IT Security: Unsecured Mobility
The problem
Anytime, anywhere access to information has become a critical business requirement for today’s organizations. Executive management, sales teams, engineers and technicians need to use their corporate information systems in order to do their job. However, ubiquitous access to the information needed is also a headache for IT administrators in charge of the security of those systems.
Greater perimeter protection needed
Most corporate networks use multiple security devices such as anti-virus software, network firewalls and proxy systems; however, when a laptop computer is used at home, in a hotel or at the airport, most of that security disappears.
Dangers of mobile usage
The dangers of mobile computer usage are two-fold. First, the laptop is outside of the corporate network and its defenses, thus more vulnerable to attacks. If it gets corrupted, the whole corporate information system is at risk when the laptop reconnects to the company network.
Second, the employee, user or partner outside the constraints of the professional environment is more inclined to see the laptop as a "personal" computer in the literal sense. This person, with no malicious intent, may put security at risk by using the computer for non-corporate operations.
Data breaches cost companies an average of $5 million per incident in direct costs such as notifying victims, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research group. Corporate reputations also can suffer, and Ponemon found that 20% of data-breach victims cut ties with institutions that compromised their privacy. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115145402822192505.html)
The solution
matrix42 offers solutions that extend the safety of your information systems to network endpoints, both inside and outside the company network.
Empirum Security Suite technology makes it possible to protect all aspects of a mobile workstation, by monitoring, controlling and protecting communications, applications, pluggable devices and the operating system.
Empirum Security Suite features to protect against the dangers of mobility
- Contextual security policies
- Stateful firewall
- Protection of computer network parameters
- Policy enforcement before accessing the network
- Embedded protection against endpoint intrusion
- Control removable media and wireless connections
- Control installation of software applications
