Data security breach – don’t let your company be named in the next headline

No company or government department is immune from being named in the next “Data Security Breach” headline. In 2006 alone an estimated “eighty-one percent of companies lost one or more laptops containing sensitive information” (Ponemon Institute 2006). The ramifications of security breaches are not only harmful to an organizations image, they can compromise corporate strategies and are estimated to cost from 735,000 to over 16 million per breach (Ponemon Institute 2006).

So how does one prevent data security breaches? Organisations should start by addressing breaches that are caused by employee mistakes and malicious behaviour; the Ponemon Institute found that this is a leading cause of data security breaches. Technology has created the means for electronic data to be carried, sent or accessed remotely, and it also provides the solution to do so securely. Emerging portable security devices allow an organization’s employees to securely store sensitive information as well as their digital credentials all on one device, thereby preventing both data security breaches due to lost data and unauthorized access to corporate network resources.

Addressing the Challenge

Customers that deploy MXI Security’s portable security devices and software solutions need their employees to be truly mobile; to securely access the corporate network remotely, and carry with them sensitive information on business trips around the world or even when taking work home.

For example, one of MXI’s corporate clients that requested to remain anonymous needed devices for its mobile employee’s to carry information securely when they travelled on business. These mobile workers needed to be able to use their devices both with their laptops and with computers at their customer’s location. Therefore they needed a device that required no software to be installed on the host PC, making it convenient to use and ensuring that no trace of information was left behind. One of the key factors in their decision to deploy MXI Security’s USB based Stealth MXP was that it offered this true portability. Other deciding factors were that the device needed to provide maximum security for data protection with strong biometric and password authentication along with AES 256 bit hardware encryption.

The needs of the customer in question increased to require a deployment of more devices, not only to its mobile employee’s, but also to management who would frequently take work home. However, they had concerns that deploying a significant number of devices would be difficult to manage and control. They had also wanted to securely store multiple digital credentials that their employee’s were required to use in order to access their corporate network remotely and to access specific network resources. By requiring each employee to authenticate to their organization’s network from both inside and outside of the office they ensured that the organization could prevent intentional information leakage.

With MXI Security’s software solutions we were able to demonstrate to our customer that all these needs could be satisfied with minimum impact to their infrastructure. They used the ACCESS Enterprise software solution to deploy and reissue the previous devices which they had originally deployed, so that they could allow their IT administrator the ability to fully control the security policies. Their IT administrator was able to effortlessly configure and issue each device on his own in a matter of minutes, since no software needed to be installed on end user PCs, and the streamlined workflow allowed for a user friendly batch issuance process.

The company also installed ACCESS Identity and Remote ACCESS software solutions at the same time as ACCESS Enterprise. This meant that their employees could now securely store and manage their digital credentials with ACCESS Identity, while Remote ACCESS allowed them to assert their digital credentials by authenticating to the device on any host PC anywhere in the world. Their employees no longer needed to remember their long complicated passwords or keep them written on sticky notes as many were in the habit of doing. Not only did this mean that our customer was now able to provide their employees with one device to fulfil it’s corporate security obligations, but it also meant that it’s IT department was able to significantly reduce the number of help desk calls relating to password resets. This inevitably impacted the company’s financial bottom line. The company did not want to divulge the cost savings that were a result of the deployment. However, the Gartner Group estimates that the average total of help desk calls is 21 times per year, per user and approximately 30% of these are password related calls at an estimated cost of €18 each. Based on these statistics a company with one thousand employees would save about €115,750 per year on password related calls alone, not to mention the lower total cost of ownership as a result of using one device to perform multiple corporate security functions.

Other MXI Security customers include government departments and financial institutions in North America and Europe. These customers’ needs are similar to the ones described above, but they also have other stringent requirements. For, example U.S. and Canadian government purchasing agents must purchase products that are validated for FIPS 140-2 (or FIPS 140-1), while the financial community uses FIPS 140-2 to measure the safety of products handling
monetary transactions. MXI Security’s Stealth MXP successfully underwent stringent testing by an accredited independent lab and earned the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level-2 certification No.748 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE). Level 2 certification is significant to the customer because they can be assured that the requirements for cryptographic algorithms, physical security, authentication, roles, interfaces, services, key management, and self-testing within the device have been met.

The Benefits

All-in-one Portable Security Devices such as the Stealth MXP that provide secure storage of data as well as digital identities with strong authentication are redefining consumers expectations. It is no longer necessary to carry around various devices to perform a particular security function.

Added value software solutions such as ACCESS Identity and Remote ACCESS ensures that a single MXP device can satisfy many of the security needs of an enterprise including strong authentication, public key cryptography for email signing and file encryption, digital identities for network logins and single sign on, as well as portable authentication for remote access. Managing large deployments is effortless and provides organizations the ability to fully control security policies, deployment and usage of the devices when using ACCESS Enterprise. Organizations will also be able to reduce their total cost of ownership and streamline IT department processes, as the Stealth MXP’s driverless approach makes it very inexpensive and easy to deploy the technology in a wide variety of network and security environments.

Addressing regulatory compliance starts with putting into place the technology that will prevent data security breaches. Stealth MXP provides secure mass storage through transparent AES 256 bit hardware encryption and up to three factor authentication (device ownership, biometric and password). So when a Stealth MXP device is used with the Remote ACCESS software solution, access to the network is secured.

As our corporate and personal digital wallets continue to grow the convenience of being able to securely carry our data and multiple digital credentials with us wherever we go will not only lighten our pockets, but will give us the confidence that our organizations won’t be associated with the next “Data Security Breach” headline.