Messaging News staff

Compliant Social Media

Stephanie Jordan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:48:44 +0000

For heavily regulated industries, such as financial services, social media is an attractive communications tool, but it needs to be managed carefully. According to a social business survey conducted last year by IDC, 51 percent of companies use consumer social media tools for communicating with customers, 43 percent are creating awareness about a company product or service, and 42 percent are acquiring knowledge/asking questions.

Today, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have become household names; not only to communicate with friends and relatives, but also as viable marketing and communication channels for conducting business,” says Michael Fauscette, group vice president, Software Business Solutions, IDC. “While the use of consumer social tools can provide good business benefits to companies, there are concerns over security, IP protection and compliance, particularly in highly regulated industries like energy and financial services.”

Earlier this year, Actiance announced the availability of Socialite Engage, specifically with those industries in mind. “We made a commitment to our customers to provide a solution that met their requirements to enable faster and more effective adoption of social within their business, leveraging content management, distribution and analytics tools for their social engagement,” explains Kailash Ambwani, CEO at Actiance.

Using Consumer Social Media Compliantly

According to Actiance, Socialite Engage provides organizations with “the ability to empower users in their usage of social media, from the provisioning of appropriate content to the measurement of resulting effects from that content. Through the tracking of key connections, users can focus on those friends or followers who are of particular importance to them. Users can utilize a pre-populated content library to share with their network, or distribute their own content knowing that this is run through a compliance workflow to protect the individual and the organization.”

Continues Fauscette, “The Actiance Socialite Engage solution is designed to help financial advisors along with their marketing and compliance teams distribute approved content over LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to drive new business opportunities, customer loyalty and brand awareness while minimizing risk.”

With the widening of regulatory requirements to include social media, such as recent SEC alerts and Financial Industry Regulatory Advisory (FINRA) notices 10-06 and 11-39 organizations need to consider additional tools to help reduce risks, while reaping the benefits of social media in business.

Central American Bank Expanding Entrust IdentityGuard Platform for Layered Security with Mobile Capabilities -- Real World Solutions for Mobile Security

Stephanie Jordan — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:21:21 +0000

The Challenge

Grupo Financiero Ficohsa, founded in 1994 and based in Honduras, is taking a proactive stance in securing customer identities by expanding their strong authentication solution to include mobile authentication. An Entrust customer since 2007, Ficohsa currently uses the Entrust IdentityGuard versatile authentication platform to manage more than 15,000 custom-branded hardware tokens as part of a layered security approach. Like Ficohsa’s strategy, layering security is proven to help defend against attacks that target token-only schemes, and reduces costs by leveraging mobile devices already owned by banking customers.

The Solution

Mobile applications are increasingly becoming an area of concern for security experts, especially in the banking industry. Ficohsa now expands its mobile security to secure customer identities by utilizing Entrust IdentityGuard Mobile software tokens.

Adding the additional layer of security will allow Ficohsa’s customers to feel more protected when banking across any channel. The layered-security approach not only helps to defend against attacks, but reduces costs by leveraging mobile devices already owned by banking customers.

The Customer Rave

“Our organization is always conscious of new or advanced technology that will better serve, and secure, our valued customers,” says Sergio Stefan VP of Consumer Banking and Small and Medium Business, at Grupo Financiero Ficohsa. “The use of mobile authentication—specifically soft tokens—is a natural fit into our customers’ lifestyles. They’ll be more likely to adopt the authentication method and feel more secure banking with us, regardless of the channel or platform.”

What It Does

Entrust enables organizations to layer security—according to access requirements or the risk of a given transaction—across diverse users and applications. Entrust’s authentication capabilities include smartcards and USB tokens, soft tokens, grid cards and eGrids, IP-geolocation, questions and answers, out-of-band one-time passcode (delivered via voice, SMS or email), and a range of one-time-passcode tokens. In addition, digital certificates are used on mobile devices, in software and on smartcards and USB tokens.

Last Word

Entrust strongly recommends organizations move away from outdated, token-only security to comprehensive, layered security strategies than are proven to stop advanced online attacks. As recent, high-profile breaches have shown, token-only approaches are easily defeated.

