PortAuthority relaunches itself, upgrades products
Security software developer PortAuthority Technologies, formerly Vidius, recently announced that it is re-launching itself and has upgraded its core product. The key new product announcement is the availability of PortAuthority for Internal Mail to be made available starting August.
   
PortAuthority has been in this has been in the "technology for protecting digital assets" business for several years, Raj Dhingra, VP marketing and business development, PortAuthority Technologies, told Health Imaging & IT. He added that the company originally released PortAuthority for Outgoing Mail in 2002, followed in 2003 by an upgrade geared to "help protect information leaks that might occur from the internet, people from inside the company posting things through their web-based mail or to other internet sites" which the software can help prevent.

This latest release, said Dhingra, looks for information leaks that might be occurring inside the company as well, such as inter-departmental communications of information that should not be shared, either maliciously, or because of a mistake.
The process begins by PortAuthority doing a type of company audit to evaluate internal policies and adherence to current regulatory requirements.

"What we can do is help address these business challenges. We do an information risk assessment, that's what we call it. Many times people are unsure if indeed there are policy breaches occurring," said Dhingra. "We can do a two week information risk assessment and work with you to identify the sensitive information concerns you have from a risk perspective."

Once the assessment is complete PortAuthority "can set up some very simple policies and identify some key information" which outline regulatory or internal policy related violations, said Dhingra. The company can also provide much more detailed forensic examples of violations within companies, if needed.

PortAuthority takes a multi-pronged approach to system monitoring by doing compliance-based monitoring in addition to policy-based enforcement. In such an instance the system can "notify or audit, block, or quarantine information," said Dhingra.
Essentially, the system monitors all communication and can take an assortment of actions, depending on what the company wants.

Key features of the PortAuthority's upgraded security software showcased at the Summit include:
  • Increases support for policy enforcement to internal e-mail and web - This latest release is designed to further addresses insider risks to confidential information by monitoring internal mail for sensitive information and stopping leaks before they happen.

  • Upgraded protection against identity theft - Addressing the alarming rise in identity theft incidents, this release incorporates a number of enhancements to recognize improper transmissions of personal information automatically and stop potential identity theft in progress.

  • Risk visibility for regulatory compliance - PortAuthority now offers web-based reporting and analytics that provide insight into the magnitude and nature of enterprise information distribution.

  • Prototypes for securing communications with print and fax prototypes - As part of the company's showcase at Gartner IT Security Summit 2005, PortAuthority Technologies provided details of its concept for preventing the inappropriate distribution of sensitive information via print and fax channels.
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