The biggest challenge of securing modern IT infrastructures is to protect networks that mix different platforms and operating systems. CoSoSys has always considered this challenge when releasing a new version of their endpoint security and data loss prevention solutions, making them available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The same holds true for the freshly released EasyLock version 2, the software developer’s portable data protection solution.

This enhanced new version offers full support for cross-platform data encryption between Windows, Mac OS X and Linux openSUSE and Ubuntu. EasyLock 2 comes with military-grade protection for data stored on USB flash drives and other portable storage devices through its 256bit AES encryption. It also allows cross platform mobility by enabling users to protect their files when in transit and to easily access them on different operating systems. 

To make things simpler, everything is handled through an easy to use, intuitive interface. As the company CEO, Roman Foeckl explained, the main goal of this new version is to take a task that’s usually perceived as complicated and time consuming, data encryption, and turn it into a natural, seamless process. A big step into keeping confidential data safe is to integrate security policies into daily activities without burdening business or home users, and that’s exactly what EasyLock achieved with this new version.

The portable data encryption solution targets both home users that want to encrypt their private files, pictures or other personal information on a USB Flash Drive or external HDD and move them between a Windows PC in the office and a Mac at home, and  business users that need to ensure the privacy and protection of company and client confidential data.

EasyLock 2 can further enhance corporate data security when used with CoSoSys’  device control and data loss prevention solution Endpoint Protector, as it provides enforced encryption of data moved between endpoints of the corporate network. If you want to test it before you buy, EasyLock2 is available as a 30 day free trial at http://www.EndpointProtector.com.

Here’s a good piece of news for companies around the world: when it comes to access to your important and confidential data, you don’t need to treat all employees as equals. In fact, it is highly recommended to make sure not anyone can access all your files, and if they can see them, you should prevent everyone from copying or transferring the information you need to keep private.

Ongoing projects, customer data bases, inventions, strategies, private records of employees, credit card and bank account information, all these must remain confidential. So if you store them, how can you make sure an employee that is unaware of the harm they are doing or who knowingly wants to harm you, fails at their attempt to expose the files in question?

The feature that enables you to take control of who does what with your data is called File Whitelisting. Backed by file tracing, not only do you see who transfers what and to where, you also prevent anyone from copying or transferring documents classified as restricted to being viewed only. It keeps you safe and it also lets you know who tried to stick their nose where they were not supposed to. An effective endpoint security, device control and data loss prevention solution will certainly offer your company these seemingly simple, but very powerful features.

What’s the alternative? You might end up in the same situation as Chocolate Emporium who had their entire customer database being transferred by an employee via Dropbox. Yes, large files no longer discourage anyone. A simple flash drive or smartphone is enough to store all the information you value the most, in a matter of minutes. In the case of Chocolate Emporium, the employee knew what he was doing and took all the information on buyers he could find. But in some cases, there is no malicious intent. An eager employee that’s not educated in the ways of security my copy a similar database on his portable hard drive to work from home, to only find himself the victim of a theft. With the hardware also goes the information, which in most cases is unencrypted.

So keep your company safe instead of making up for the loss. It’s easy and effective. So why not try it?

After a very successful year 2010 and many product launches and recognitions, CoSoSys announced it had been acquired by leading European Unified Threat Management vendor Astaro. Astaro plans to take over and keep both the product range of the Romanian company and their team.

The two companies will continue to develop CoSoSys’ existing range of endpoint and mobile data security solutions,and will also  collaborate on integrating CoSoSys’ device control, data loss prevention and endpoint security solution into Astaro’s Unified Threat Management solution, the Astaro Security Gateway, and on providing a level of overall security beyond any solution currently on the market.

“CoSoSys’ very talented team has created an impressive product portfolio to manage and secure the use of portable devices in companies,” said Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro. “Unlike other solutions available in the security market, their Endpoint Protector solution is easy to use, centralized, offering comprehensive and unified endpoint and network protection. Their technology focus on both Windows and Mac platforms opens exciting possibilities for us to expand our security offering for our customers. We are looking forward to welcoming them to Astaro.”