“More banks and financial institutions should migrate to platform-based authentication to help defend against attacks on token-only security schemes,” believes Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. “Hardware tokens are still effective as a strong authenticator, but only when used as a single component to a broader, multilayered security strategy.”

Commtouch Announces GlobalVIew URL Filtering for Android

Stephanie Jordan — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 02:35:27 +0000

Last week Commtouch, a leading technology partner to many security vendors, announced its GlobalView URL Filtering for Mobile, which enables real-time protection for mobile device users browsing the Web. The solution is in response to the trend of employees not only bringing in personal mobile devices and tablets for work, but also the growing preference to use them in place of personal computers to browse the Web.

“2010 saw a massive increase in mobile vulnerabilities, the first mobilebotnet, malicious Android apps, and a mobile Zeus variant, and these events have businesses and consumers on edge,” notes Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research. “The mobile security client software market is forecast to have a 40% CAGR from 2010 to 2015.”

According to Commtouch, GlobalView features include:

Secure Web Browsing: Protects mobile users from phishing sites or sites that download viruses and malicious content.
Regulatory Compliance: Helps enforce Web access policies improving productivity, limiting liability and aids in compliance with required standards.
Parental Control: Protects children from inappropriate Web content, like gambling, pornography, violence or hate sites.

Commtouch is gearing the solution for smartphone, tablet and eBook manufacturers, mobile service providers, as well as Internet security and mobile application developers. Currently the product is available for operating systems and environments that run a Java Virtual Machine like Android. The company plans to add support for other mobile operating systems such as iOS, QNX and other BlackBerry operating systems, and Windows Phone 7.

The Use of Hardware-Based Encrypting Drives

Stephanie Jordan — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:29:13 +0000

A new report was made available last week from Trusted Computing Group (TCG), and Ponemon Institute entitled “Perceptions about Self-Encrypting Drives: A Study of IT Practitioners.” The study interviews 517 IT practitioners in financial services, the public sector, retailing, healthcare, technology and other fields who are familiar with self-encrypting drives (SEDs).

According to the report authors, respondents believe that hardware-based encryption, including self-encrypting drives, is more secure than software alternatives. Fifty-three percent of respondents note that lower costs are important features for self-encrypting drives.

The survey also reveals that forty-one percent of respondents currently use a combination of hardware and software encryption. Those using hardware encryption believe it does not impact user productivity, nor is it more difficult to implement. The report notes that more than half of the respondents encrypt data to comply with state or federal data protection laws with almost half using it to satisfy internal compliance requirements.

IT users in the study also say that performance and ease of deployment are the most important features for encryption. Faster set-up time, enhanced scalability of SEDs and improved system performance due to offloading encryption from the host processor to the drive are noted as benefits of SEDs compared to software encryption.

A summary and presentation on the survey from Dr. Larry Ponemon, Ponemon Institute, is available.

New Version of Alternative to Exchange Available for SMBs: Kerio Connect Has Native Support for Outlook 2011 for Mac Users

Stephanie Jordan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:05:46 +0000

The messaging and collaboration platform that provides email, contacts and calendar management through desktop email clients, Web browsers and smartphones offered by Kerio Technologies, Inc. has been upgraded. The latest release, Kerio Connect 7.2, is intended for SMB organizations with anywhere from 5-500 employees and is an alternative to Microsoft Exchange that supports a number of OS platforms including desktop clients and mobile email options, like iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.

“Kerio Connect serves small and medium organizations such as local governments, schools, manufacturing companies, and law offices – and they all have diverse needs,” says Dusan Vitek, vice president, worldwide marketing, Kerio Technologies. “We’ve worked very hard to make Connect 7.2 fit for those who value flexibility when choosing a smartphone, desktop email client or operating system that works best for them.”

A key feature in the new release is that Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac now works natively with Kerio Connect 7.2, providing email, calendar, contact, and task synchronization with the server. Mac users also have a choice of Microsoft Entourage 2004 and 2008 or Apple Mail and iCal as clients that will work fully with Kerio Connect.

