Modern enterprises are operating in an environment where sensitive data is no longer confined to a single system, platform, or location. Data is spread across cloud storage, SaaS applications, on-prem systems, and increasingly, automated and AI-driven processes. This distribution has unlocked efficiency and scale but has also introduced new security, governance, and compliance risks.

When incidents occur—whether it’s a file deletion, unauthorized access, suspicious downloads, or misuse by automated systems—security teams often face a critical challenge: they cannot quickly answer the most basic investigative questions. Who accessed the data? What was touched? When did it happen? And was it a human user, a service account, or an AI-driven process?

Traditional audit logs were not designed for today’s hybrid, AI-enabled environments. They are often fragmented, inconsistent, difficult to search, or entirely unavailable. As a result, investigations slow down, insider risks go undetected, and organizations face increased exposure to regulatory, operational, and reputational damage.

BigID, a leader in data security, privacy, compliance, and AI governance, is addressing this gap with the launch of Activity Explorer—a new capability that delivers centralized auditability and granular activity investigation across distributed environments. By unifying activity signals into a single interface, BigID enables security teams to move faster, investigate smarter, and strengthen their overall data security posture.

The Growing Challenge of Insider Risk in Hybrid Environments

Insider risk has evolved beyond malicious employees acting alone. Today’s environments include:

• Human users with legitimate access

• Privileged service accounts running automated processes

• AI agents interacting with sensitive data at scale

• Hybrid data estates spanning cloud, SaaS, and on-prem systems

When combined with limited visibility, this complexity increases exposure.

Key challenges facing security teams today include:

• Incomplete audit trails across systems

• Lack of context around what data was accessed

• Difficulty correlating identity activity across platforms

• Manual, time-consuming investigations

• Limited support for AI and non-human identities

Without unified visibility, organizations often discover issues too late—after damage has already occurred.

Introducing BigID Activity Explorer

Activity Explorer is designed to provide auditability and investigative clarity across modern data ecosystems. It centralizes activity events from cloud and on-prem environments into a single, searchable, and filterable interface.

What Activity Explorer Delivers

• Unified activity visibility across hybrid data environments

• Granular tracking of human, service, and AI-driven activity

• Faster investigations through centralized search and filtering

• Reliable audit trails for compliance and forensics

• Context-rich insights tied to data sensitivity and risk

This capability extends BigID’s platform beyond discovery and classification into actionable monitoring and response.

Unified Activity Auditing Across Hybrid Data Environments

One of the core strengths of Activity Explorer is its ability to remove blind spots created by fragmented logging systems.

Supported Environments

BigID Activity Explorer consolidates activity across:

• AWS S3

• SharePoint

• OneDrive

• Google Drive

• NetApp

• Cloud, SaaS, and on-prem data stores

By centralizing these activity signals, security teams no longer need to hunt across multiple tools or inconsistent logs to reconstruct events.

Benefits of Unified Auditing

• Complete visibility across distributed data sources

• Faster triage and investigation

• Reduced operational complexity

• Improved confidence in audit accuracy

This unified approach is essential for modern data security operations.

Visibility Across All Identity Types

A defining challenge in today’s environments is the explosion of non-human identities. Service accounts, scripts, automation tools, and AI agents now access sensitive data as frequently as human users.

Activity Explorer extends visibility across all identity types, including:

• Individual user accounts

• Privileged and non-privileged service accounts

• Automated workflows and system processes

• AI-driven agents interacting with data

This ensures that no identity operating within the environment is invisible to security teams.

Fast and Flexible Activity Investigation

When incidents arise, speed and precision are critical. Activity Explorer provides security teams with a powerful investigative experience designed for real-world response scenarios.

Investigation Capabilities

Security teams can:

• Search activity by date, user, operation, or resource

• Filter events using multiple criteria simultaneously

• Quickly answer questions such as:

  • Who deleted this file?

  • What data did this account access yesterday?

  • Which identities performed downloads during a specific window?

This flexibility significantly reduces investigation time and improves response accuracy.

Building a Trusted Audit History

Compliance and governance demands require disciplined record-keeping. Activity Explorer maintains a comprehensive activity history across sensitive data environments.

Compliance and Forensics Support

Activity Explorer supports:

• Long-term audit logging

• Forensic analysis during investigations

• Regulatory requirements such as:

  • HIPAA

  • GLBA

  • GDPR

Having trustworthy, centralized activity records enables organizations to respond confidently to auditors, regulators, and internal governance teams.

Breach Investigation and Blast-Radius Analysis

When accounts are compromised, understanding the scope of exposure becomes urgent. Activity Explorer enables security teams to analyze the blast radius of an incident.

Key Capabilities

• Identify all data accessed during a breach window

• Trace compromised account activity across systems

• Determine what sensitive data was touched

• Prioritize containment and remediation

This accelerates incident response and reduces the likelihood of prolonged exposure.

Accelerating Insider Risk Detection

Activity Explorer is not only reactive—it also enables proactive risk detection.

Insider Risk Indicators

The platform helps surface patterns associated with:

• Unauthorized access attempts

• Mass downloads

• Suspicious file deletions

• Unusual behavior by privileged accounts

• Anomalies involving service accounts or AI agents

By identifying risky behavior early, organizations can intervene before incidents escalate.

Adding Context to Activity With Data Intelligence

Activity logs alone only tell part of the story. BigID enhances Activity Explorer by pairing activity events with data context and sensitivity classification.

Why Context Matters

With this combined view, security teams can understand:

• What type of data was accessed

• Whether it included regulated or sensitive information

• The potential risk level of the activity

• The business impact of the event

This context-driven approach allows teams to focus on what truly matters, rather than chasing low-risk noise.

Executive Perspective: Visibility as the Foundation of Security

According to BigID leadership, visibility is the cornerstone of effective data protection.

Security leaders emphasize that without the ability to see and trace activity across environments, organizations cannot:

• Protect sensitive data

• Investigate incidents effectively

• Maintain compliance

• Secure AI-driven processes

Activity Explorer is positioned as a foundational capability that strengthens every layer of data security operations.

Expanding BigID’s Data Security Platform

The launch of Activity Explorer builds on BigID’s broader leadership across:

• Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

• Data Detection and Response (DDR)

• Insider risk management

• Cloud Data Loss Prevention (Cloud DLP)

• AI governance and oversight

Together, these capabilities help organizations reduce risk, accelerate investigations, and maintain confidence in their security controls.

MarTech and Data Governance Implications

For MarTech and data-driven organizations, Activity Explorer addresses a growing concern: ensuring accountability as AI and automation become embedded into data workflows.

Key implications include:

• Stronger governance for AI-enabled data access

• Improved auditability for marketing and analytics systems

• Greater alignment between data security and compliance teams

• Reduced operational risk tied to sensitive customer data

As MarTech stacks continue to expand, audit visibility becomes as critical as activation and performance.

Conclusion: From Fragmented Logs to Confident Investigations

As data ecosystems grow more distributed and AI-driven, organizations can no longer rely on fragmented, incomplete audit logs to protect sensitive information. Insider risk, whether human or automated, demands unified visibility and rapid investigative capabilities.

With Activity Explorer, BigID delivers a centralized, context-rich, and scalable approach to activity auditing and investigation. By bringing together identity activity, data sensitivity, and historical records into a single experience, the platform enables security teams to move faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.

In an era where understanding who accessed data, when, and why is non-negotiable, Activity Explorer sets a new standard for modern data security and governance.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.