Security From Symantec For Manufacturing Industry - Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

Hi!

This is Pushkar Nath, Sujata's Data Security Specialist. This blog is for CXOs in Manufacturing Industry to understand what data security threats are around us and how to keep the data safe from the threats.

In today’s tech savvy world, where systems are getting automated, it is leaving vulnerable points which render an organization prone to data leak. We will do critical analysis sector wise to pinpoint the leak points and ways to plug them. Today I am picking up manufacturing sector for critical analysis

End Users – It can be anyone designing team, people from R&D department, data entry executive, receptionist etc. There is possibility of malware infection through internet and spreading it in local area network and crashing down the entire network. Apart from that it might be possible that they might try to send documents or critical organization data through USB, mails or web. This can be prevented by using Antiviruses, data loss prevention, web and Messaging gateway protection. Hard disc, file and folder and removable USB level Encryption

Accounts/Finance Department – This department handles one of the most critical assignments of an organization and that is to manage the entire financial dealing and transactions. Any leakage of financial details might prove detrimental to the organization. This department is prone to phishing attack. . Antiviruses, data loss prevention, web and messaging gateway protection, Hard disc, file and folder and removable USB level Encryption  endpoint to endpoint encryption with two factor authentication will provide adequate security to this department.

Human Resource department – Human resource department has under its possession entire record of the employees. As manufacturing sector is labour intensive sector so every company has long list of labours doing blue collar and white collar jobs.  Companies doling out financial services are always on prowl for these type of database.  Security becomes necessary. Antiviruses, data loss prevention, messaging gateway protection, hard disc, file and folder and removable USB level Encryption becomes critical necessity of this department.

Sales and marketing Dept. – This department generates revenue for an organization. They have data of their clients and their requirements. As personals from this department remains mobile. So BYOD is gaining currency among them. . Antiviruses, data loss prevention, web and messaging gateway protection, Hard disc, file and folder and removable USB level Encryption  , gateway to end point mail  encryption , mobile device management, mobile application management coupled with two factor authentication will provide adequate protection to the devices, application and data.

IT Department – This department manages the entire IT infrastructure of an organization. It has to manage server infrastructure, networking, end points of the users.  Its role becomes critical in the sense that if it gets down then functioning of the entire organization will come down to notch. The first product which is of extreme importance for them is back up software for end points and servers. Second is archiving and third is solution for hardware and software inventory management.

Top management – This level of management is privy to secrets of all the above mentioned departments. Any IT admin can’t stop them from accessing there date/mails etc from their own device or from home. Security becomes critical as any intentional or unintentional loss of data, documents can have a devastating effect on the entire organization. Antiviruses, data loss prevention, web and messaging gateway protection, Hard disc, file and folder and removable USB level Encryption  endpoint  to end point  mail  encryption , mobile device management, mobile application management coupled with two factor authentication will provide adequate protection to the devices, applications and data.

Let me know if you have any concerns around the data security or you can get a free check up of your IT infrastructure and processes set for accessing the critical data within your organization from me and my team in Sujata.

Regards,
Pushkar Nath

 

Why Traditional Firewalls And Anti-Virus Cannot Keep Up with Today's Threats - Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

UNIFIED THREAT MANAGEMENT (UTM)

 

 

In today’s increasingly mobile world, networks change constantly posing new challenges to IT team and to the administration on how to control security and protect the data. New services, access methods, and even devices continue to show up in networks at a frenetic pace.

For years, you must have been told that you need antivirus or some piece of software to protect your computer. These antivirus or software are usually reactive and alert you once they discover something unusual on a particular computer and not in the network. Of course, they are helpful but they do not provide full-proof security to your data and to your network.

 

Users are accessing an increasing number of applications with a wide range of device types, often times to get their job done, yet with little regard to the business or security risks. Meanwhile, datacenter expansion, network segmentation, virtualization and mobility initiatives are forcing you to re-think how to enable access to applications and data, yet protect your network from a new, more sophisticated class of advanced threats that are adept at evading traditional security mechanisms.

 

Below are some challenges that are now concerns for Mid-size and Enterprise Businesses -

  

Challenge #1 : Employees bringing their personal mobile and tablet at work creates data security a concern for IT team
 

Who could have foreseen the impact of WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook,or iPads and Android smartphones and tablets, only a few years ago? Today, employees expect to use personal smartphones and mobile devices at work also known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), making data security a concern for IT teams.

  

Challenge #2 : New applications evade threat detection

Traditional or “first-generation” firewalls rely on scanning of port numbers or protocol that are used by applications to detect the  threat and to prevent any misbehavior or intrusion in the network.