Another feature being introduced is a new version of the CalDAV protocol, which allows for better synchronization between various CalDAV clients such as iCal on the Mac and Calendar on the iPhone.

“Kerio continues to push open standards and promotes interoperability of calendaring systems through CalDAV to break the stranglehold of old school vendors and allow all users to use any calendar application and device they want,” continues Vitek.

According to the company, within the calendar scheduling functionality, Kerio Connect 7.2 users can use advanced features such as creating exceptions (change time and attachments, add attendees, etc.) to recurring events, even between users that have different calendaring applications. In addition, a new auto-accept feature tentatively schedules meeting requests in calendars even when the user is offline. Others can see free and potentially busy timeslots without waiting for the user to accept or decline meetings and adjust accordingly.

Kerio Connect 7.2 is a low cost solution that runs on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, and is available as a virtual appliance on the VMware and Parallels platforms. The solution comes with integrated anti-spam, anti-virus, automated backup, and archiving.

IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers Survey Finds Online Advertising Hits All Time High

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:37:11 +0000

According to a new study done by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), online advertising hit a new high of $7.3 billion in Q1 2011 – an increase over Q1 2010 and the highest Q1 revenue level ever. This follows last year’s record-breaking first half, in which advertisers spent $12.1 billion. Annual 2010 revenue reached $26.04 billion, a 15 percent increase from 2009, also a new high.

The below IAB data highlights quarterly ad revenue growth in billions since 1999:

Search advertising made up the lion’s share of online ad revenues in 2009 at 46%. In 2010, search accounted for 45% of revenues. The IAB has not yet released data for 2011 but using the past 2 years’ data as a guide, it is likely still the leader in online ad revenue generators.

YouSendIt Has Reached 30 Million Unique Users In Nearly 200 Countries

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:06:24 +0000

YouSendIt,makers of file sharing solutions for professionals, announced that it has reached a new milestone surpassing 30 million unique users across 193 countries in the past 12 months. This includes more than 18 million users who have registered for an account and over 400,000 paid subscribers.

Over the past few years, YouSendIt has refined its expertise in the freemium business model and can now claim one of the highest free-to-paid conversion rates in the industry. The company also enjoys strong customer loyalty with a Net Promoter Score of 68 percent. According to the 2011 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks by Satmetrix, companies with similar scores include Amazon.com and Apple.

Corporate Users Now in Over 92 Percent of Fortune 500
The company stated that growth has been particularly strong among corporate users. YouSendIt now has users in 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The company’s focus on business users, investment in robust cloud computing services and the delivery of new products for enterprise-wide deployment have been key to this growth.

“As file sizes continue to grow and distributed collaboration becomes a fact of life, the demand for our service has never been stronger,” said Ivan Koon, CEO, YouSendIt. “Today’s professional requires new tools for the challenges of balancing work and personal life. We’re focused on creating seamless file mobility for business content – product designs, medical images, sales contracts and creative assets. Our customers spend a lot of time collaborating with clients, colleagues and partners. We make it easy and intuitive for them to move their documents so that they can be truly free to create and collaborate.”

Volkswagen, Callaway Golf and Nixon Peabody LLP are among the companies using YouSendIt today.

“We’ve seen a significant productivity increase in transferring electronic data related to e-discovery using YouSendIt,” said John Roman, Director of Litigation Technology Services, Nixon Peabody LLP. “It has given Nixon Peabody the peace of mind to be able to send critical data securely.”

Strategic Partnerships Bring YouSendIt to New Users
Continuing its commitment to enrich the user experience of its popular web email service, Yahoo! partnered with YouSendIt to launch the YouSendIt Attach Large Files application earlier this year. YouSendIt grew its user base by more than 1 million in 60 days through the application and continues to average more than 20,000 new registered users a day through the app.

“YouSendIt’s Attach Large Files has swiftly become one of the most popular applications in Yahoo! Mail,” said David McDowell, Senior Director of Product Management, Yahoo! Mail. “Yahoo! Mail users are able to send large files up to 100 MB per mail, which allows our 284 million users to share videos, photos and presentations directly from Yahoo! Mail.”

