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Best ITM Software Comparison [with Ekran System’s Alternatives and Competitors]

Proofpoint ITM vs Veriato vs Teramind vs Ekran System

The effectiveness of insider threat management (ITM) software deployment greatly depends on the suitability of this software for your organization. When chosen correctly, it helps you detect and prevent security incidents, while taking a little time to manage and support. The market for ITM solutions is on the rise, so choosing the right one may not be so easy.

To help you analyze the market and make the best choice, we’ve created a detailed comparison of the top four solutions:  Ekran System, Proofpoint ITM (formerly ObserveIT), Veriato, and Teramind software. All of them rely on user session video recording as the main security data format. Take a look at the comparison of Ekran System, Proofpoint ITM, Veriato, and Teramind pricing, licensing, deployment options, and security features in the table below.

Licensing


Licensing and pricing

Floating endpoint licenses

Free database support

Commercial database support

Non-persistent VDI monitoring

Floating endpoint licenses

Free database support

Commercial database support

Non-persistent VDI monitoring

Floating endpoint licenses

Free database support

Commercial database support

Non-persistent VDI monitoring

Floating endpoint licenses

Free database support

Commercial database support

Non-persistent VDI monitoring

There are several popular licensing schemes for insider threat software: per-user, per-session, per-host, a fixed infrastructure fee, and combinations thereof.

The most common licensing schemes for insider threat solutions are based only on the number of hosts, making the pricing transparent and helping you optimize costs. Products with complicated multi-factor licensing may sometimes have hidden costs as well as additional features included by default.

Another useful option is support for floating endpoint licenses, allowing you to reassign licenses between endpoints. This is especially useful if you have a lot of virtual machines to monitor. While Ekran System includes this option for both physical and virtual machines, you’ll find it hard to quickly reassign licenses for Proofpoint ITM and Veriato.

Platforms


Monitored platforms

Windows XP / Server 2003

Windows Vista through Windows 11 / Server 2019

Linux / Unix (Telnet and Console sessions)

X Window

Windows X11

macOS

Citrix

Amazon WorkSpaces

Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware Horizon

SELinux

Windows XP / Server 2003

Windows Vista through Windows 11 / Server 2019

Linux / Unix (Telnet and Console sessions)

X Window

Windows X11

macOS

Citrix

Amazon WorkSpaces

Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware Horizon

SELinux

Windows XP / Server 2003

Windows Vista through Windows 11 / Server 2019

Linux / Unix (Telnet and Console sessions)

X Window

Windows X11

macOS

Citrix

Amazon WorkSpaces

Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware Horizon

SELinux

Windows XP / Server 2003

Windows Vista through Windows 11 / Server 2019

Linux / Unix (Telnet and Console sessions)

X Window

Windows X11

macOS

Citrix

Amazon WorkSpaces

Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware Horizon

SELinux

Determine what endpoints and platforms you need to surveil when choosing activity monitoring software. Keep in mind that you might need a wider choice of platforms as your company grows.

All the solutions we’ve compared support Windows. Ekran System and Proofpoint ITM also monitor sessions on Linux/Unix systems. Ekran is the only product supporting X Window session monitoring, which allows you to monitor Ubuntu Amazon Linux Workspaces.

Another important challenge is monitoring virtual environments like Citrix, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware Horizon. Functionality for monitoring these environments should be identical to that for monitoring physical endpoints. For virtual desktop environments, it’s best to use monitoring solutions that support floating licenses for native endpoints, as virtual machines are created more frequently than physical ones.

At the same time, Ekran System delivers comprehensive functionality to monitor and audit published application sessions. As for Teramind vs Proofpoint ITM, they both support published application infrastructures.

