Posts Tagged ‘Accellion’

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Gmail Support for Files up to 10GB? That’s so 2002.

Friday, November 30th, 2012

This week Google announced that Gmail users can attach files stored in Google Drive to Gmail messages up to 10GB. “..whether it’s photos from your recent camping trip, video footage from your brother’s wedding, or a presentation to your boss, all your stuff is easy to find and easy to share…”, the company went on to say. Now, we’re OK with Drive being used for wilderness shots and videos of Uncle Bob cutting loose on the dance floor, but when it comes to business-related communications, like sending a PPT, we have to stop you right there.

For true enterprise collaboration and file sharing, we’ve found that size matters – as our customer, Mark Yee from AutoDesk, will tell you. That’s the beauty of our solution – there’s no hard limit on file size (Guinness World Records take note!) That means that our clients can send massive, data-intensive documents such as software upgrades, CAD drawings, media files, and customer databases, without wondering if a file is too big to be shared. And that’s been the case for years. Accellion customers have routinely sent files of 100-200GB in size and some brave souls have even sent 1TB files!

Plus, we provide tight security – integration with DLP solutions, automated audit trails, extensive file tracking and reporting, and customizable file access and storage controls – to make sure that your confidential data remains protected at rest and during transit. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Google, welcome to the party, albeit a tad late. While 10GB is progress, it’s not going to cut it for serious enterprise users. While we believe that large email attachments should be phased out with dinosaurs and fax machines, we love the idea of our clients sending Stegosaurus-sized documents. We can’t imagine that ever going out of style.

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An Accellion Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

An article in CIO reminds us all of the importance of information sharing and collaboration in successful organizations. The need to share and collaborate is not new at all. We can go back to 1620 when a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic to settle the New World.

The first winter for the Pilgrims was very difficult because they had arrived too late to plant crops. However, next spring Native Americans shared valuable information about native crops. In the autumn of 1621, the colonists harvested plentiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins. The colonists had much to be thankful for, and a feast was planned. The local Indians brought deer to roast with turkey and other wild game. This spirit of sharing and collaboration between the Pilgrims and Indians made it possible for the early settlers to prosper in the New World.

Today many businesses thrive on the same “need to share” mindset that the Indians and Native Americans demonstrated back in 1620.

In this season of sharing, Accellion has a few tips for sharing corporate information securely with colleagues, customers, partners, and vendors in order to create more productive enterprises.

1. Choose a secure file sharing solution that is simple enough for employees to use, but secure enough for IT. When secure file sharing is easy, employees make it as part of their daily routine and organizations encourage it.

2. Find a mobile file sharing solution that integrates with your existing enterprise IT infrastructure, including SharePoint, iManage, active directory, archiving systems, mobile device management and data loss prevention (DLP) systems. When secure file sharing works along-side existing applications, no one loses out. Investments are not wasted.

3.Implement a solution that enables secure file sharing across corporate boundaries. When both internal and external users securely collaborate on projects, information shared among partners, vendors, and suppliers is protected.

4. Select a solution that provides native applications for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices to securely view, share and edit content on-the-go. When mobile file sharing is ubiquitous, there is no excuse for using unsecure workarounds.

5. Select a solution that provides the audit trails and reporting required to demonstrate compliance with industry and government regulations such as PCI, SOX, and HIPAA. When organizations need to not only protect sensitive data, but also demonstrate compliance, sophisticated reporting is a must have feature.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Accellion Team!

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Trick or Breach: Frightening Spike in Data Security Incidents

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

Who’s lurking around your valuable data? According to new figures from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the U.K., your organization’s risk for a breach has increased by a startling percent.

Here’s the spooktacular data they found:

  • In the past five years, data security breaches have increased more than 1000 percent in the U.K.
  • The industry hit hardest is local government, with breaches increasing by 1609 percent; followed by public sector (1308%); and private sector (1159%)
  • The ICO has issued nearly £2 million of fines from July 2011 to 2012 – more than three times the amount of penalties from the previous year

These numbers were reinforced in the United States in Verizon’s 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report that reported 855 incidents and 174 million compromised records.

Verizon’s annual report includes more incidents, derived from more contributors, and represents a broader and more diverse scope. The number of compromised records across these incidents skyrocketed back up to 174 million after reaching an all-time low in last year’s report .In fact, the 2012 report boasts the second-highest data loss total since Verizon started keeping track in 2004.

Nick Banks, head of EMEA and APAC operations for Imation Mobile Security told Help Net Security, “Organizations must take responsibility for preventing breaches, and with so much available technology there really is no excuse for failing to adequately protect data.”

Nick’s right. Safeguarding corporate data has to be at the top of organizations’ priority lists. With tools like Accellion, comprehensive enterprise security is attainable, affordable, and easier than ever – providing a safe way for users to share information, while ensuring files don’t end up in the wrong hands.

It’s time to turn this trend in the opposite direction. Who’s in?

We do our part to help Accellion’s customers and their business users protect data while sharing files with external and internal users.

