Release Notes

Open Raven Platform Release: Major Leap Forward in Structured Data Classification, Maps Design and Performance Enhancements, and New Data Classes

Hamilton Yang
Director, Product Management
December 7, 2022

November was a busy month at Open Raven. With the weather getting colder, many of our Ravens took some well-deserved breaks to spend quality time with family and friends, while also shipping a ton of new features and updates.

Major Leap Forward in Structured Data Classification

Last month, we introduced two significant enhancements that represent a major leap forward in how our platform supports structured data classification. First, we made enhancements in almost every component of our UI to provide a more seamless experience between discovering, mapping, classifying, and assessing the security posture of unstructured and structured data. Specifically, we updated Maps, Asset Lists, the Data Catalog and introduced a new feature called Credential Manager. 

Map view of AWS RDS engines with policy violations and backup statuses
View of new Credential Manager feature.

Second, we introduced support for three AWS RDS DB engines - PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. All three engines are fully integrated into all aspects of the platform - Maps, Assets, Scans, Data Catalog, Rules and Policies, and Analytics. Read our blog post for more details.

Maps Metrics and Performance Enhancements

Also, last month, we released several usability and performance improvements for Maps. First, we improved the Maps experience to accommodate environments with a large number of assets. Previously, these visualizations resulted in extensive and cluttered maps with long load times. Now, an analytics widget loads before zooming into a specific region and displays key details, including relevant metrics, alerts, and shortcuts. With this widget, we've accelerated both load times and access to critical data security insights.

View of analytics widget displayed when viewing in Maps a region with a large number of assets

Second, we've added a regional details panel displayed on the right-hand side of Maps. The panel provides region-specific details, including the total number of accounts and assets, peering connections, internet-accessible assets, data findings, and violations. The panel also includes shortcut links.

Detailed regional view in Maps with new panel for details and metrics.

New Data Classes

Last month's releases also introduced new data classes covering age and gender, as these can be considered sensitive information in certain contexts. These data classes also address usage in European languages because this data is considered sensitive for many EU organizations.

We've also updated the Database Connection Strings data class to enable more granular control of how the scanner detects actual password values versus referencing a password using parameters. This distinction enhances the scanner's ability to detect problematic passwords.

Bug Fixes & Enhancements

  • The default data classes and data collections provided by Open Raven can no longer be deleted or edited by the user. To customize data classes or collections, the user should first make a copy of the default data class or collection, make changes, then ensure that all future scans use the custom copy instead of the default.
  • The “IP Address” data class now excludes private IPs.
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