Deployment


Deployment & management

SaaS and on-premises


Easy deployment

Remote installation/uninstallation of clients

Management via web console

Centralized endpoint client updates

System health monitoring

Easy on-premises maintenance

Database cleanup

History archiving

SaaS and on-premises


Easy deployment

Remote installation/uninstallation of clients

Management via web console

Centralized endpoint client updates

System health monitoring

Easy on-premises maintenance

Database cleanup

History archiving

SaaS and on-premises


Easy deployment

Remote installation/uninstallation of clients

Management via web console

Centralized endpoint client updates

System health monitoring

Easy on-premises maintenance

Database cleanup

History archiving

SaaS and on-premises


Easy deployment

Remote installation/uninstallation of clients

Management via web console

Centralized endpoint client updates

System health monitoring

Easy on-premises maintenance

Database cleanup

History archiving

Ekran System offers both SaaS and on-premises deployment models. On-premises deployment is associated with fewer security risks and provides the following benefits to Ekran System customers:

  • Ekran System can be deployed on a dedicated server or in a client’s personal cloud.
  • Cloud storage resources are estimated by the deployment team according to business needs.
  • Clients retain complete control over data protection and data access.
  • Highly sensitive information remains confidential.
  • Ekran System ensures compliance with industry and government regulations.

Some reviewers point out that Proofpoint ITM and Veriato may face scalability issues with large deployments, as these products might impact server performance. Customers of Ekran System, on the other hand, praise the detailed technical documentation and easy deployment process along with the many automated maintenance tasks.

Functionality


Basic recording and incident response functionality

Video replay of every session

Audio recording

Real-time playback of live sessions

Multi-monitor recording

Master Panel

Monitored data anonymization

Real-time alerts

User behavior analytics and risk scoring

Multi-tenancy

Privileged account management

USB device alerting and blocking

Mass storage device control

Kill process on alert / block user on alert

User blocking

Video replay of every session

Audio recording

Real-time playback of live sessions

Multi-monitor recording

Master Panel

Monitored data anonymization

Real-time alerts

User behavior analytics and risk scoring

Multi-tenancy

Privileged account management

USB device alerting and blocking

Mass storage device control

Kill process on alert / block user on alert

User blocking

Video replay of every session

Audio recording

Real-time playback of live sessions

Multi-monitor recording

Master Panel

Monitored data anonymization

Real-time alerts

User behavior analytics and risk scoring

Multi-tenancy

Privileged account management

USB device alerting and blocking

Mass storage device control

Kill process on alert / block user on alert

User blocking

Video replay of every session

Audio recording

Real-time playback of live sessions

Multi-monitor recording

Master Panel

Monitored data anonymization

Real-time alerts

User behavior analytics and risk scoring

Multi-tenancy

Privileged account management

USB device alerting and blocking

Mass storage device control

Kill process on alert / block user on alert

User blocking

Recording is a key functionality of any user monitoring software. Almost all employee monitoring solutions are equipped with real-time alerting functionality: the software notifies a security officer if something suspicious is happening. Ekran System and Teramind allow security officers to stop such activity and block the user and allow for recording audio in addition to the usual video logs. Ekran System also offers user data anonymization capabilities to ensure compliance with data privacy regulations.

Storing records requires plenty of disk space or cloud storage space. To use this space effectively, monitoring platforms use various compression techniques. As a worthy Teramind alternative, Ekran System provides two options: to save records with the original screen resolution or compress them. Ekran’s compression algorithms allow for saving the master image and its deltas, thus reducing the amount of required disk space. Additionally, all screenshots are encrypted with a session key and the data structure of records is optimized to ensure fast insertion and deletion of records with any number of active sessions.

Proofpoint ITM divides a user’s screen into nine parts and stores those records independently. This approach allows Proofpoint ITM not to duplicate parts of records. For instance, when user activity is located in one part of the screen, there’s no need to record the rest of it. On the other hand, this system makes it hard to delete, transfer, or archive data because many records may refer to a single screenshot.

As for Teramind vs Veriato, their approaches to storing on-screen records differ a bit. Veriato compresses screen records and stores them in a default format. Teramind saves video streams, compresses them, and changes the screen resolution.

Multi-tenancy is a useful feature for managed service providers who take care of cybersecurity for their clients. It’s also useful for organizations with offices in different locations. The Ekran System multi-tenant deployment mode ensures that several independent tenants can operate in one environment. Additionally, Ekran System’s Master Panel allows your security officers to view monitored data collected from geographically distributed IT environments in a single user interface without the need to log into each web console separately.

Proofpoint ITM employs user behavior analytics to gather statistics for the main dashboard. It provides a security officer with information on risk scores and user behavior trends over periods of time.

When comparing Proofpoint ITM vs Veriato, the last one offers a much wider set of features. It provides you with user behavior analytics and risk scoring functionality to analyze regular user actions, establish a baseline of safe behavior, and notify designated personnel of dubious activity. But keep in mind that Veriato offers this functionality as standalone software that requires an additional license.