Following the introduction of YouSendIt Pro capabilities within the Attach Large Files app this month, YouSendIt Pro users can now enjoy all the benefits of their Pro account – including sending up to 2GB of attachments per email – within Yahoo! Mail.

Industry Recognition
Thanks to its explosive growth, YouSendIt ranked in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 and Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 in 2010. The company also received the Red Herring Global 100 Award, honoring promising new companies and entrepreneurs that change the way people live and work.

Avira Survey Finds Email Spam Not The Problem It Once Was

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Fri, 27 May 2011 05:45:10 +0000

Germany-based Avira, found in recently conducted surveys of its customers that email spam is still an everyday occurrence, but not the nuisance it once was. 45% of all end-users said they were satisfied with the anti-spam filters on their PCs and laptops, and nearly 20% relied solely on the filters in place at their Internet Service Provider (ISPs). 72% of users reported receiving fewer than 10 spam emails per day, 18% reported 25 or more per day, and 6% reported over 100 per day.

The survey questions were presented to over 2300 of Avira’s worldwide customers during the months of March and April, 2011.

“The Spam landscape has clearly changed in the last two years with the take down of a couple of major botnets,” said Sorin Mustaca, data security expert at Avira GmbH. “Considering the fact that almost all email providers have a form of spam filtering installed on their servers, end-users receive only what the anti-spam solutions on the servers don’t catch. What really surprised me was that 45% of the users answered that they have an anti-spam solution on their computers and that they are satisfied with it. Overall, there is clearly work to be done within the security industry to get rid of 100% of all spam emails, but progress is being made.”

The larger security challenges today include fighting web-based Trojans and spyware that harvest credit card numbers and personal identity information. “But I still don’t recommend anyone clicking open spam emails, as many of them are linked to malicious websites. It’s always best to stay safe from unknown links and emails“, said Mustaca.

UN and ITU team up to fight Cybercrime

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Tue, 24 May 2011 06:38:57 +0000

On May 19, 2011 the ITU , the United Nations agency for information and communications technologies, cemented new global partnerships designed to make cyberspace a safer, more secure place to be for consumers, businesses, and – most crucially – children and youth.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between ITU and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at this year’s WSIS Forum event in Geneva will see the two organizations collaborate in assisting ITU and UN Member States mitigate the risks posed by cybercrime.

The MoU will enable the two bodies to work together to make available the necessary expertise and resources to establish legal measures and legislative frameworks at national level, for the benefit of all interested countries. It is the first time that two organizations within the UN system have formally agreed to cooperate at the global level on cybersecurity.

“This new alliance with UNODC is a major milestone in implementing a coordinated global approach to an increasingly serious global problem. Together, our two agencies will generate powerful synergies that will help all interested countries fight the scourge of cyberthreats and cybercrime and create a safer online environment for all,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré.

In line with its long tradition of public-private partnership, ITU has also signed an MoU with Symantec, provider of security, storage and systems management solutions. ITU will use Symantec’s security intelligence, in the form of its quarterly Internet Security Threat Reports, to increase understanding of and readiness for cybersecurity risks.

By distributing this report – which captures data from across Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network – to interested Member States, ITU aims to help better prepare governments in developing and developed nations alike to respond to the ever-growing risk from malware, cyber attackers and information thieves. This will facilitate awareness raising and knowledge transfer, complementing the work of ITU and strengthening its effectiveness as a global forum for governments and private sector to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs.

Commenting on the partnership, Enrique Salem, President and Chief Executive Officer of Symantec, said: “Over the past year and a half, the researchers that make up Symantec’s Global Intelligence Network have noted a dramatic increase in the number of cyberattacks, as well as the growing sophistication and impact of threats. The partnership between ITU and Symantec will facilitate an increased understanding of cybersecurity risks and how they can be reduced, increasing confidence in new and emerging technologies and facilitating the evolution of the digital world.”

Further reinforcing ITU’s efforts in this area, ITU’s work and relations with IMPACT continue to gain momentum, with over 130 ITU Member States now part of the ITU-IMPACT coalition.