Traditional firewalls cannot detect new applications that are accessed through web browser and do not use specific port number or prototype.
 
Challenge #3 : Multiple Devices or Tools Addressing Incoming Data Security Threats

With the new challenges and threats, there is a need to have multi-level security and to do so, we do not recommend customers to buy different brands of traditional firewall, Data Loss/Leak Prevention (DLP), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), filtering of websites and data traffic, malware screening at the gateway level and patch management in the network. Different tools create problem of managing them effectively and there can be a problem of compatibility. 

From a performance point of view also it is not recommended as each tool/device performs its own inspection of network data, which means that data is inspected multiple times by multiple devices and that create a time latency in data transfer.

In below image, you can see the flow of the data and the possible ways in which threat can enter into the network.

BOTTOM-LINE :

As a network’s complexity increases, so does the expense required to manage that network.

Every administrator should carefully consider the TCO of add-on security appliances versus an integrated solution like UTM or Next-Gen Firewall before making significant infrastructure solution commitments.

UTM should be flexible in terms of output, should be future-ready and should be powerful enough to support your requirement.

The application, content, and user—the elements that run your business—then become integral components of your enterprise security policy. The result is the ability to align security with key business initiatives.

• Safely enable applications, users and content by classifying all traffic, determining the business use case and assigning policies to allow and protect the relevant applications.

• Prevent threats by eliminating unwanted applications to reduce the threat footprint and applying targeted security polices to block known vulnerability exploits, viruses, spyware, botnets and unknown malware (APTs).

• Embrace mobile computing by ensuring devices are properly configured and that they are protected from threats.

• Protect your datacenters through validation of applications, isolation of data, control over rogue applications and high speed threat prevention.

• Secure cloud-computing environments with increased visibility and control; deploy and maintain security policies at the same pace as your virtual machines.

As we write this, the best UTM solutions for networks include the following core security functions / policies in their arsenals:

·         Network firewalls perform stateful packet inspection.

·         IPS detects and blocks intrusions and certain attacks.

·         Application control provides visibility and control of application behavior and content. 

·         VPN enables secure remote access to networks. 

·         Content filtering halts access to malicious, inappropriate, or questionable websites and online content. 

·         IPv6 support in all network security functions protects networks as they migrate from IPv4 to IPv6.

·         Support for virtualized environments, both virtual domains and virtual appliances.

They also include additional security technologies that organizations can choose to deploy, including

·         Data loss prevention that blocks accidental or intentional loss of confidential, proprietary, or regulated data.

·         Anti-virus/anti-spam protection that prevents malicious payloads or unwanted messages from entering networks.

·         Endpoint control that enforces corporate security policies with remote users and devices.

·         Integrated wireless LAN (WLAN) controller to consolidate all wired and wireless traffic through a single device, to simplify policy creation and enforcement while reducing network complexity.

SOLUTION TO CHALLENGES ABOVE :

 

UTM solution is integration of multiple security features like firewall, application control, intrusion prevention, VPN, reporting and other elements into a single product. There are multiple brands for which Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd has expertise in.  We can recommend you an appropriate brand and model from Fortinet, SonicWall, Check Point, Cyberoam, Juniper, Palo Alto, Sophos and Cisco depending on your use, industry, existing and future infrastructure, budget and skill-set available with your IT team. 

 In short, we recommend UTM that includes following features:

1. Firewall
2. Application Control
3. IPsec and SSL VPN
4. IPS
5. Web content filtering
6. Anti-spam
7. Data loss/leakage prevention
8. Anti-virus and anti-spyware protection
9. IPv6 native support
10. Traffic shaping and bandwidth control
11. Detailed reporting

and if you have no constrain on budget, you should opt for UTM that has independent processors for one-single activity (feature) i.e the more silicon is in UTM the better performance it will deliver.

We also take up responsibility of maintaining the UTM for its customers and help them implement it. We can sign an annual or long-term service and support contract for UTM and help our customers safeguard their infrastructure.

 

For More Information, Read:

 

1. 7 Tips for Establishing a Successful BYOD Policy - http://www.cio.com/article/2395944/consumer-technology/7-tips-for-establishing-a-successful-byod-policy.html
2. BYOD policy Template - http://www.itmanagerdaily.com/byod-policy-template/ 
3. https://www.avnotenough.com/

 

CONTACT SUJATA COMPUTERS PVT LTD (INDIA) FOR UTM

 

Dinesh Golecha | +91-8888165300 | dinesh.g@sujataindia.com

Paresh Lodha | +91-7276000222 | paresh.lodha@sujataindia.com

 

Symantec and Hitachi partner for unstructured data governance

Today’s release of Symantec Data Insight adds data governance for Hitachi NAS Platform environments and enhances records management.

