Archive for the ‘Mobile Security’ Category

The perennial employer problem of staff misusing data they have access to remains a constant, but Tier-3 says, the solution is now in most business manager’s hands.

“A recent Associated Press news report cites the example of a landlord snooping on tenants to discover details of their finances, as well as a woman who accessed her ex-boyfriend’s account after the couple broke up,” said Geoff Sweeney, Tier-3′s chief technology officer.

“Both people worked for a Wisconsin energy utility company and took advantage of their wide-ranging access to people’s data to go snooping,” he added.

But, says Sweeney, just as computers have made it easier for staff to snoop on information they should not be be looking at, so the same technology can be harnessed to beat the snoopers.

“It’s difficult to tackle problem head-on, especially if staff doing the snooping are authorised to have access to the database concerned,” he said, adding that the staff involved are often authenticated users who are mis-using their employer’s facilities.

“By introducing behavioural analysis software to the system, it’s possible to flag up any unusual database activity to the audit team concerned,” he said.

“By automatically comparing each individual data access against a dynamic baseline of previously learned employee behaviour it’s an easy task to spot staff who are accessing data they shouldn’t, in real time and even catch them in the act.” he added.

Aperture has announced a handheld data capture device for its market-leading data centre management system, Aperture VISTA®. The new solution enables a data centre management to cost effectively, accurately and predictably collect detailed information about the equipment and resources within. The new tool will enable data centre management to cut the time and cost required to achieve return on investment for their VISTA solution by up to 50%.

Data centre management often struggles to accurately capture details of the equipment the organisation owns, where it is located and what it is connected to. Where organisations do try to capture data, they often send staff into the data centre to manually write notes on clipboards and then re-key them later. That makes errors likely, increases the uncertainty of the process and dramatically increases the time required to capture data. Because of the difficulty of capturing accurate information, organisations will often deploy a new data centre management solution using unvalidated data, which risks perpetuating errors and makes reporting and analysis suspect. In security-sensitive sectors, such as financial services or government, it is often impossible for outside contractors to enter the data centre to collect data.

With this new product, Aperture is providing a comprehensive solution that enables organisations to ensure their data centre infrastructure and equipment is recorded accurately. The Aperture VISTA Data Capture Handheld is a Windows Mobile device with the VISTA Data Capture Application installed. This hardware and software combination is fully supported by best practice processes. Organisations can allow Aperture Certified Partners to collect data in their data centres for seamless uploading into Aperture VISTA, or can receive training and certification from Aperture if they prefer to capture data themselves. Aperture’s Data Services organisation performs final validation in either case.

Aperture VISTA Data Capture Handheld has been designed to be easy to use and to virtually eliminate data entry errors. During the data capture process, the handheld can read existing barcode asset tags or can help with the configuration of new ones. The handheld is supported by Aperture’s extensive reference library of vendor equipment, which is used to validate data as it is entered. Data is also validated against other equipment in the vicinity and against other devices connected to the same power infrastructure.

Bill Clifford, CEO, Aperture, said: “Data Center Management often struggles to capture accurate information about what is in the data centre, where it is and what it’s connected to. The problem is not just a lack of technology, but also a lack of process. Aperture has implemented over 300 data centre management solutions. Aperture VISTA Data Capture Handheld, and its user certification process, delivers all our experience and best practice advice into the hands of the data centre staff.”

He adds: “Data centre management will be able to capture data more accurately, using whatever combination of internal or external staff is consistent with the organisation’s strategy and security policy. As a result, organisations will be able to more quickly realise the benefits of Aperture VISTA for data centre management, and will be able to manage and plan capacity with much greater confidence.”

What’s the best approach to protecting the confidential data on mobile devices? We asked Check Point’s technical director, Caroline Ikomi, to give us her thoughts: