Session recordings in CyberArk are retained based on organizational policy.

What gets recorded, and for how long? That’s the kind of question that quietly sits at the heart of governance, not splashy headlines. If you’re exploring CyberArk Sentry, you’ll quickly learn that session recordings aren’t kept forever by default. In CyberArk, retention is driven by policy, not by whim. Let’s walk through what that means in practical terms and why it matters in the real world.

Let’s start with the big idea: retention is a policy choice

Imagine you’re responsible for a bank’s privileged access, or for a healthcare provider’s sensitive systems. You don’t want every recording to pile up into an unwieldy archive, yet you must preserve evidence for regulatory inquiries, audits, or incident investigations. The solution isn’t to guess at a number or to rely on a one-size-fits-all rule. It’s to define a retention policy and apply it consistently across your CyberArk environment.

In CyberArk Sentry, session recordings are retained based on organizational policy. This means your team decides how long each recording lives in storage, guided by regulatory requirements, business risk, and data privacy considerations. It’s about balance: enough history to verify activity and investigate incidents, while avoiding unnecessary data hoarding that raises storage costs and privacy concerns.

Why retention policy matters for security, compliance, and operations

• Compliance and audit readiness: Regulators and internal auditors often require access to session data for certain periods. A clear retention window helps you demonstrate control over privileged activity and keeps you prepared for reviews.

• Investigative usefulness: Quick access to past sessions can be invaluable during security investigations or root-cause analysis. A well-tuned window gives investigators the right amount of context without wading through years of recordings.

• Storage and privacy trade-offs: Recordings can be sizable. Prolonged retention increases storage costs and elevates exposure risk if access controls fail. A policy-driven approach helps you optimize both cost and privacy protections.

• Governance alignment: Retention decisions should reflect your broader data governance framework, including data classification, data lifecycle management, and data minimization principles.

How retention typically gets defined in practice

Let me explain it with a simple mental model. Think of a two-layer approach: a primary retention window for day-to-day operations and an archival or long-term layer for compliance and for any records that require extended availability.

• Primary retention window: This is the period during which most session recordings stay readily accessible for routine operations, incident response, and quick audits. Depending on your industry and risk posture, this could range from days to weeks.

• Long-term retention: Some recordings—especially those tied to critical systems, privileged access to regulated data, or specific regulatory obligations—may be moved to a separate, longer-term storage tier. This tier is designed for durability and occasional retrieval rather than fast, everyday access.

Remember, the exact numbers aren’t universal. They’re shaped by:

• Regulatory requirements (for example, financial services, healthcare, or government sectors may have distinct mandates).

• Internal security policies and risk appetite.

• Legal holds or eDiscovery needs that might pause deletion.

• Data localization and privacy laws that govern where and how long sensitive data can be retained.

Designing a retention policy that actually works

Here’s a practical approach you can adapt without turning this into a heavy project plan. The goal is to craft a policy that’s clear, enforceable, and adaptable.

1. Map obligations and business needs

• List the regulations and standards that apply to your organization.

• Identify internal governance requirements, incident response timelines, and audit cycles.

• Decide which systems and user roles generate recordings that matter most.

2. Define retention tiers and rules

• Set short-term retention for daily monitoring and quick investigations.

• Define a longer-term window for audits and regulatory inquiries.

• Decide what happens to recordings after the retention window ends (delete, anonymize, or archive).

3. Plan archiving and deletion processes

• Determine how recordings move between storage tiers and who triggers those moves.

• Establish automated deletion rules to prevent manual backlog and reduce risk of human error.

• Include exceptions for legal holds and subpoena requests.

4. Map data access and privacy controls

• Enforce strict access controls to recordings, especially those containing sensitive actions or credentials.

• Audit who can view, export, or delete recordings.

• Consider redaction or separation of sensitive metadata where feasible.

5. Test, monitor, and adjust

• Run periodic tests to ensure the policy applies correctly across agents, collectors, and storage endpoints.

• Monitor storage consumption and retrieval times; adjust windows if necessary.

• Review policy effectiveness with security, compliance, and legal teams on a regular cadence.

How this plays out in CyberArk Sentry

In CyberArk Sentry, you’ll typically configure retention policies through the policy-management interfaces, aligning the settings with the organizational policy. You may see options to:

• Set a base retention period for standard sessions.

• Enable extended retention for specific high-sensitivity targets.

• Define automatic transitions to archive storage after the primary window.

• Configure automatic deletion after the final retention period, with safeguards for holds.

The key is to keep the policy explicit and version-controlled. It helps to tie retention rules to the asset risk level, not just to a blanket rule. If a system handles highly sensitive data or high-risk privileged actions, it makes sense to opt for a longer window and stricter access controls. If a system is more routine and low risk, a shorter window often suffices. The point is to reflect reality: different data, different needs.

Common misconceptions, cleared up

• Indefinite retention? Not usually. Indefinite storage creates unnecessary risk and cost, and it often clashes with data minimization principles. Retention should be purposeful, with a reason for every extra day kept.

• Only until the next software update? No. Updates are unrelated to retention decisions. Policies should survive software changes and be auditable over time.

• Based on user request? Not typically. While user requests might trigger certain actions (like exporting a recording for review), retention is governed by policy, not by ad hoc requests. This ensures consistency and accountability.

Real-world examples to anchor the idea

• A financial services firm keeps most session recordings for 90 days, with a subset linked to high-risk privileged accounts retained for up to two years for regulatory reporting. After the primary window, recordings are moved to cheaper, long-term storage with access tightly controlled and monitored.

• A healthcare provider uses a 30-day window for general access to session data, but keeps certain recordings for six years due to specific compliance requirements related to patient data and system audits. They automate deletion outside of that window and maintain a legal hold process for investigations.

Practical tips to get it right the first time

• Start with your regulator’s expectations, then layer in internal risk considerations. It’s easier to expand later than to pare back after you’ve built a bulky archive.

• Document the policy in a living wiki or policy portal. Include who owns it, how it’s reviewed, and how exceptions are granted.

• Build automated checks that verify retention windows are being applied correctly across all protected assets.

• Create a simple retention dashboard for stakeholders. A clear view of in-scope recordings, current storage usage, and upcoming deletion tasks helps keep everyone aligned.

• Train the security and operations teams to understand why certain recordings are kept longer. A little context goes a long way in keeping policies respected.

Keep the human angle in the mix

Retention isn’t just a technical decision. It touches privacy, job roles, and even customer trust. You’re balancing the need to investigate and comply with the obligation to protect individuals’ data from unnecessary exposure. When you frame it this way, the policy becomes less about boxes checked and more about responsible stewardship of sensitive information.

Putting it into words you can recall

In CyberArk, session recordings are retained based on organizational policy. This approach ties storage, access, and lifecycle to governance standards, not to arbitrary choices. It’s a practical, disciplined way to ensure you have the right history at the right time, while keeping data exposure and cost under control.

If you’re part of a team that uses CyberArk Sentry, you’ve got a solid ally in retention policy. It’s not a flashy feature, but it’s a quiet workhorse that pays back with smoother audits, faster investigations, and cleaner data governance. And yes, it’s perfectly normal for a policy to evolve. Policies should adapt to new regulations, changing business needs, and lessons learned from security events.

Closing thoughts: policy as a compass, not a constraint

Retention policies give you a compass to navigate the delicate terrain of privileged access data. When crafted thoughtfully, they align with legal obligations, support effective security operations, and respect users’ privacy. In practice, you’ll see a steady rhythm: define, implement, monitor, refine. The goal isn’t perfection on day one but steady improvement that keeps your CyberArk environment accountable and efficient.

If you’re mapping out a retention strategy for your organization, start by articulating the business and regulatory drivers. Then translate those drivers into concrete retention windows, archiving rules, and access controls within CyberArk Sentry. You’ll build a foundation that’s robust, auditable, and flexible enough to grow with your needs. And that’s the kind of reliability every security program deserves.