Lumension Data Protection

Overview:

In today’s global 24x7 business environment, organizations need real-time access to information - balancing this with the associated risks is key to ensuring data is not lost or stolen and business productivity is not diminished. Lumension Data Protection automates the enforcement of data and device usage policies across the entire network and enforces encryption policies for sensitive data being copied to removable devices.

Lumension Data Protection
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Data Protection Business Drivers and Challenges

Data breaches resulting in the loss/theft of sensitive data remain a major concern. In fact, more than 85% of companies surveyed had at least one reportable breach and 63% experienced multiple (between 6 and 20) reportable breaches.* It is expensive to recover from a data breach; not only the hard costs (e.g., notification, free credit checks, etc.), but also in terms of lost customer trust and brand equity resulting in lost business. In fact, recent statistics put the average total cost of a corporate data breach at $6.6 million, with lost business accounting for 69% of breach costs.**

This concern over data loss/theft has spawned a myriad of regulations, including pan-national (e.g., EU directive 45/2001), national (e.g., SOX, GLBA and HIPAA), state (e.g., CA SB 1361) and even industry-specific standards (e.g., PCI DSS), which apply to almost all public and private organizations no matter where they operate. For instance, in 2010 Massachusetts will require businesses that collect information about that state’s residents to follow comprehensive information security requirements; these apply to both in-state and out-of-state companies with operations or customers in Massachusetts.

Ensuring compliance with all of these regulations adds another layer of risk to your organization. Failure to comply can result in very real economic damage, both directly in terms of cost and indirectly in terms of lost customers and business.

Put an End to Lost Data and Business with Lumension Data Protection

As an IT professional charged with protecting your organization’s vital information, you are well aware of the issues:

• Borderless enterprise - The growth of “borderless enterprises” means data is less centralized than ever before: disaggregated supply chains, outsourcing, and a mobile workforce all contribute to increased collaboration and productivity, but also opens the door to data loss or theft.
• Increased insider risks - Innocent mistakes, malicious intent and increased opportunity all lead to an increased internal threat. Some studies suggest that well over half of all serious data breach incidents are sparked by insiders*** and almost 60% of insiders admitted they have taken company data when they leave their employer.****
• Organized external threats - Gone are the days of pranksters and script kiddies. Today, the attacks are highly targeted, launched by increasingly sophisticated criminals who exploit online forums to buy and sell tools, services and stolen data. These organized cyber criminals supply a black market recently estimated at $276M.
• Consumerization of IT - Users are increasingly defining the IT environment by bringing their productivity tools, both hardware (like USB flash drives) and software (like IM), into work. This too facilitates collaboration and productivity, but also exposes the organization to malware (e.g., Trojans).

How Lumension Data Protection Works

When developing your data protection strategy in this increasingly difficult environment, it is important to balance the rewards of accessible data (and the collaboration / productivity it enables) with the risks (and costs) of losing your data. Lumension Data Protection enables you to effectively balance that risk/reward to enable productivity without putting sensitive information at risk.

1. Discover: Survey your entire network to collect information on all devices that are now or have ever been connected to your endpoints, all without disrupting business until you have developed your comprehensive data protection policy.

2. Assess: Use a “whitelisting” approach to define what is allowed instead of trying to keep up with the ever changing list of what is bad; for instance, control all “plug and play” devices by class, group, model and/or unique device ID.

3. Implement: After getting buy-in from all constituents, roll out your new data protection policy enforcement tool; for instance, impose file copy limitations, file type filtering and forced encryption policies for data moved onto removable devices.

4. Monitor: Monitor the effectiveness of device and data management policies in real time, and adapt as business needs dictate; for instance, examine all policy changes, administrator activities and file transfers to ensure continuous policy enforcement.

5. Report: Generate a complete audit trail that documents how your device and data management policies prevent unauthorized users and devices from compromising critical business information.

Take Control of Your Vital Information

Ensure your data is protected.

Sources:

*1. Deloitte & Touche and Ponemon Institute, Enterprise@Risk: 2007 Privacy & Data Protection Survey, December 2007
**Ponemon Institute, 2008 Annual Study: Cost of a Data Breach, February 2009
***Data Monitor, Mitigating the Risks of Data Loss, August 2007
****Ponemon Institute, Data Loss Risks During Downsizing, February 2009

Key Features:

Documentation:

Download the Lumension Data Protection Datasheet (PDF).