Lumension Device Control
Lumension Device Control™ (formerly Sanctuary) enforces organisation-wide usage policies for removable devices, removable media, and data (such as read/write, encryption) using a whitelist. Lumension Device Control enables organisations to embrace productivity-enhancing tools while limiting the potential for data leakage and its impact.
Lumension Case Study
On one hand, devices are invaluable business tools that employees need to perform their day-to-day tasks. On the other hand, they represent a serious security risk to sensitive company and customer information.
Dennis Szerszen
Author & VP Marketing and Corporate Development
Lumension
Read the PC on a Stick: A Portable Endpoint Security Nightmare white paper
Device Control Business Issues and Challenges
The problem of data leakage due to the accidental or sometimes malicious use of removable devices and/or removable media has reached alarming levels. In fact, over 85% of privacy and security professionals reported at least one breach and almost 64% reported multiple breaches that required notification during 2007¹.
To enhance productivity, organisations need to allow employees and partners access to data; and more employees are working remotely, thus requiring access from outside the network. But the potential impact of data loss is a very real concern, be it accidental or malicious. And today, removable devices (such as USB flash drives) and media (such as CDs/DVDs) are the most common data leakage routes -- no file copy limits, no encryption, no audit trails and no central management.
The information contained in customer data, corporate data and intellectual property is worth billions to some. And the costs for recovery of data and lost business are rapidly rising as well, with the average yearly cost now estimated to be $6.3 million².
¹ Deloitte & Touche and Ponemon Institute, Enterprise@Risk: 2007 Privacy & Data Protection Survey, December 2007
² Ponemon Institute, 2007 Cost of Data Breach Study, November 2007
How It Works
- Discover - identify all removable devices that are now or have ever been connected to your endpoints through the use of a "learning" mode that allows you to collect information without disrupting business.
- Assess - define rules at both default and machine-specific levels for groups and individual users with regards to device access by class, model and/or specific ID and uniquely identify and authorise specific media. These permissions can be linked to the user and user group information stored in Microsoft Active Directory or Novell eDirectory.
- Implement - enforce device and data usage policies by: file copy limitations (amount per day, time of day) and file type filtering. You can also enforce the encryption of data moved onto removable devices / media and apply permissions to specific and/or groups of endpoints, ports, devices and users (both on- and off-line), including scheduled / temporary access.
- Monitor - continuously monitor the effectiveness of device and data usage policies in real time and identify potential security threats by logging all device connections, recording all policy changes and administrator activities and tracking all file transfers by file name and content type. You can even keep a copy of every file that is transferred to or from a removable device using our patented bi-directional shadowing technology.
- Report - create both standard and customised reports on all device and data activity showing allowed and blocked events, which can be saved into a repository, shared via email, and/or imported into 3rd party applications. Detailed forensic reports and comprehensive auditing capabilities enable you to demonstrate compliance with internal security policies and external government and industry regulations such as SOX, HIPAA or PCI DSS.
Lumension Security's SVP Business Development sits down to debunk the most common myths about data protection