ITU-IMPACT is the first cooperative global venture to make available cybersecurity expertise and resources to enable interested Member States to detect, analyze and respond effectively to cyberthreats. Of particular benefit to developing countries and smaller states without the capacity and resources to develop their own sophisticated cyber response centres, the coalition also benefits technically advanced nations by providing them with a global snapshot of potential and real online threats.

ITU-IMPACT members enjoy:

· Access to the IMPACT Global Response Centre (GRC), the foremost cyberthreat resource centre in the world for global threat information, at no cost.

· Access to the Electronically Secure Collaboration Application Platform for Experts (ESCAPE), allowing experts across different countries to share their knowledge and best practices with regard to cybersecurity, as well as facilitate the mitigation of cyberattacks, at no cost.

· On-site assessments and elaboration of implementation strategies for the establishment of the Computer Incidents Response Teams (CIRTs). To date 24 countries have been assessed, and work is in progress to move to the implementation phase.

· Specialized cybersecurity capacity building programmes to arm Member States and international agencies with relevant knowledge to face and prevent cyberthreats. To date, more than 200 cybersecurity professionals and 50 law enforcement officers have received specialist training. In addition, 155 training scholarships to 29 partner countries globally have been provided.

ITU-IMPACT also offers Managed Security Services to the UN family of agencies.

Former Federal Trade Commissioner Becomes Co-Chair of Cloud Security Alliance's Legal Working Group

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:06:29 +0000

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) announced in early May that former Federal Trade Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour has signed on as a co-chair of the CSA Legal Working Group. Pamela is a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.’s antitrust and competition practice, heading the firm’s Privacy, Competition and Data Protection practice group. Pamela was the 2010 recipient of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC’s) “Champion of Freedom Award” for her defense of consumer privacy as an FTC Commissioner.

“As we have witnessed, technology generally outpaces the law,” said Pamela. “As companies and governments move, or plan to migrate, to the cloud, surveys show that the primary concern is maintaining the security of organizations’ applications and data. I am hopeful the CSA Legal Working Group will assist in creating international best practices that would address wide-ranging issues, such as jurisdiction, contract provisions, e-discovery practices, disaster recovery, record retention, data portability, and auditing to meet the national and international requirements businesses face today.”

“Organizations and individuals are grappling with the emerging legal issues that cloud computing has created, especially in the area of security and data ownership,” said Dave Cullinane, Chairman of the CSA board. “We are excited to have someone of Pamela’s stature and experience helping us shape and guide best practices in this new domain.”

Pamela served on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), from 2003-2010, and prior to that she was an antitrust partner at a New York firm. She previously spent a decade working in the New York Attorney General’s Office, including as Deputy Attorney General, where she investigated and prosecuted a variety of antitrust and consumer protection violations.

Study Finds Mobile Device Vulnerabilities at an All Time High

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Wed, 18 May 2011 05:33:32 +0000

In a global mobile threat study, Juniper Networks found that enterprise and consumer mobile devices are exposed to a record number of security threats, including a 400 percent increase in Android malware, as well as highly targeted Wi-Fi attacks. By examining recent malware exploits, the study addresses new areas of concern and delivers clear recommendations on security technologies and best practices to help consumers, enterprises/SMBs, and government entities guard against mobile exploits.

Juniper’s study notes that as smartphones have surpassed PCs as the preferred method of both personal and professional computing, criminals have turned their attention to mobile devices. The company states that the gap between hacker capabilities and company defenses is widening. Juniper feels these trends underscore the need for further mobile security awareness, as well as more stringent, better integrated mobile security policies and solutions.

“The last 18 months have produced a non-stop barrage of newsworthy threat events, and while most had been aimed at traditional desktop computers, hackers are now setting their sights on mobile devices. Operating system consolidation and the massive and growing installed base of powerful mobile devices is tempting profit-motivated hackers to target these devices,” Jeff Wilson, principal analyst, Security at Infonetics Research. “In a recent survey of large businesses, we found that nearly 40 percent considered smartphones the device type posing the largest security threat now. Businesses need security tools that provide comprehensive protection: from the core of the network to the diverse range of endpoints that all IT shops are now forced to manage and secure.”

