IT services company SourceCom has signed a joint venture with IT security specialist Ian Melamed Secure Computing to help its clients reduce the threat of viruses and related computer crime in their organisations.
The partnership gives SourceCom`s public sector and corporate clients access to Secure Computing`s anti-virus products and services, including industry-standard Internet gateway and e-mail solutions from Trend Micro. SourceCom CEO Sandra Connolly says security has been high on the agenda of government, parastatal and corporate IT contracts since the explosion of the Internet as a business and communications tool.
"Security is a high growth area in the industry, but it`s also a highly specialised area that requires skills already in short supply in South Africa," she says. "Few companies realise that viruses are their single largest security threat, more so as the Internet leaves them exposed to malicious virus attacks.
"Tracking, identification and elimination of viruses is therefore fundamental to the projects we tackle."
Ian Melamed Secure Computing designs, implements and maintains secure IT systems that comply with the dual international security standards BS7799 and CoBIT. Its service portfolio includes:
* The world`s first fully automated virus definition update service;
* Customised data laundries that guarantee virus-free data passes to and from client networks;
* FraudNet, a computer fraud and prosecution service;
* Remote backup and administration;
* Remote support services, in conjunction with Pretoria-based pre-boot company Diamond Network Technologies;
* PC time lock for after-hours PC security, also in conjunction with DNT;
* Fingerprint and SmartCard biometric access control; and
* Public key infrastructure authentication services.
Connolly says the JV is in line with SourceCom`s strategy of partnering industry leaders in their respective fields, using their resources to further its empowerment objectives.
"It gives us the opportunity to train up our staff, most of who come from previously disadvantaged communities, to compete on equal terms for private sector government and corporate contracts," she says. "Our technical staff will shadow Secure Computing`s engineers until they can manage their own implementation projects, using Secure Computing as a backup for high-level technical support."
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