintain control over sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access or file modifications. File activity monitoring software gives organizations the visibility and control they need to mitigate the risks of data breaches, insider threats, and compliance violations. 

These solutions provide valuable insights into who is accessing files, their actions, and when these activities are taking place. By tracking these users’ interactions, organizations can detect improper access, enable rapid threat response, and help enforce data security policies. This article highlights the top five file activity monitoring tools businesses can leverage to address these pressing concerns.

Teramind

Teramind is a leading player in the user activity monitoring space, offering a comprehensive suite of features designed to safeguard sensitive files and protect against data loss and insider threats. 

With its advanced behavioral insights and automated response capabilities, Teramind empowers businesses to gain a granular understanding of file-related activities and easily enforce company policies.

The platform’s robust file activity monitoring capabilities are a key differentiator. Teramind’s solution provides businesses with a detailed audit trail of file movements, enabling them to track and respond to potential data security incidents.

Key Monitoring Features

• Comprehensive File Activity Tracking: Teramind’s file transfer tracking capabilities allow organizations to monitor all file-related actions, such as creation, deletion, access, or write operations, providing a detailed audit trail of file movements within the system.
• Cloud and Email Attachment Monitoring: The platform’s ability to detect and notify administrators when files are uploaded to cloud storage services or shared via email attachments helps businesses stay on top of potential data exfiltration attempts.
• Forensic-level Visibility: Teramind’s visual screen recording and textual logging features provide comprehensive forensic data, enabling administrators to precisely track a file’s journey through the organization, regardless of whether it was accessed or modified through third-party applications.

Pricing

Teramind offers several pricing plans and product versions to accommodate businesses of different sizes:

• Teramind Starter: Starts at $15 per user per month 
• Teramind UAM: Starts at $30 per user per month 
• Teramind DLP: Starts at $35 per user per month 
• Teramind Enterprise: Custom pricing for large enterprises and government organizations.

The pricing plans include various features, from essential user activity monitoring to advanced data loss prevention capabilities and support for in-app field parsing and custom integrations. 

Teramind’s robust file activity monitoring capabilities and its automated response and reporting features make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking to fortify their data security and gain valuable insights into user behavior.

Imperva

Imperva is a cybersecurity company that offers a comprehensive suite of data security and protection solutions, including file integrity monitoring (FIM) and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA). 

The company’s products focus on securing data, databases, and web applications across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Imperva’s solutions are designed to provide organizations with the visibility, analytics, and automation needed to manage data risks and ensure regulatory compliance effectively.

Key Monitoring Features

• File Integrity Monitoring: Imperva’s FIM capabilities track and report on unexpected changes to critical files, enabling the detection of malicious activity, accidental modifications, and verification of system updates and integrity.
• User Behavior Analytics: Imperva’s user behavior analytics automate the detection of non-compliant, risky, or suspicious data access behavior, helping organizations quickly identify and prioritize security incidents for faster problem resolution.

Drawbacks of Imperva

• Imperva’s solutions can be resource-intensive, with potential performance impacts during inspection and mitigation processes.
• Imperva’s initial setup and configuration can be complex, requiring a deep understanding of the tool and its capabilities.
• Imperva’s user interface and reporting features could be improved to enhance usability and ease of navigation.

Pricing

• Imperva offers several pricing options for its data security solutions, including cloud data security, data discovery and classification, and data 360. While the SaaS offering is easily accessible via a 30-day free trial, you must contact them to get a custom quote for others.

Imperva’s data security solutions provide robust features for securing data, detecting threats, and ensuring compliance, but they can be resource-intensive and complex to configure. While its comprehensive capabilities, including centralized management and scalability, make it a viable option for enhancing data protection, the user interface could undoubtedly use improvements.

Endpoint Protector

Endpoint Protector is a data loss prevention (DLP) solution developed by CoSoSys, designed to protect sensitive information across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints. The platform offers advanced features to help organizations discover, monitor, and safeguard critical data from the risks of unauthorized access, data breaches, and regulatory non-compliance.

Key Monitoring Features

• Content-Aware Protection: The content-aware protection component scans data in motion, monitoring and controlling file transfers to prevent unauthorized access or leakage of sensitive information.
• eDiscovery: Endpoint Protector’s eDiscovery feature enables the discovery, encryption, and deletion of sensitive data on endpoints, ensuring comprehensive protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and other regulated data types.

Drawbacks of Endpoint Protector

• Occasional false positives have been reported, and the content-aware protection policies need further refinement.
• The user interface, while functional, could benefit from a more modern and intuitive design.
• The product’s licensing model, which requires a minimum number of licenses, may not be suitable for smaller organizations with limited budgets.

Pricing

• Endpoint Protector offers flexible pricing options, including a SaaS-based subscription model, on-premises virtual appliance deployment, and custom enterprise-level pricing for larger organizations. For all, you must reach out for custom quotes.

Endpoint Protector is a robust and feature-rich DLP solution that provides comprehensive data protection across multiple operating systems. However, there may be better fits for some organizations, particularly those with limited resources or preferring a more intuitive user experience.

ManageEngine

ManageEngine is an enterprise IT management and security solutions provider that offers three essential products relevant to file activity monitoring: ADAudit Plus, Endpoint DLP Plus, and DataSecurity Plus. 

• ADAudit Plus is a comprehensive auditing and security solution for Active Directory (AD) and Windows environments. It provides real-time file monitoring and reporting of AD changes, user logon events, account lockouts, access permissions, and log file movements. 
• Endpoint DLP Plus secures data at the endpoint level, offering features like content-aware data protection, device control, and advanced policy management to detect, prevent, and manage data exposure risks across various platforms.
• DataSecurity Plus focuses on file server monitoring and auditing, enabling organizations to track critical file and folder events, such as creation, deletion, modification, and permission changes. 

