Safend Announces Top-Five Tips for Keeping Data Safe during the Holidays
Philadelphia – November 11, 2008 – The holidays can be a great time for employees – whether it’s a slower work pace, increased vacation time, the office gift exchange, or the gift giving (and receiving) season altogether. However, the holidays can also be a nightmare for employers as they worry about sensitive data being taken out of the office via new devices such as MP3 players, digital cameras and other gadgets being introduced into the workplace. In fact, industry analysts estimate that more that 100 million removable or portable media devices will be in use by the end of 2008. This holiday season, employers need to be cognizant of how to stop the “Grinch” from stealing sensitive corporate data.
Organizations are feeling the effects of data leakage every day: the average cost of a data breach for a publicly traded company is $6.3 million and the stock price drops five percent and it takes a full year to recover. Companies spend millions of dollars each year to protect their information from outside threats, but it is becoming more evident that they need to secure data from within by developing an effective Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) strategy.
Safend, a leading provider of enterprise endpoint DLP solutions, has devised the top-five tips for keeping your data safe during the holidays and beyond. These tips include:
• Employ a Sound Auditing Process: Portable storage devices such as iPods, PDAs, smart phones and other mobile devices, have become pervasive in the workplace. Allowing your employees use their iPods at work may be a good way to increase morale but it also poses a security threat. Knowing what devices are connecting to what endpoints will help administrators monitor and avoid these threats. Determining what kind—and how many—devices are accessing an organization’s network is the first step in developing an effective DLP strategy.
• Written Data Security Policies: The major concern with portable devices is the fear that the device may be lost or stolen, putting the data it contains at serious risk. In order to truly ensure the security of confidential data stored on portable devices, effective DLP strategies and policies need to be deployed, including written usage policies.
• Access Control: To make sure that users cannot easily circumvent security policies, it is important to first make sure the policies in place are flexible enough that they don’t hinder productivity, but strong enough to prevent data leakage threats. This is accomplished through granular policies that allow administrators to block, allow or restrict access to data from everything from file type, device type and even specific device serial number.
• Encrypt Everything: Many enterprises feel that they have covered all their security bases with the implementation of security policies, employee training and endpoint protection technology and are reluctant to invest in another product or add another level of security. However, encryption is essential to ensure that unauthorized users cannot access data in the case of loss or theft.
• A Smart Consumer: While tips one through four specifically address the employer, it’s important to remember as a consumer and employee, that keeping data safe benefits the employee as well. Employees should know if they are properly using their devices in the office to avoid breaking corporate policies. Also when connecting to a corporate endpoint, portable devices are at risk of receiving viruses or other forms of malware from potentially infected endpoints, thus making it essential for employees to know what they are connecting to at the office.
Anyone interested in speaking to Safend about the top-five tips for keeping sensitive data safe during the holidays or data leakage threats and solutions can contact Lisa Astor or Stacy Pelletier at Safend@pancomm.com or 978-474-1900. For more information on Safend, please visit http://www.safend.com/.
About Safend
Safend is a leading provider of endpoint data leakage prevention solutions that protect against corporate data loss via physical, wireless and removable media ports while ensuring compliance with regulatory data security and privacy standards. With more than 1,200 customers worldwide and 1.7 million licenses sold, Safend’s solutions are deployed by multinational enterprises, government agencies and small to mid-size companies across the globe. Founded in 2003, Safend is a privately held company funded by Elron Electronics (NASDAQ and TASE: ELRN), Intel Capital and Walden Israel. Safend is headquartered in Tel Aviv with U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia. For more information, visit http://www.safend.com/.