Biodata Westcon Security (Biodata), the security arm of IT distributor Westcon SA, has signed a deal with IronKey to become the sole distributor of its security encryption products and services.
Jan de Lange, MD of Biodata says the partnership was signed early this year, following Westcon identifying a gap in the local market for secure USB devices.
“While there are many products providing software encryption, there are not many providing hardware-level encryption,” says De Lange.
He says Biodata with be driving IronKey's security encryption products in the sub-Saharan Africa region; targeting the medium-sized and enterprise level organisations as well as banking institutions.
loss
De Langesays: “The biggest risk for enterprises is information loss. The amount of information that an employee can store on a USB device is increasing. And if it's not managed properly through encryption control, it could have serious consequences on the organisation.”
He points out that the Protection of Personal Information Bill in SA is putting pressure on enterprises and financial institutions to protect customer data. Yet, 80% of the time, data on USB mobile devices cannot be fully recovered or managed on mobile devices.
He says no longer do corporates operate within closed and isolated networks. He notes 50% of security threats originate inside a company.
In addition, he notes, data loss prevention will become a bigger priority for organisations deploying cloud computing and virtualisation strategies.
Borderless office
“Data is not in an organisation's control anymore. Data is now sitting with a hosted service provider, and responsibility lies with both the service provider and the company that owns the data to deploy security solutions,” says De Lange.
According to Biodata, IronKey network-aware devices can be managed remotely by the IT department, assisting them with all their mobile data protection, financial malware protection, portable desktop virtualisation and disaster recovery needs.
IronKey is a privately-held US company that claims it has a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification and meets the stringent security requirements of the US Federal Government Cryptographic Module Validation Programme.
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