“We are proud to work with Europe’s most skilled and dedicated network security team to build technologies that thousands of businesses will be using on a daily basis,” said Roman Foeckl, CEO of CoSoSys. “The acquisition by Astaro comes as recognition of the quality and innovation our solutions feature. We are all looking forward to continue innovating and developing solutions for the permanently evolving security challenges data security is faced with as part of Astaro.”

I’m quite convinced people who work for companies that protect their private data and do not allow it to be easily lost or stolen are happier. And I’ll explain why!

I work in such a company. This company uses software that ensures protection against confidential data theft, so no company data leaves the network. No data leaks means no financial loss on this side. No loss means stable revenue, investments in the growth of the company, which translates into a job that is secure, bigger salaries, more employees.

And even if money doesn’t buy us happiness, it is obvious that an employee who doesn’t worry much about tomorrow is more relaxed, more productive, in a better mood and finally happier.
So, a CEO and a CIO who want to add more value to their business, who want to reduce loss and increase revenue, who want more productive and happier employees will invest in a solution to protect their company against data theft and leakage.

What do you think? Can protecting a company’s confidential data make us happier?

Yes, folks it was bound to happen. Device Control, Data Loss Prevention and endpoint security applications were bound to conquer the new over-hyped platforms, Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. And the first one to reach this performance is the latest version of Endpoint Protector 2009, developed by CoSoSys, a leading developer of endpoint security and portable storage device applications. The new version has a clear purpose, one that is a must for all companies interested in security: allowing them to test and implement the most recent operating systems, while protecting them from common threats yielded by extreme data portability and mobility.

“Our goal is to keep companies safe while allowing them to test, implement and turn the latest breakthroughs in software and hardware platforms into a profitable advantage. Releasing a version for the Windows 7 operating system – which is currently one of the most hyped and critically appraised platforms – and for Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a natural step in our ongoing strive to adapt to as many IT environments as possible. It also complements our efforts of maintaining a high level of mobility and productivity for non-technical users by providing them with a continuously increasing range of controlled portable devices, from iPods, cameras and USB sticks to ExpressCard SDD and printers,” explains Roman Foeckl, CoSoSys CEO.

To test the new version of Endpoint Protector 2009, you can download the 30 days trial or check out the online demo at http://www.EndpointProtector.com.

There has been much noise about the Goldman Sachs ex-employee who managed to leave the company with their secret solution to be faster and better than their financial services competitors. At first, the name of the company reporting the data breach was unclear, then more started whispering Goldman Sachs. Let’s sink into the juicy details.

It all started when a computer programmer was arrested for stealing classified application code that powerd his former employer’s, later identified as Goldman Sachs, high-speed financial trading platform. The programmer’s name, along with more details on the incident, were reproduced from an FBI affidavit by DarkReading:

According to an affidavit (PDF) filed by the arresting FBI officer and subsequently posted by news media, the programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, copied “proprietary trade code” from his company and uploaded it to a Website in Germany. He later quit his job at the New York firm and moved to a new company in Chicago that “intended to engage in high-volume automated trading” — and paid him around three times his old salary of $400,000, according to the affidavit.

The programmer says it was all a mistake. Apparently, he only wanted some open sourced files he was working on and ended up with the entire shabang. The fact he never sold the code or tried to otherwise use it plays in his favor. The fact he tried to hide all traces of the data transfer, doesn’t. But that’s somehting to be settled in a court.

What’s fascinating, as ZDNet’s Larry Dignan explained on one of the network’s blogs, is that Goldman Sachs, “a master at gauging risk”, was able to overlook the danger of inside threats. Especially when it’s something all security experts have been talking about for a long while.

When you think about it, nothing happened to Goldman Sachs. Other than a much needed wake up call. What could have happened? The competition actually improving their own platforms and taking over more and more clients from Goldman Sachs. I have a feeling adding up the numbers of this potential loss would make us all dizzy!.