Veriato also uses AI to analyze employee correspondence and daily activities for sentiment-based threat detection.

Additional recording features

Keylogging

Clipboard

Index by active window title

Index by active application name

Host name

User name

Date/time

Visited URLs

IP associated with host

IP of remote desktop

Logging all USB device connections

File activity monitoring

Logging USB mass storage connections

Magnifier option (zoom screenshot regions)

Keylogging

Clipboard

Index by active window title

Index by active application name

Host name

User name

Date/time

Visited URLs

IP associated with host

IP of remote desktop

Logging all USB device connections

File activity monitoring

Logging USB mass storage connections

Magnifier option (zoom screenshot regions)

Keylogging

Clipboard

Index by active window title

Index by active application name

Host name

User name

Date/time

Visited URLs

IP associated with host

IP of remote desktop

Logging all USB device connections

File activity monitoring

Logging USB mass storage connections

Magnifier option (zoom screenshot regions)

Keylogging

Clipboard

Index by active window title

Index by active application name

Host name

User name

Date/time

Visited URLs

IP associated with host

IP of remote desktop

Logging all USB device connections

File activity monitoring

Logging USB mass storage connections

Magnifier option (zoom screenshot regions)

In order to thoroughly monitor user activity, you need more than a video of the session. Additional data helps you understand the context and search more effectively. If an insider attack has already happened, this data allows you to investigate the scope of the breach, the tools used, and the parties involved.

Advanced user monitoring solutions like Ekran System perform keylogging, record clipboard contents, and log details of active processes and applications, web activities, and device connections. They also record in-depth network details upon connecting to a host. While differing in the user activity details — and especially in the network connection details — they provide, Proofpoint ITM, Veriato, Ekran System, and Teramind all support file activity monitoring.

Searching, reporting, and exporting

Search by metadata

Scheduled and ad-hoc reports

Interactive system dashboards

Microsoft Power BI integration

Save sessions in encrypted format (forensic)

Export screenshots to external formats

Put your company name on reports and notifications

Search by metadata

Scheduled and ad-hoc reports

Interactive system dashboards

Microsoft Power BI integration

Save sessions in encrypted format (forensic)

Export screenshots to external formats

Put your company name on reports and notifications

Search by metadata

Scheduled and ad-hoc reports

Interactive system dashboards

Microsoft Power BI integration

Save sessions in encrypted format (forensic)

Export screenshots to external formats

Put your company name on reports and notifications

Search by metadata

Scheduled and ad-hoc reports

Interactive system dashboards

Microsoft Power BI integration

Save sessions in encrypted format (forensic)

Export screenshots to external formats

Put your company name on reports and notifications

Recording lots of metadata is only part of the insider threat prevention process. To effectively prevent threats, you need to be able to search within collected data. It’s hard to find a single event, especially if you don’t know when it happened and your company employs thousands of people. That’s why all top monitoring solutions allow you to search by any recorded parameter.

Accumulated data can also be used for generating reports. Usually, activity monitoring software can create various scheduled and ad-hoc reports. Ekran System allows you to customize emails and reports with your company’s name and logo. Microsoft Power BI integration in Ekran System and Teramind allows for granular adjustment of these products’ reporting capabilities to your organization’s needs.

Finally, monitored data can be used for investigations and forensic activities. Ekran System, Proofpoint ITM, Veriato, and Teramind export recorded data in an encrypted tamper-proof format that may be used for forensic purposes.

Access management

Secondary authentication to identify users of shared accounts

Access request functionality

One-time passwords

Multi-factor authentication

Time-based user access restrictions

Privileged account and session management (PASM)

Password sharing

Secondary authentication to identify users of shared accounts

Access request functionality

One-time passwords

Multi-factor authentication

Time-based user access restrictions

Privileged account and session management (PASM)

Password sharing

Secondary authentication to identify users of shared accounts

Access request functionality

One-time passwords

Multi-factor authentication

Time-based user access restrictions

Privileged account and session management (PASM)

Password sharing

Secondary authentication to identify users of shared accounts

Access request functionality

One-time passwords

Multi-factor authentication

Time-based user access restrictions

Privileged account and session management (PASM)

Password sharing

Access management functionality controls which users have permission to work with certain data. It’s especially useful when working with privileged users and third-party vendors.

