Safetica 5 is here

Safetica Technologies has launched Safetica 5, the newest version of its Data Leak Protection/monitoring suite. Safetica 5 prevents “human factor” issues that can lead to the loss of confidential data, incur financial costs, and damage a company's security.

“Internal threats to a company's data security almost always result from human actions – people make mistakes and they forget,” says Jakub Mahdal, CEO and founder of Safetica Technologies. “With the new Safetica 5, we've created a system for companies to organize, manage, and protect their data that compensates for the innate weaknesses in human nature. And whether these mistakes by company insiders are really accidents or are malicious actions, they still cause extensive financial and operational damage to companies.”

The launch of Safetica 5 comes as the numbers and expenses of data breaches are soaring. Companies are also being squeezed between their needs to protect their own confidential data and the legal requirements in the European Union and the United States to secure the private data of customers and employees.

“We hear a lot about data loss, but there is little recognition of their direct costs or the specific ways these losses can be prevented,” explains Mr. Mahdal. “This is why we have the Safetica Data Loss Awards in parallel with the launch – to highlight an array of data breaches and to remind people that data loss is not an inevitable part of doing business.”

Safetica 5 provides companies with a complete toolkit for securing their data and the resources they need to keep their human assets from turning into liabilities. The software includes the new Safetica Endpoint Data Loss Prevention suite, user activity monitoring, and additional features such as disk and file encryption, IT policy settings, access management, application control/whitelisting, printer control, and web filtering with all features overseen by the Safetica Management Console.

Studies on data breaches show that the majority of insider data leaks – either accidental or malicious – go out through the endpoint computer. And, analysis of breaches by the CERT Institute at the American Carnegie Mellon University in the United States showed that there were often detectable signs of unsafe behavior beforehand a malicious data breach.

“We took a two pronged approach to our development of the new Safetica,” says Pavel Kratky, CTO of Safetica Technologies. “First, we wanted to give companies extensive coverage of all their potential data leak channels and give them a look at the behavior preceding a data breach. Secondly, we worked hard to make the process of using Safetica an easier and more instinctive experience. The best protection is worthless unless fully installed and operational.”

Safetica 5 gives companies with between 100 – 500 computers a new option when it comes to data security. “DLP has long regarded as an option only for the largest enterprises or companies with extremely developed IT systems. WIth Safetica 5, we took the theoretical potential in DLP and made it a reality for companies with limited IT support resources,” states Mr. Kratky.

The new Safetica 5 Data Loss Protection suite brings with it three major technical innovations:

• Zones - The Zones concept allows companies to mirror their actual working environment into Safetica data security policies. Companies can easily establish the locations, storage areas and assets for safe data processing according to their own needs.

• Policies – Once established, IT policies and rules for specific data categories and groups can be rolled out across the company, enabling faster and more accurate implementation.

• Three mode deployment – The new Safetica has separate deployment modes – testing, informative, and restrictive – which allow companies to progressively implement data protection policies and educate employees on safer data handling processes.

“Company data security is only as good as the weakest link and this has repeatedly been shown to be a human being - either manager or employee. That’s why the educational elements in Safetica offer so much potential to users,” says Mr. Kratky. “Not only can Safetica 5 keep confidential data from going outside, it can tell users why their actions were stopped.”

The new Safetica 5 comes with a completely new Management Console and GUI. “Looks matter, but efficiency even more so. Our goal is to give managers greater access to more detailed data – but with reduced time requirements. These changes increase the effectiveness of Safetica by making it simpler for management to quickly identify security issues and isolate the causes,” adds Mr. Mahdal.

Features in the new Management Console include:

• Customizable dashboards

• Advanced filtering and sorting

• Visualizations with PDF export

• Interactive graphs (filter by click)

• Step-by-step wizards

The new Safetica 5 is available from the Safetica global network of distributors and resellers and directly from Safetica Technologies in the Czech and Slovak markets. “We have distributors now in 50 countries who’ve been very active in our pre-launch beta tests,” says Mr. Kratky. “They’ve been wanting a way to keep confidential data inside that goes beyond the traditional approach of repelling invaders at the perimeter and like what they see with the new Safetica.”