The report, “Malicious Mobile Threats Report 2010/2011” was compiled by the Juniper Networks Global Threat Center (GTC) research facility, an organization dedicated to conducting around-the-clock security, vulnerability and malware research tailored specifically to mobile device platforms and technologies. The GTC examines increasingly sophisticated attacks from 2010 and 2011, such as, Myournet/Droid Dream, Tap Snake and Geinimi as well as the pirating of the “Walk and Text” application, new threat vectors for mobile cybercrime, and the potential for exploitation and misuse of mobile devices and data.

Key Report Findings Include:

App Store Anxiety: The single greatest distribution point for mobile malware is application download, yet the vast majority of smartphone users are not employing an antivirus solution on their mobile device to scan for malware
Wi-Fi Worries: Mobile devices are increasingly susceptible to Wi-Fi attacks, including applications that enable an attacker to easily log into victim email and social networking applications
The Text Threat: 17 percent of all reported infections were due to SMS trojans that sent SMS messages to premium rate numbers, often at irretrievable cost to the user or enterprise
Device Loss and Theft: 1 in 20 Juniper customer devices were lost or stolen, requiring locate, lock or wipe commands to be issued
Risky Teen Behavior: 20 percent of all teens admit sending inappropriate or explicit material from a mobile device
“Droid Distress”: The number of Android malware attacks increased 400 percent since Summer 2010

“These findings reflect a perfect storm of users who are either uneducated on or disinterested in security, downloading readily available applications from unknown and unvetted sources in the complete absence of mobile device security solutions,” said Dan Hoffman, chief mobile security evangelist at Juniper Networks. “App store processes of reactively removing applications identified as malicious after they have been installed by thousands of users is insufficient as a means to control malware proliferation. There are specifics steps users must take to mitigate mobile attacks. Both enterprises and consumers alike need to be aware of the growing risks associated with the convenience of having the Internet in the palm of your hand.”

In order to guard against growing mobile malware threats, the report recommends the following:

For Consumers:

Install an on-device anti-malware solution to protect against malicious applications, spyware, infected SD cards, and malware-based attacks on the device
Use an on-device personal firewall to protect device interfaces
Require robust password protection for device access
Implement anti-spam software to protect against unwanted voice and SMS/MMS communications
For parents, use device usage monitoring software to oversee and control pre-adult mobile device usage and protect against cyberbullying, cyberstalking, exploitative or inappropriate usage, and other threats

For Enterprises, Government agencies and SMBs:

Employ on-device anti-malware to protect against malicious applications, spyware, infected SD cards and malware-based attacks against the mobile device
Use SSL VPN clients to effortlessly protect data in transit and ensure appropriate network authentication and access rights
Centralize locate and remote lock, wipe, backup and restore facilities for lost and stolen devices
Strongly enforce security policies, such as mandating the use of strong PINs/Passcodes
Leverage tools to help monitor device activity for data leakage and inappropriate use
Centralize mobile device administration to enforce and report on security policies

Barracuda Backup Server Now Features "Private Cloud" Capabilities

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:16:13 +0000

Barracuda Networks today launched site-to-site replication capabilities for the Barracuda Backup Service, a market leading solution that allows companies to efficiently back up their data both locally and offsite without the hassle of tapes or other removable media. This enhancement allows customers to deploy a “private cloud” by enabling one Barracuda Backup Server to replicate data to one or more Barracuda Backup Servers housed locally or deployed at other locations for disaster recovery.

“Many organizations today prefer to utilize internal company locations as the first line of defense for disaster recovery,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “Site-to-site replication enables those organizations to redundantly back up their data to their preferred locations while also allowing economical cloud-based data protection where appropriate.”

Leading data deduplication technology in the Barracuda Backup Service facilitates efficient replication of changing data to cloud storage. The addition of site-to-site replication provides customers with the ability to use this technology in a private network environment. This expands the market served by the Barracuda Backup Server to include customers interested in private and hybrid data replication deployments.