Tools such as secondary and multi-factor authentication allow you to positively identify a person trying to log in to your system. These tools are commonly used to authenticate users of shared profiles such as “admin” and “root.”

In order to protect the most sensitive data, some solutions offer one-time passwords as well as access request and workflow approval capabilities.

In the result of our PAM solution comparison, we can say that Ekran System has the most robust access management functionality among the top insider threat security tools and best PAM software solutions.

Solution work and security

Watchdog mechanism

Driver-level uninstall protection

Centralized endpoint client updates

Audit trail for system users

SIEM system integration

Ticketing system integration

Watchdog mechanism

Driver-level uninstall protection

Centralized endpoint client updates

Audit trail for system users

SIEM system integration

Ticketing system integration

Watchdog mechanism

Driver-level uninstall protection

Centralized endpoint client updates

Audit trail for system users

SIEM system integration

Ticketing system integration

Watchdog mechanism

Driver-level uninstall protection

Centralized endpoint client updates

Audit trail for system users

SIEM system integration

Ticketing system integration

Recording and storing data requires a lot of disk space. If your company has thousands of employees, you may end up with terabytes of surveillance records each week. An insider attack can go unseen for months, so it’s a common requirement to preserve data for a considerable amount of time. This may be a problem with some solutions, such as Veriato, that use a lot of resources for data storage, thereby impacting server performance.

Ekran System uses highly optimized formats to store session recordings and metadata. It also optimizes bandwidth use.

Integration with SIEM and ticketing systems allows you to exchange data inside your security infrastructure. By combining information from these systems, you can trace not only the details of user actions but the reasons for them. Ekran System, Proofpoint ITM, and Veriato integrate with some SIEM systems, while only Ekran System is compatible with ticketing systems.

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Ekran System Alternatives & Competitors

Proofpoint ITM, Veriato, and Teramind are the top user activity monitoring solutions on the market. Let’s consider their functionality compared to Ekran System.


Proofpoint ITM vs competitors and alternatives

Proofpoint ITM has robust recording functionality and logs a lot of metadata in addition to video. It’s equipped with two-layer authentication (credentials and email codes) and secondary authentication for shared logins.

Proofpoint ITM has limited access management functionality, providing only secondary authentication. Product licensing is a combination of a fixed infrastructure fee and a set of endpoint monitoring licenses. You may have some trouble distributing these licenses between virtual machines, however.

Proofpoint ITM doesn’t provide automated or manual incident response tools besides a warning message forcing users to acknowledge their actions.

Integration with SIEM and ticketing systems allows you to exchange data inside your security infrastructure. By combining information from these systems, you can trace not only the details of user actions but the reasons for them. Proofpoint ITM and Proofpoint competitors – Ekran System and Veriato, integrate with some SIEM systems, while only Ekran System is compatible with ticketing systems.

Bottom line:

Learn why top firms are switching from Proofpoint ITM to Ekran System in the video review below:

Veriato vs competitors and alternatives

Veriato is a solution for monitoring Windows and macOS-based endpoints. With a flexible licensing scheme, it’s currently a more affordable alternative to Proofpoint ITM.

Veriato provides basic recording functionality with a limited ability to block suspicious activity. What differentiates Veriato from its competitors are a UEBA module and computational linguistic analysis. Veriato identifies disgruntled employees (who are considered potential attackers) by analyzing sentiments in their correspondence and actions. This solution also uses AI to detect indicators of stolen credentials.

With employee monitoring as its main use case, Veriato delivers a number of additional activity-specific reports such as on email monitoring and chat monitoring.

Bottom line:

As a Veriato alternative, Ekran System supports more platforms (macOS, Linux/Unix, X Window, Citrix, VMware Horizon, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Windows) and is equipped with more robust access control capabilities. Ekran System secures access to critical endpoints using features such as multi-factor authentication, one-time passwords, and access requests. Additionally, Ekran System employs UEBA to detect unusual user behavior patterns and prevent insider threats.

Teramind vs competitors and alternatives

Like Ekran System, Teramind offers two types of deployment: SaaS and on-premises. However, the SaaS model is the most common. As an on-premises solution, Teramind is deployed as a Linux virtual machine. It provides you with tools for native database management, deployment scaling, permission configuration, etc.

