While companies everywhere grapple with the seemingly impossible task of securing their growing herds of smartphones and tablets, many are forgetting the stalwart of day-to-day productivity: the laptop. Often assumed not to be a data security risk, a lost or stolen laptop often offers its new owner unprecedented access to confidential company files, databases – and critical customer data.
Nclose directors Stephen Osler and Martin Potgieter are increasingly concerned by the general levels of misinformation that exist about laptop security in the corporate environment. They say that despite myriad other security measures that are active on company networks, managers often let themselves down by ignoring staff members’ mobile computers.
‘Simply setting a password to limit access to a laptop is not nearly enough,’ Potgieter points out. ‘A laptop hard-drive removed from a password protected laptop is easily accessed by placing it into another computer. Additionally, there are many devious applications out there that effortlessly bypass passwords, placing access to e-mail, user accounts and server logins at thieves’ fingertips.’
Today’s techno-thieves require much more of a challenge and it comes in the form of data encryption.
Osler explains that data encryption scrambles the data on your hard drive so that no one is able to access it no matter how hard they try. Encryption has come a long way since it was first introduced; the solutions Nclose offers encrypt information while you’re working with it or on authentication.
‘From e-mails to text documents, all are encrypted so that – without the digital decryption that is specific to each computer the data on your hard drive is useless – except to you,’ he says.
While the trusty laptop is increasingly at risk of becoming the weak link in your corporate security armour, remedying this situation is now much easier than it has ever been. Modern encryption applications are easy to deploy, work in harmony with other forms of network security, and represent a stable, reliable, painless and transparent method of regaining control of your company’s sensitive information. And in light of pending PPI legislation, it offers carefree protection against damaging and embarrassing – data loss.
Laptop theft is the most frequent form of mobile device loss, and also the most dangerous. Closing the loop on company data protection means paying equal attention to all areas of risk, and while the laptop may not be as glamorous as the barrage of shiny tablets and smartphones that are making their way onto the corporate environment, the degree of data leakage that it can potentially facilitate warrants major attention.
Nclose has partnered with Check Point to provide its customers with full disk and removable media protection. Check Point provides seamless security for all information on endpoint hard drives, including user data, operating system files and temporary and erased files. For maximum data protection, multi-factor pre-boot authentication ensures user identity, while encryption prevents data loss from theft.
For more information on Check Point and other security solutions, please contact Nclose on 0860 NCLOSE (625 673)