Today’s release of Symantec Data Insight adds data governance for Hitachi NAS Platform environments and enhances records management by offering a unique blend of information classification automation and data owner decision making.

We are pleased to announce the general availability of Symantec Data Insight 4.5.1 which now enables:

• Data governance for Hitachi NAS 12.x.
• Records Classification Workflow: enables records owners to review classified documents related to a retention policy and automatically archive that information into Enterprise Vault.
• Additional filtering options for permission reporting and enhanced custom reporting ability for directory services.
• Alert policy options which provide a new policy and enhanced configuration options for access monitoring.

Symantec Data Insight integrates with Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) to discover and collect activity and permissions information. It provides a web-based interface to monitor and report on users’ access to data. Tim Durant, Hitachi’s Senior Director of Global ISV Alliances and Data Protection, is excited about this new opportunity with Symantec.  “Our customers face challenges in establishing what data exists, who owns the data, and how the data is being used.  Now they can benefit from performance at scale with both the Hitachi platform they store data on and the Symantec application they use to gain visibility into it.” 

Mr. Durant shares a customer perspective that Symantec has aligned its technology offerings to address.  With 69% of corporate data having no legal, business or regulatory value, effective data management and protection requires large-scale automation and accountability for taking retention and disposition actions on the growing amount of information.  This is why performance, scale and automation were built into the latest workflow in Data Insight.

“One of the challenges to traditional records management is the lack of a balanced approach between leveraging classification technology and user decision to automate the retention process,” says Ketan Shah, Director of Product Management at Symantec.   “With the new records classification workflow the integration between Symantec DLP, Data Insight and Enterprise Vault enables that automatic and seamless discovery and retention of a record once it has been confirmed by the data owner.”

As Symantec DLP discovers potential records throughout an organization, owners are engaged via the recently released Data Insight self-service portal to make records determinations.  DLP policies are then matched to Enterprise Vault retention policies and records are automatically archived under the appropriate retention period.

Blog by Sanket Kadam

Unified Threat Management (UTM) : A way to keep your network secured

UTM (Unified Threat Management)

UTM represents a significant shift in the evolution of network security technology and equipment. UTM generally refers to a security appliance that consolidates a wide range of essential network security functions into a single device, including next-generation firewall technologies like application control.

As network threats evolve and new threats emerge, network security must change and adapt to protect against such threats. This adaptability can make UTM difficult to define because the technologies included can vary from vendor to vendor. Over time, however, the collection of capabilities associated with UTM has consistently expanded, and this trend shows no sign of tapering off.

As we write this, the best UTM solutions for networks include the following core security functions in their arsenals.

•  Network firewalls perform state full packet inspection.
•  IPS detects and blocks intrusions and certain attacks.
•  Application control provides visibility and control of application behavior and content.
• VPN enables secure remote access to networks.
• Content filtering halts access to malicious, inappropriate, or questionable websites and online content.
•  IPv6 support in all network security functions protects networks as they migrate from IPv4 to IPv6.
•  Support for virtualized environments, both virtual domains and virtual appliances.

 

 They also include additional security technologies that organizations can choose to deploy, including

•   Data loss prevention that blocks accidental or intentional loss of confidential, proprietary, or regulated data.
•  Anti-virus/anti-spam protection that prevents malicious payloads or unwanted messages from entering networks
•   Endpoint control that enforces corporate security policies with remote users and devices.
•  Integrated wireless LAN (WLAN) controller to consolidate all wired and wireless traffic through a single device, to simplify policy creation and enforcement while reducing network complexity.

Gartner has once again positioned Fortinet as a leader in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) Magic Quadrant for 2014.

According to Gartner, “The Leaders quadrant contains vendors at the forefront of making and selling UTM products” and “Vendors in this quadrant lead the market in offering new safeguarding features, and in enabling customers to deploy them inexpensively without significantly affecting the end-user experience or increasing staffing burdens.”

Of course, the FortiGate Connected UTM platform supports the comprehensive set of security features you would expect from a market leading UTM solution: Firewall, VPN, IPS, Anti-malware, URL and Application control. But Fortinet’s relentless commitment to innovation takes the FortiGate Connected UTM to the next level. Integrated High-Density Switching (including PoE) and Wireless LAN eliminates the need to deploy standalone switches or wireless controllers, further simplifying your network deployment and reducing management costs

                        Sujata Computers Pvt. Ltd is the Value added Distributor for the Fortinet.

 I would be glad to answer your queries, you can leave your comments or write to me at dinesh.g@sujataindia.com

Warm regards

Dinesh

Sujata Computers Pvt Ltd

Fortinet Partner & Sub-Distributor