Networks Unlimited is pleased to announce that IBM is embarking on a massive roll-out of desktop and laptop encryption, providing 355 000 employees with PGP's whole-disk encryption to keep data confidential.
Although IBM already uses encryption in pockets of its organisation, particularly with Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions encryption in Lotus Notes, the roll-out of PGP whole-disk encryption marks Big Blue's biggest-ever commitment to data-scrambling, according to Alan Mitchell, IBM senior technical staff member for IBM's office of the CIO, information technology security and privacy.
"This is an enterprise-wide deployment worldwide through 2008," Mitchell says. "We're using whole-disk encryption to protect assets."
As with many other organisations riding the encryption wave, the two driving forces are concerns about data losses and compliance, with privacy regulations impacting industry sectors around the world. (EMC's CSO recently mentioned that the storage giant is encrypting all its laptops.)
While IBM is not itself a banking or healthcare provider, its customers, which are, have encouraged IBM to adopt encryption for purposes of sharing information. "We work with banking, healthcare and government agencies," Mitchell says. "We serve these markets and they are driven by compliance requirements." He adds: "And we've had an increased loss in laptops as well."
"Corporate governance and ICT security are extremely important issues for most blue-chip companies, and are thus front-of-mind criticalities for many CEOs. PGP's Whole Disk Encryption adds enormous value to IBM's corporate governance strategy and significantly enhances their security posture," says Scott Martin, National Sales Manager for Networks Unlimited, Africa's distributor of PGP products.
PGP's software hides data at rest with encryption. IBM's pilot program with it last year found the key management to be fairly simple. Over time, IBM expects to include language requiring encryption in its contracts with business partners that handle IBM-related data.
"This is going to be part of our requirement in business over time," said Mitchell, who declined to discuss the cost for the encryption software roll-out at IBM.
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PGP Corporation is a global leader in e-mail and data encryption software for enterprise data protection. Based on a unified key management and policy infrastructure, the PGP Encryption Platform offers the broadest set of integrated applications for enterprise data security. PGP platform-enabled applications allow organisations to meet current needs and expand as security requirements evolve for e-mail, laptops, desktops, instant messaging, PDAs, network storage, file transfers, automated processes, and backups.
Networks Unlimited
Networks Unlimited is a value added distributor (VAD) of security solutions, dedicated to offering only the best-of-breed products. With a team of certified technicians and skilled sales staff, we differentiate ourselves by delivering the key to networking communications. In an increasingly competitive, evolving environment, we remain one step ahead by providing tangible results for network management, productivity and security solutions. Our strategy towards becoming the leading VAD for sub-Saharan Africa, involves total customer satisfaction through fast and efficient product/service delivery, easy support access, prompt dispatching of information and minimal purchasing bureaucracy.
For further information, visit us at www.nu.co.za.
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