Enjoy!

CoSoSys, a leading European developer of security solutions for USB devices, has just appointed Chillisoft as distributor of its products n New Zealand and Australia. That means companies and home users in these areas will be introduces to their Endpoint Security and data loss precention solutions.

Who’s Chillisoft? According to the press release, Chillisoft is a specialist software distributor and finalist in the APAC Deloitte Fast 500 for the last 3 consecutive years. Our security solutions are carefully selected leading or emerging products from reliable and reputable vendors that can benefit our resellers and end-user clients in our target markets.

We’ve covered CoSoSys and their products before, but here’s a little info on what they do:

CoSoSys was founded in early 2004 with a strong business focus on software development, marketing and support of applications for portable storage devices such as USB Flash Drives and flash based MP3 Players. In a second business unit CoSoSys is developing endpoint and data leakage security solutions that enable a secure working environment for portable storage devices.

Happy shopping, Australia and New Zealand! And stay safe

The Dard Reading reporters have set their mind on educating their readers and helping them understand IT security better. The series is also designed to help IT people explain such topics to atechnical employees easier and faster. They have started with a piece explaining Data Loss Prevention (DLP) – the concept, what DLP solutions can and can’t do.

Here’s a short excerpt of the article defining and explaining what a Data Loss Prevention solution is and does:

In a nutshell, DLP is a type of software that is designed to seek out sensitive data — either traversing the network or sitting idle on your computer systems — and enforce policies for handling it. If a user attempts to send out sensitive data via email, post it to a Website, or copy it to a USB storage drive, DLP technology can identify that activity and record it.

More important, most DLP applications are also designed to prevent the user from executing tasks that might compromise the data or cause it to leak out to unauthorized sources. The DLP software might turn off the “write” capability that would allow a PC to copy certain data to an external storage device, or it might disallow an email user from sending the data to another user.

Read more on Dark Reading and make sure to read the next articles on this subject as well.

Photo credit.

Discussions taking place at the RSA 2008 Conference held in San Francisco point out that security concerns are more and more of a drag on business innovations. According to RSA president Art Coviello, quoted by Dark Reading, this results in holding back companies’ creative thinking.

Coviello backed his opinion with statistics from research conducted by IDG and commissioned by RSA:

“More than 80 percent of IT, security, and business executives surveyed admit that their organizations have shied away from business innovation opportunities because of information security concerns,” he told the RSA audience in a keynote address Tuesday morning.”

Security policies place quite a significant pressure on users who are always told one click can lead to disaster and are always faced with cryptic dialogs boxes that aren’t at all helpful.

Worse, in most organizations security is viewed at best as a necessary evil, due to IT’s primary focus on trying to constrain behavior and prevent some desktop mishap, “Although well-intentioned, the inevitable result is that security practitioners are not viewed as enablers but people preventing the business from doing what it needs to do,” said Bill Boni, corporate vice president of information security and protection for Motorola, and one of the IDG survey respondents quoted by the RSA exec.

After identifying the negative effects of security on business innovation, Coviello also came with a solution. The best way to address downsides is a change in security mentality, a switch from saying “no” to potentially harmful actions to showing how they should be safely performed.

“The next time a new idea comes up, don’t start by saying it isn’t secure — start by evaluating exposures, the probability of the exposures being exploited, and the materiality of the consequences. Then put forth a plan to reduce risk in all three areas. Nothing should be done unless it is in the context of risk.”

This situation fully applies to Endpoint Security. There’s been a lot of buzz on how portable storage devices, such as USB sticks, smart phones and iPods can cause the ugliest virus infections, how they enable data theft and how loosing one with sensitive data can endanger the identities of millions. This leads to restrictive measures such as cutting all access to these devices. The negative result is less mobility of employees, less space for them to work and innovate, less effectiveness on their side.

The actual response to ongoing threats is learning how to handle portable storage devices safely, so as to benefit from all their advantages without overlooking their embedded threats.