Despite considerable recording, alerting, and incident response tools, Teramind doesn’t include identity and access management functionality besides secondary authentication for shared accounts, which is available only for the cloud-based system. Without multi-tenancy and specific scaling capabilities, it may be complicated for managed service providers and those with large infrastructures to deploy Teramind.

Bottom line:

Ekran System is one of the worthy Teramind alternatives. It’s more universal than other Teramind competitors as Ekran System allows you to record not only Windows but also Linux, macOS, and virtual endpoints.

Ekran System provides an incident response toolset in addition to monitoring and recording features. It also includes robust identity and access management functionality and is equipped with must-have features for scaling a deployment from a limited pilot to an extra-large hybrid infrastructure.

Learn why MSPs are switching from Teramind to Ekran System in the video review below:

FAQ

Deciding what insider threat management (ITM) software to implement greatly depends on your organization’s needs. However, there are well-established universal criteria to consider when choosing an ITM solution. For your ITM software to be up-to-date in 2023, make sure that it has the following key capabilities:

As a full-cycle insider risk management platform, Ekran System offers all of the above and more. Easy to maintain and scale, Ekran System is a good choice for organizations of all sizes.

ITM software solutions can help you protect sensitive organizational assets against insider threats, which can be just as damaging as external threats. In fact, many external cyber attacks are made possible due to poor cybersecurity practices executed by your employees, which is also considered an insider risk.

By handling both malicious and unintentional insider risks, ITM solutions allow you to do the following:

  • Ensure visibility in your IT infrastructure
  • Protect sensitive data
  • Reduce financial risks
  • Meet IT security requirements
  • Avoid fines and lawsuits
  • Ensure business continuity
  • Retain customer trust

Although these terms are frequently used interchangeably, they’re not the same:

  • An insider threat is an individual who uses your organization’s assets maliciously. Insider threats comprise a tiny part of your insider risks, which is a much broader concept.
  • An insider risk refers to anyone who handles sensitive data and processes within your organization. Unlike insider threats, insider risks include both intentional and unintentional user activity that may compromise your organization’s security.

By implementing insider risk management solutions such as Ekran System, you can address both insider risks and insider threats in your organization.

Although malicious insiders are considered dangerous, negligent insiders are the ones to pay attention to the most.

According to the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report by the Ponemon Institute, employee or contractor negligence is the root cause of 56% of insider threat incidents, along with malicious insiders (26%) and credential theft (18%). Examples of employee negligence are sending sensitive data to the wrong recipient, misconfiguring your organization’s environment, and having poor cybersecurity habits.

Detecting employee negligence is a complex issue that raises the necessity of implementing people-centric security and monitoring user activity within your organization. That’s why ITM software like Ekran System can be invaluable.

Managing insider risks requires a holistic approach that involves implementing a set of cybersecurity practices:

  • Creating an insider threat management program
  • Establishing robust cybersecurity policies
  • Implementing comprehensive access management controls
  • Monitoring user activity in your infrastructure
  • Managing risks coming from your subcontractors
  • Complying with IT security requirements
  • Establishing strong incident response measures

As an all-in-one insider risk management platform, Ekran System can help you implement these practices to deter, detect, and disrupt insider threats in your organization.

Indicators of a malicious insider threat may vary depending on the type of organization, but there are common signs and behaviors that raise suspicion. We can outline seven major insider threat indicators:

  1. Data downloads — downloading large volumes of information; transferring data to external devices
  2. Unauthorized user activity — changing system and security settings; trying to reach sensitive assets the employee doesn’t have access to
  3. Disgruntlement — expressing dissatisfaction with the job and company; having conflicts with colleagues
  4. Odd account activity — frequently failing to log in; using another employees’ credentials; attempting to guess passwords
  5. Declining performance — missing deadlines; making a lot of mistakes; being late to work
  6. Unusual enthusiasm — volunteering for extra work; working at unusual hours; trying to work outside the scope of regular duties
  7. Rapid changes in financial condition — making expensive purchases without having any obvious additional income sources

Paying attention to these indicators will help your organization detect malicious insiders and mitigate potential damage.

Let’s get the conversation started

Contact our team to learn how our insider risk management software can safeguard your organization’s data from any risks caused by human factors. Book a call with us at a time that suits you best, and let’s explore how we can help you achieve your security goals.