Effortless Data Compliance for Sybase

Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) continues to power mission-critical systems in banking, telecommunications, and government. This makes it a frequent target for compliance requirements and cyber threats. According to industry data, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 was approximately $4.9 million, marking a 10 % increase from 2023. Meanwhile, the global cost of cybercrime is expected to soar to $10.5 trillion by 2025, growing at roughly 15 % annually.

In the healthcare sector—a frequent use case for Sybase deployments—725 data breaches reported in 2023 exposed over 133 million records. Across the board, nearly 46 % of breaches involve customer personally identifiable information (PII).

Such numbers make it clear: the financial and reputational consequences of non-compliance and breaches are massive. Meanwhile, regulatory demands from GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS continue to tighten. While Sybase provides auditing and access controls natively, organizations often struggle with scalability, detailed reporting, and cross-platform oversight. That’s where solutions like DataSunrise streamline compliance, offering automation, unified visibility, and advanced data protection.

What is Data Compliance and Why It Matters?

Data compliance refers to the practice of handling sensitive information—such as personal, financial, and health data—in accordance with legal, regulatory, and industry standards. Frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and PCI DSS establish strict requirements for how data must be stored, accessed, transmitted, and audited.

The importance of data compliance lies in three main areas:

• Risk Reduction: Proper compliance minimizes the likelihood of breaches, unauthorized access, and misuse of sensitive data.
• Regulatory Protection: Organizations avoid heavy fines and sanctions by demonstrating adherence to international and industry-specific standards.
• Customer Trust: Maintaining compliance reassures customers and partners that their data is being handled securely and responsibly.

For businesses using Sybase ASE, ensuring compliance is not just a legal necessity but also a way to safeguard operational continuity and reputation. Non-compliance can lead to costly disruptions, reputational damage, and potential loss of customer confidence.

Native Compliance Capabilities in Sybase ASE

Sybase includes built-in features for data compliance through auditing, user access control, and schema-level enforcement. These help create a baseline for regulatory alignment.

1. Enabling Auditing in Sybase

Auditing is configured through the sp_audit system procedure. Administrators can enable audit events for user actions, schema modifications, or failed logins:

-- Enable auditing for failed login attempts
sp_audit 'login_failed', 'all', 'all', 'on';

-- Enable auditing for SELECT queries on a sensitive table
sp_audit 'select', 'table', 'customer_data', 'on';

-- Enable auditing for INSERT and UPDATE operations
sp_audit 'insert', 'table', 'customer_data', 'on';
sp_audit 'update', 'table', 'customer_data', 'on';

-- Verify all current audit configuration
sp_displayaudit;

The audit records are stored in system catalog tables. Administrators often export them into log repositories for compliance reporting and long-term retention.

2. Reviewing Audit Logs

Audit results can be reviewed using system procedures or direct queries:

-- Display currently enabled audit options
sp_displayaudit;

-- Query raw audit data from Sybase system tables
SELECT event_time, event, user_name, object_name, action
FROM sybsecurity..sysaudits_01
WHERE event_time > DATEADD(day, -1, GETDATE())
ORDER BY event_time DESC;

-- Example: filter audit logs for a specific table
SELECT *
FROM sybsecurity..sysaudits_01
WHERE object_name = 'customer_data';

This allows DBAs to detect failed login attempts, unauthorized queries, and sensitive modifications.

3. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Sybase supports granular access control using roles. For example:

-- Create a role for compliance officers
sp_addrole 'compliance_officer';

-- Assign role to a specific user
sp_role 'grant', compliance_officer, 'jane_doe';

-- Grant SELECT on sensitive table to compliance officers
grant select on customer_data to compliance_officer;

-- Test access
set role compliance_officer on;
select * from customer_data;

By assigning least-privilege roles, organizations minimize the risk of unauthorized access.

Effortless Compliance with DataSunrise

Although Sybase provides the foundation, achieving effortless data compliance requires advanced automation, real-time monitoring, and centralized visibility across environments. DataSunrise complements Sybase ASE with a feature-rich platform designed for regulatory alignment and enterprise security.

1. Centralized Monitoring

DataSunrise unifies activity monitoring for Sybase ASE and more than 40 other supported platforms. Instead of managing compliance separately in each instance, administrators gain a single dashboard to track logins, queries, and configuration changes.

This centralization not only reduces complexity but also provides a consistent compliance posture across hybrid environments—on-premises, cloud, and multi-database setups.

2. Granular Audit Rules

Unlike Sybase’s native auditing, which requires manual configuration, DataSunrise allows intuitive creation of audit rules with just a few clicks. Administrators can specify which tables, columns, or users to monitor, and tailor rules for sensitive operations such as bulk data exports or schema modifications.

Rules can also be scheduled or applied dynamically, making it easy to enforce policy-driven compliance for regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

3. Dynamic Data Masking

Sybase does not include native masking, but DataSunrise provides real-time dynamic masking. Sensitive fields like customer names, credit card numbers, or medical records can be hidden from unauthorized users, while authorized staff still see the unmasked data.

This ensures privacy compliance without breaking application workflows, since queries return results with protected values based on user roles.

4. Automated Compliance Reporting

Preparing compliance evidence manually can take weeks. DataSunrise generates audit-ready reports for GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, and PCI DSS automatically. Reports can be customized, exported in multiple formats, and scheduled for delivery to compliance officers or auditors.

This drastically reduces the burden on IT teams and ensures organizations are always audit-ready.

5. Behavior Analytics

DataSunrise uses machine learning to track normal Sybase ASE user activity and detect deviations. This goes beyond static rules, helping identify risks such as abnormal query volumes, unusual login times, or unauthorized role escalations.

• Learns baselines of normal activity (queries, logins, access patterns).
• Flags anomalies like sudden spikes or off-hours activity.
• Reduces false positives compared to manual rules.
• Provides early warnings of insider threats or compromised accounts.

6. Real-Time Notifications

DataSunrise sends alerts the moment a compliance issue occurs, ensuring teams react without delay. Alerts integrate with email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams, so incidents are never missed.

• Immediate alerts for suspicious actions.
• Multiple channels (email, chat, SIEM tools).
• Severity levels from warning to critical.
• Enables faster response and reduced risk.

Comparison Table: Sybase vs. DataSunrise

Conclusion

Sybase ASE offers strong native capabilities for auditing and access control, but modern compliance demands extend beyond these tools. By integrating DataSunrise, organizations can achieve effortless compliance through real-time monitoring, dynamic masking, intelligent automation, and one-click reporting.

This combination enables Sybase users to reduce risks, cut compliance costs, and confidently meet regulatory requirements across complex data environments.