Protecting Customer Data

Lately, there have been many studies and reports regarding the lack of security in outsourced development and testing sites. Very recently the Ponemon Institute released a report entitled “Data Security in Development & Testing,” which is available at Haymarket Media Group. From these reports, it seems like companies are becoming more and more afraid to risk utilizing actual customer data when outsourcing their work. Companies that fear exposing customer data to contractors and other outsourced workers are losing out on the benefits of working with actual data.

It is unfortunate to keep reading these accounts, especially when Fortressware has been helping companies in this situation for years. Because of Fortressware, many companies have been able to start testing their work at remote locations using real customer data without the fear of losing that information to theft or incompetence. With the monitor and logging feature, they also can continue to stay compliant.

Using Fortressware, all sensitive material will be encrypted when it is created, stored, or transferred to anywhere inside or outside of the organization. Only authorized people can decrypt the information. When it is decrypted for use, Fortressware ensures the decrypted data and all material created from it will not be copied, uploaded, printed, or in any propagated outside of Fortressware’s controlled space. The greatest part is that employees can work on their data using the same tools they always have, all without impeding productivity.

Fortressware provides a productive solution to securely lock down any outsourced site and ensure complete compliance with the company’s security policy wherever the sites are. Take a look at the demo videos on the website where you can see Fortressware at work.

Social Networking Safety

Fortressware has been addressing security for anyone from anywhere for some time. We think we have the solution “for the people,” especially the people who don’t work for a corporation and have been using social networks as their network backbone. People are using social networks as their work, social, and entertainment platform. Yet, most of time, people forget that is three times more usage than the much more security-equipped corporate platform. So, how can people casually say it is not in the social networkers’ best interests to pay attention to security? It was refreshing for us to see the Depaul University weblog, which is educating people to be particularly careful about all the risks they can be taking. One user’s comment said that social networking has similar risks to visiting any website on the Internet, which, as we’re learning, is not as safe as we might like. It is so wrong to think that we are safe on social networking sites. These sites increase the total number of webvisit’s security risk by several orders of magnitude, especially if you go out on a limb to make friends and let others know your personally identifiable information.

This increase in order of magnitude derives from all the friends you have. Just look at another commenter on the Depaul University blog who mentioned that someone she knows received a virus through a facebook video linked from a supposed friend. Worst yet, what she received might be malware that quietly leaks out her private information, which can cause tremendous financial and emotional damages. This actually makes social networks so much worse than corporate networks, because there is no professional IT support who can help you put up a strong enough anti-virus, firewall, or even anti-spam and anti-phishing software. Also, by the time you put up all these tools, your social networking may not be working anymore. That is why Fortressware’s fundamental belief is that not all data on your PC is created equal. Only some things are important, and at the very least, the last defense should be to make sure these things are protected. Using a tool like Fortressware gives you an impromptu way to protect your data whenever you want, regardless of location. It also gives you a secure workspace where any download can be stored into, minimizing any damage from downloaded viruses or malware. When you are done with your download, you can just delete the workspace, and your PC will be as good as new.

Go Green and Secure – Don’t Print

Isn’t it ironic? For hundreds of years the only practical way to make information available was to print it. And now so much of our information is in digital form from its inception, “in the cloud” as they say. Yet what do many people do when they get access to it? Yup, they turn it into paper again! Personal printers and email are everywhere. Just click “Print” to contribute to the 115 billion sheets of paper used annually by personal computers.

The obsession with creating hardcopies is an issue of waste. Do we really need to print that much paper? It’s also an issue of control and security. So much personal information available, so fast and so easy to put it on a piece of paper – oftentimes without the OK of the owner.

That’s where Fortressware comes in – giving the owner the means to maintain control over the content, allowing or disallowing the recipient’s right to print the information on paper. Most of the time, people disallow printing because there really is no necessity to do otherwise; content can be viewed electronically anyway – it’s
the right thing to do for so many reasons!

So go green and be secure with Fortressware! Try it!

It’s the Law – Protecting Personal Information

Effective October 1, 2008, Nevada business owners must encrypt the personal information of their customers before they transmit it electronically outside their business.

It is great news for their customers, but only the first step towards protecting them – because protecting data when it’s on the move is only one part of the much larger data loss problem. What if the recipient of the data, such as a part-time accountant, chooses to share it with someone else, for example an out-of-state market research firm? How secure is the data on his computer, for instance from a family member or temporary employee? Or what if the accountant inadvertently attaches a decrypted file with sensitive data to an email? Ensuring that you maintain control over your data in these and similar risky situations can really contribute to your peace of mind. 

Only in this way, can we be sure that all of our efforts not to lose the data in our possession don’t get undone when it comes into someone else’s possession. So if we send out confidential information, such as a quarterly report, a layoff plan, or just our own private thoughts, we can be sure that information will not go astray. And all of this should be under the full control of the owner of the data to set up and manage transparently – without need for IT support. This is what the Fortressware team has been working to provide: a simple yet powerful solution to provide you with the means to protect whatever you need, whenever you need to, keeping it secure wherever it goes. If you do business in Nevada, you can satisfy the law AND gain a competitive advantage by giving our Personal Fortress a try.