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Loss of Sensitive Data Easily Preventable

Full Disk Encryption for the Enterprise

Their size makes them easy to misplace and lose; their inexpensive price is such that we don’t care if we do. We simply go out and buy another one, or reach into our drawer for one of many that have been given to us over the years. No big deal.

However, if the USB thumb drive contains the personal information of over 2 million voters in 25 ridings, losing such a device might be more of an embarrassment. Such was the case with Elections Ontario.

See the full story here, and here.

Now, you would think that such information would be properly protected, especially coming from a government organization. The two devices that were lost, however, were not encrypted and the data stored on them was not protected in any manner. In this particular case, the biggest fallout for Elections Ontario is that they will lose the confidence of voters, something they don’t really need at time when voter turnout is already low.

Imagine the impact, however, if this data loss had happened to a business – either private or publicly traded – that was working hard to market and sell its products and services. The impact of such a loss could be devastating.

The story broken in July, and as I sat there watching the TV report I couldn’t help but shake my head. With the wide availability of tools and security measures available in today’s IT industry, there is simply no excuse for this type of security breach. There is a wide choice of solutions out there, including Novell’s ZENworks Endpoint Protection Suite, which recently received a 5 stars out of 5 rating from SC Magazine.

This is the fifth year in a row for ZENworks Endpoint Security Management to receive 5 out of 5 stars. This year is different though. By adding ZENworks Full Disk Encryption to create this Suite, we now have validation that Novell offers a feature rich, robust, easy to use and implement Endpoint Security solution.

– Chris Gacesa, Senior Product Manager / Technology Champion at Novell

ZENworks is easy to deploy and use; for example, an administrator could create a policy to ensure that all USB storage devices are encrypted:

It takes about 30 seconds to create such a policy, and maybe another 60 seconds to assign it to your devices. Such a simple thing to do that could prevent so much trouble!

There is, simply put, no excuse for any organization to find itself in this position today!

But it’s the wedding pictures, the travel mementos, the family heirlooms and all that valuable content that just cannot be replaced. The anger that can result from such a loss makes us wonder what more we could have done to protect these valuable assets.

That’s why, when we leave the house, we don’t leave the doors open. We lock everything and set the alarm on.

And yet, most organizations, when they provide laptops to their end users and send them out into the world, do just that – leave the doors wide open. There still seems to be a lot of the “that can’t happen to me” mentality. You’re wrong. The 2010 / 2011  CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey reports that 33.5% of targeted attacks are laptop / mobile device theft.

Whether authorized or not, employees will often carry sensitive corporate data on their laptops. Recent examples from www.privacyrights.org include:

• The March 30 theft of a physician’s laptop resulted in the exposure of personal information. The physician had violated VA policy by placing the personal information on his own laptop.  Veterans may have had the last four digits of their Social Security number, discharge date, and medical provider name exposed.
• A Boston Children’s Hospital employee misplaced an unencrypted laptop during a conference in Buenos Aires.  It contained the names, dates of birth, diagnoses, and treatment information of patients were exposed.
• A laptop went missing from a physician’s office sometime between March 16 and March 20 of 2012.  The laptop contained patient outcomes data from patients in the adult ICU from 2000 to 2008.  Patient names, race, age, dates of admission and discharge from the Intensive Care Unit, and results of treatment may have been exposed.
• January 23, 2014: a major medical information breach comes to light – an unencrypted laptop is lost that contains private information for 620,000 Albertans. “The database and the laptop were both password protected but the laptop hard drive was not encrypted. The company has now put encryption software on all its laptops.” Too little, too late.

One very famous incident at the Department of Veterans Affairs ended up costing them $20 million!

Novell’s ZENworks Full Disk Encryption allows organizations to easily and transparently encrypt users’ hard drives. At the University of Minnesota Physicians, who had already been using ZENworks to manage their endpoints, the desktop administrator started encrypting drives as soon as it was released with ZENworks 11 SP2. When I asked him how that had been going, he said that users did not even realize their drives had been encrypted. Once he applied the policy, the laptop just needed to be rebooted and the drive was encrypted in the background – so far, not one user had complained about any impact on performance.

How easy is it? Just create a policy:

Then set up the encryption you want:

And finally, associate the policy with individual workstations, workstation groups, or even users:

It took – literally! – about 2 minutes to create this policy and associate it. Nothing to deploy to the workstations: ZENworks uses one single agent for all of its functionality.

Coupled with ZENworks Endpoint Security Management, you can ensure that any sensitive data is properly protected and accounted for when you provision your users with laptops.

Some reminders about ZENworks:

• ZENworks is not dependent on a Novell infrastructure – it also integrates natively into Microsoft/AD environments!
• All components of ZENworks are managed through a single web-based console and use a single adaptive agent on the endpoints!

If you want to find out how ZENworks can help you secure your endpoints, download this document, which briefly goes over the features of ZENworks Endpoint Security Management.

We recently posted a very interesting article that compares the technical capabilities of ZENworks vs. SCCM:

All Endpoint Management Solutions Are Not Created Equal

Now, it’s time to compare how much it costs to do real-world tasks such as deploying applications and ensuring corporate compliance. How significant a savings do you think you’d experience? Well, how about over $100K-significant!

When it comes to endpoint management, we are coming across customers in one of two situations: 1) running outdated management systems, or 2) still doing everything manually (you’d be surprised how many organizations are still managing everything that way!).

The advent of Windows 7 has sparked a renewed interest in efficient, reliable endpoint management solutions. Naturally, since most customers live in a predominantly Microsoft environment, one of the first products they would consider is Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM).

That’s fine.

But if you were to buy a new car, would you really only consider ONE manufacturer and model? Highly unlikely. Odds are you would visit several dealerships, take a couple of cars for a test drive, and compare prices and features before deciding on one over another.

So why wouldn’t you do the same with something as important as your organization’s endpoint management solution? Do you not owe it to yourself, to you colleagues and your organization to properly test drive several solutions before deciding on the best one? Of course you do.
Novell ZENworks 11 is the easiest, most efficient way to delivers operating systems, applications & policies to your endpoints.

Download the following White Paper which compares ZENworks 11 to Microsoft’s SCCM. You will learn the difference between “features” and “capabilities” as well as how ZENworks addresses those needs. (Hint: once you’ve downloaded the White Paper, we’ll offer you something pretty cool!)

The tour started off BIG in Houston, moved to sunny San Jose, then on to the  stormy streets of New York and ended in a very serene Washington D.C. One thing that all of these places have in common is that  people in the IT world all share the same concerns and frustrations when in comes to the move to Windows 7 – it is costly, complicated and  frustrating!

Luckily the Windows 7 migration kit including ZENworks 11,the  aZension appliance and the CIS Image Builder were able to make the audience breathe a collective sigh of relief by simplifying and expediting the entire process…

WAIT! What, you missed it?

The response was so great and people who were unable to attend were so disappointed, that we have decided to take the tour to the web May 31st at 1pm EST, so that everyone can benefit from the knowledge and powerful advantages that the Windows 7 migration kit will bring to you!

REGISTER HERE!

I look forward to seeing you all there!