Today’s launch delivers replication:

Between Barracuda Backup Servers; each can back up data locally as well as send it offsite to other backup servers.
From many Barracuda Backup Servers to a single unit; common for customers or partners who would like to replicate from satellite locations to a central location.
From one Barracuda Backup Server to several others; appropriate for customers with critical data they want replicated to multiple locations on their network.
To the cloud in addition to other Barracuda Backup Servers; ideal for customers with critical data they want to protect in multiple ways.

The City of Weston, in Weston, Fla., has two Barracuda Backup Servers deployed in conjunction with the Barracuda Backup Service and finds the new feature to be a crucial benefit, allowing them to safely and reliably replicate their business critical data offsite to their disaster recovery center.

”We are impressed with the easy setup for site-to-site replication and the efficiency of data replication,” said Steven Murray, director of information technology for the City of Weston. “This is the perfect solution for our disaster management needs.”

Customizable Hybrid Cloud Solutions

In addition, site-to-site replication enables organizations to take advantage of a “hybrid cloud” by combining private replication between Barracuda Backup Servers with replication to cloud storage provided by Barracuda Networks ultimately providing protection for an organization’s most critical data.

41% of IT Professionals Carry Sensitive Information on Unprotected Mobile Devices

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Wed, 11 May 2011 06:00:53 +0000

A recent study by UK-based Origin Storage found a worrying trend in lapsed data protection rules that leave large numbers of organizations prime targets for information thieves.

The study revealed revealed that 41 percent of what should be a security savvy audience are carrying sensitive information on mobile devices unprotected. In fact, 19 percent revealed that their organization had suffered a data breach following the loss of a portable device (i.e. laptop, USB, CD) with 54 percent confessing the
device had not been encrypted – which violate compliance mandates and internal policies.

With 70 percent of polled organizations making data encryption mandatory, 11 percent of those respondents carrying sensitive information unprotected are breaching their own organization’s data protection efforts while the other 30 percent are simply following their organizations own inadequate example. When digging a little deeper the study, among IT security professionals at this year’s Infosecurity Europe show, uncovered a staggering 37 percent of respondents who confessed that between 81 and 100 percent of all sensitive data stored on their device(s) was actually left unprotected – amounting to much more than just one or two documents transferred in a hurry.

Andy Cordial, Origin’s managing director, explains, “When you consider the level of knowledge this audience is assumed to have, working in IT and having some form of security remit, yet the lax protection used for sensitive data, it’s hardly
surprising data breaches are increasing in frequency and especially recently in
size. I’m astounded that 30 percent of organisations are still oblivious to the Data
Protection Act and the recommendation from the Information Commissioner that
encryption be used to protect sensitive information.”

The problem of sensitive data isn’t restricted to any particular device as 67
percent use laptops, 52 percent USBs, 33 percent still rely on CDs with 52 percent
using another form of portable storage device.

A final startling revelation is that just 36 percent of visitors felt that FIPS
certification is ‘a must’ for encryption technology.

Andy concludes, “The ICO recommends any solution should meet FIPS 140-2 yet 31 percent of our sample flippantly state that it ‘doesn’t matter’. Certification is
the only ‘proof’ that the product actually does what the company ‘claim’ it does.
It’s not just me saying this because our products have the certification as there
have been incidences where products have fundamental design problems, or even
companies that have made false claims. My advice – don’t leave security to chance. Lock it down with something that’s actually proven to work or there is a strong possibility you’ll be crying over spilled data.”

Next Generation Yammer Provides More Features for Enteprise Users

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:55:42 +0000

Yammer, Inc., today announced the availability of Yammer Desktop 2.0. Built from the ground up to include advanced enterprise social networking features, the application delivers notifications, threaded conversations, and direct messages—in real time—directly to the desktop. The upgrade will be rolled out to existing users of the Yammer desktop application over the course of several weeks.

New features include:

Threaded Conversations—Easily follow conversations with replies displayed underneath the original message.
Notifications—Keep track of new messages, @mentions, replies and more with notifications. View all notifications on a separate tab to ensure important messages are never missed.
Direct Messages—Communicate privately with one or more colleagues and add additional participants to the conversation at any point.
Topics—Create, edit, and use topics to tag content, enabling better curation and discovery of conversations.
Document Viewer—Instantly access, edit and comment on documents appearing within the feed via a browser-based viewer.