This solution enhances user identification by leveraging user account records, making it easier to track user activities. It also monitors for potential password-cracking attempts, which can indicate insider threats. DataSecurity Plus provides organizations with a comprehensive tool for detecting and addressing insider threats within their file server environments by closely monitoring file-related events and integrating them with user account records.

Key Monitoring Features

• File Server Monitoring and Auditing: Real-time monitoring and alerting on critical files and folder events, such as creation, deletion, modification, and access permission changes, combined with instant SMS/email alerts on sudden spikes in file modifications.
• Active Directory Monitoring and Auditing: Audit all changes made to Active Directory objects, including users, groups, computers, OUs, and GPOs, and track user logon activities and detect anomalies.

Drawbacks of ManageEngine

• Both ADAudit Plus and DataSecurity Plus offer a wide range of pre-configured reports, but creating custom reports or modifying the existing ones can be challenging.
• They can be too pricey, especially for businesses with smaller budgets.
• While the tools offer some user activity tracking and anomaly detection, they lack advanced user behavior analytics capabilities that could provide deeper insights into potential insider threats or unusual user activities.

Pricing

• ADAudit Plus is licensed based on the number of domain controllers. Pricing starts at $595 per year for two domain controllers. You can also sign up for an initial 30-day free trial.
• DataSecurity Plus’s file server auditing costs $745 annually for two Windows file servers.
• You must reach out for custom pricing for ManageEngine Endpoint DLP Plus.

ManageEngine offers robust security and compliance capabilities, but potential users should carefully consider the tools’ complex upgrade process, steep learning curve, and pricing models that may only suit some organizations. These factors could present challenges when implementing and utilizing these solutions.

Interguard

Interguard is an employee monitoring software solution that helps businesses track and manage the productivity of their remote or hybrid workforce. The platform offers a range of features to monitor employee activity, including real-time tracking of computer and mobile device usage, detailed productivity metrics, and customizable alerts for suspicious behavior.

Key Monitoring Features

• File Activity Tracking: Interguard’s file activity tracking feature monitors all file interactions on the employee’s endpoint, even when they’re not connected to the network, ensuring continuous oversight.
• Flexible Monitoring Policies: The software’s flexible monitoring policies enable administrators to set distinct tracking rules based on team, group, or individual employee risk levels, allowing organizations to balance productivity oversight and employee privacy while tailoring the monitoring strategy to their specific needs and regulatory compliance requirements.

Drawbacks of Interguard

• The software can be challenging to navigate and maneuver, requiring a learning curve for new users.
• The pricing model can be complex, with various add-on modules and services that can quickly add up in cost, potentially making it less accessible for smaller businesses.
• Concerns have been expressed about the software’s ability to accurately capture all employee activities, which could lead to potential misinterpretations based on the data.

Pricing

• Interguard offers a monthly subscription plan starting at $25 per user, with a minimum of 5 users.
• Yearly plans are also available, with additional discounts for longer-term commitments (2, 3, and 5 years).
• Custom quotes are available for larger teams or enterprises.

Interguard is a good tool that provides robust employee monitoring features, but its complexity and pricing structure may deter some businesses, especially smaller ones. 

What to Look for in File Activity Monitoring Software

File activity monitoring is essential for organizations to maintain control over sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access or modifications. When evaluating file activity monitoring solutions, there are several key features to consider:

Cross-Platform Protection

Monitoring file activity across diverse operating systems and environments is crucial for comprehensive data protection. Enterprises often have a mixed IT landscape, with Windows, Linux, and cloud-based platforms coexisting. A robust file activity monitoring solution should seamlessly integrate with this heterogeneous infrastructure, providing a unified view of file access and modifications regardless of the underlying system.

Granular File Access Rights

Granular control over file permissions is essential for enforcing the principle of least privilege and minimizing the risk of data breaches. The software should allow administrators to set detailed access rights down to the individual file or folder level. This ensures that only authorized personnel can interact with sensitive information, reducing the attack surface and limiting the potential for accidental or malicious data exposure.

Detect Abnormal File Activity

Advanced analytics capabilities are vital for identifying suspicious file-related activities. The software should establish a baseline of normal user behavior and leverage machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies, such as unusual access patterns or unexpected file modifications. By highlighting these deviations, the solution can help security teams quickly identify and investigate potential security threats, such as insider incidents or unauthorized data exfiltration attempts.

Enable Rapid Threat Response

Timely incident response is critical for mitigating the impact of security breaches. The file activity monitoring software should provide real-time alerts and comprehensive event logs, equipping administrators with the information they need to investigate and address any suspicious activities swiftly. Rapid threat detection and response capabilities can help organizations minimize damage and ensure the integrity of their sensitive data.

Block Access to Devices or USB Devices

Some solutions can monitor file activity and control access to specific devices or USB drives. This feature can be particularly valuable for organizations with a mobile workforce or those handling confidential information, as it can prevent the unauthorized transfer of sensitive data through removable media or external storage devices.

Screen Recording

Screen recording capabilities can complement the file activity monitoring functionality by providing a visual record of user actions. This can be invaluable for forensic analysis, compliance audits, and training. By capturing user interactions with files and applications, the software can offer a comprehensive audit trail that enhances an organization’s ability to investigate security incidents and demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.

Conclusion

Enterprises seeking to enhance their data security, detect insider threats, and ensure regulatory compliance should carefully evaluate these solutions based on their specific needs, IT infrastructure, and budgetary constraints. 

Among the solutions discussed, Teramind stands out with its comprehensive file activity tracking capabilities, cloud and email attachment monitoring, and forensic-level visibility, positioning it as a frontrunner in the file activity monitoring market.