The Problem
Organisations make sizeable investments protecting their systems from attacks that take place from outside the network perimeter - implementing firewalls, content filtering, anti-virus and intrusion-detection solutions. The focus on external threats often means leaving the security "back door" open to malicious or accidental security breaches from within the enterprise - research from the Gartner Group states 4 out of every 5 IT-related crimes (that's 80%) are committed from within an organization.
Whilst removable media devices are becoming increasingly smaller in size with larger storage capacities, in the wrong hands they can prove damaging to an organization. A USB memory stick for example can hold up to 2GB of data, portable hard drives can store in excess of 100GB - ideal devices for the potential theft of data or introduction of viruses to the network.
The Solution
DeviceWall from Centennial Software allows firms to close the security "back door" by actively managing the access rights to removable storage devices - such as:
- USB memory sticks
- PDAs
- MP3 players
- CD, DVD and diskette drives
- Other external storage devices
DeviceWall allows the legitimate use of these devices by authorised staff - ensuring that business productivity is not effected - while actively guarding against the removal of data or the introduction of inappropriate or malicious content to the network.
Educate, Enforce and Except
DeviceWall offers users a unique capability to operate in "silent" or "high visibility" modes. DeviceWall can be configured to run in the background with no user alerts, or in high visibility mode where the user is actively advised of security restrictions both at login and if an attempt is made to connect an unauthorised device. No single policy can cover every real-life eventuality. As such, DeviceWall has a unique one-time policy exception facility that is fully controlled by the IT Admin function and keeps a full audit log of temporary privileges.
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