“The Desktop application is one of the most popular ways users access Yammer,” said David Sacks, founder and CEO, Yammer. “With threaded conversations and the notifications tab, the new version greatly improves the user experience and includes a more robust feature set that better services our customers’ communication and collaboration needs.”

“The new desktop client is a significant update that vastly improves the user experience,” said Diane Gaines, IT Marketing & Communications, Mentor Graphics. “Closely mirroring the functionality of the website with threaded conversations and the notifications feed, the new application makes it easier to collaborate with colleagues on Yammer without having to open another browser tab.”

Yammer Desktop 2.0 was architected to easily leverage features built for the Yammer web application. This enables Yammer to continue providing a desktop user experience that is comparable to the web experience.

Fonality Uses Cloud to Deliver One Billion Contact Center Phone Calls

Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:44:17 +0000

Fonality recently announced its one billionth contact center phone call. This milestone reflects more than 4,800 deployments as the adoption of Fonality’s cloud-based contact center solutions continue to change how fast-growing businesses deliver exceptional customer support. Deployed across a variety of industries, Fonality’s cloud-based model provides businesses from ten to 250 agents with the same full-featured services of traditional on-premise IP systems without costly hardware, infrastructure or lengthy implementation cycles.

By leveraging VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) capabilities, Fonality enables contact centers of any size to benefit from Fortune 500 features at a cost of ownership up to 60 percent less than legacy providers. Delivered through Fonality Heads Up Display (HUD), a UC dashboard with features such as real-time contact center metrics, drag and drop call management, presence, email integration, secure chat and visual voicemail, the solution is easy to use, simple to manage and affordable to deploy. “More and more growing businesses are recognizing that their entire organization can benefit from contact center features, such as skills-based routing, to improve productivity and strengthen customer loyalty,” said Fonality’s Chief Technology Officer, Rick Bushell. “Regardless of the size or scope of a contact center, with Fonality, employees can be more effective and productive without the high costs typically associated with these capabilities.”

Fonality HUD provides a color-coded status of all customer service or sales team activities, including current and pending calls. Managers are empowered with 360-degree views of all communications within the contact center leveraging features such as permission-based call monitoring of both in office and remote agents, as well as providing comprehensive performance metrics. With “drag and drop” capabilities, calls can be shared with colleagues in whisper or barge mode, in addition to features such as audio conferencing, secure chat, photo caller ID, visual voicemail, email/text, ring-back and on-the-fly call recording. Fonality HUD can also be seamlessly integrated with business applications like SalesForce, NetSuite, Vanilla Soft or SugarCRM to provide real-time customer information.

Crusecom, a Michigan-based provider of contact center services for IT support to state agencies and businesses replaced a well-known, premise-based legacy IP communications provider with Fonality. By switching to a hosted cloud model, the company has lowered maintenance and support costs by approximately $250,000 annually.“

Fonality truly understands the needs of today’s contact centers, especially in terms of controlling costs,” said Arthur Cruse, CEO of Crusecom. “Beyond preserving budget and improving call quality, we have also enjoyed increased productivity. Fonality HUD quickly and efficiently allows our subject matter experts and supervisors to join calls to better meet the needs of our customers. Plus, the system grows as our needs do without lengthy and costly implementations, which was a major concern with our previous provider.”

The solution’s hosted model can also create a virtual call center environment with seamless connectivity for workers across locations. Virginia-based Exec-u-sist, provides remote administrative and contact center support to residential service providers, realtors, home-based businesses, marketing firms and technology companies. By using Fonality’s cloud-based contact center solutions, the company can create the traditional call center experience without compromising performance or committing to expensive infrastructure and time-consuming integration.

“Fonality’s solutions are an ideal match for the way we operate,” said Tiffany Nielsen, CEO of Exec-u-sist “Fonality HUD allows us to redefine the conventional contact center by keeping our team connected with improved call clarity and functionality as if they were at the same location. Without Fonality, we couldn’t support our business model and would not have realized thousands of dollars in savings.”