As for the haunts of Halloween… there is nothing that can help the chills and thrills.

 

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Three Lessons Learned from Colossal Government Data Breach

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Does the name Bradley Manning mean anything to you? If you’re a government organization, the name is synonymous with “colossal data breach” – as Manning spearheaded the biggest leak of classified information in our nation’s history.

To briefly recap, Manning, a U.S. Army soldier, single handedly accessed more than 900,000 intelligence documents, including daily war logs from military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he did it by downloading files onto CDs labeled “Lady Gaga”, which he shared with the whistleblower site, WikiLeaks.

According to Manning’s published chat logs, the event was “childishly easy”; “no one expected a thing”; and the “weak servers, weak logging, weak physical security, weak counter-intelligence, and inattentive signal analysis created a perfect storm.”

With Manning’s trial just a few months away, we take a look back to share three important lessons learned from this monumental event:

Lesson #1: DLP is Important: While Manning had access to a classified network used by the Department of Defense and the State Department, having a data loss prevention (DLP) solution in place that scanned information, across all network points before it left the network, would have provided an additional line of defense to prevent the data from being downloaded – to a CD, flash drive, or any other storage mechanism.

Lesson #2: It’s Time to Cast a Wider Security Net: Because most government agencies are large, data security can be focused on the “core” or interior of the network versus the perimeter of the organization. But, big data security challenges arise as employees have new ways to view and share confidential data – via BYOD movements, wireless access points, and consumer-based, third-party file sharing sites. Now that networks have become more decentralized, agencies need to deploy a wider “net” to secure and manage data.

Lesson #3: Security and Large File Size Aren’t Mutually Exclusive: Large data transfers are not only common within the government domain, they are often required. But how are agencies securing and managing that data?  And, can large files be shared simply and on demand? To address these needs, organizations are turning to mobile file sharing solutions that give employees the ability to send and synchronize large, classified and confidential documents with ease, while giving IT the security, authentication, encryption and file tracking and reporting capabilities necessary to support data security best practices.

These are three key lessons to remember as we move into 2013 and strive to keep newsworthy security breaches a part of our past, fully protecting government data exchanges of the future.

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Posted in Accellion, Data Breach, Data Security | No Comments »

An iPhone for Everyone: Is that a Sound Mobile Strategy?

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

As expected, Apple announced the much-anticipated iPhone 5 at this week’s media event to great fanfare and we expect once available it will immediately become part of the BYOD mix.

Just a few weeks ago, Marissa Mayer, in one of her first acts as CEO of Yahoo, decided everyone at Yahoo would be issued an iPhone or Android device.  Her preference is the iPhone, in spite of being a former Google employee and she expects employees to become familiar with the platform so that they can create “products that shine” on it.

It’s an interesting response by Yahoo, who like so many organizations, has ended up with a diverse population of Android, BlackBerry and Apple iOS devices in the enterprise.

While Accellion mobile file sharing supports virtually any mobile device, we applaud Mayer’s decision to take a stance on Yahoo’s mobile state of affairs, driving toward consistent mobile access and security across the organization.  She’s tackling the first important step by defining which devices can be used.  The next step will be defining how users can access and share content securely on these devices, and this is where Accellion becomes important. IT needs management and control over mobile file sharing to protect valuable and confidential enterprise information.  Stay tuned as the next generation of iPhone users unfold at Yahoo! (and countless other enterprises) around the globe.

 

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Get In Control of Sync – Perception of Security is Not Enough

Monday, August 27th, 2012

Do you remember the first document you saved on a thumb drive? It used to be that employees wouldn’t leave the office without one – routinely saving board slides and keynote presentations on these mini storage devices. While still a popular giveaway at tradeshows (how many have you stockpiled over the years?), the idea of having corporate data floating around unprotected is too risky of a proposition for an enterprise of any size.

This has led organizations to seek out thumb drive replacements – solutions that are just as straightforward to use and provide anytime, anywhere information access, but with more security. Unfortunately, as Clive Longbottom, Head of Research with Quocirca points out, many have made a misstep, turning to cloud storage systems such as DropBox and Apple iCloud, which are only causing updated versions of the same problem. So, IT administrators then ban employee usage, but employees continue to use the solutions anyway, creating merely “a perception of security” because nothing has actually changed.

Longbottom urges enterprises to find a better approach. One that: 1) allows users to not only view and edit documents, but to share files with required external constituents; 2) supports any device and O/S combination; 3) is as easy to use as consumer solutions; and 4) applies granular security for storage and user access rights. We know just the answer.

Accellion kitedrive™ sync – dubbed “Dropbox for the enterprise” – makes sure that confidential data is securely and seamlessly synchronized, providing around-the-clock availability of all types of files. Users can work both online and offline, from both Windows and Mac environments, via smartphones, laptops, or other devices. As with all of our solutions, security is a top priority, and kitedrive is no exception, supporting LDAP integration, single sign-on through SAML, administrator activity logs, and integration with DLP solutions.

In addition to the new Mac availability, kitedrive sync also includes new features that give users control over the frequency of sync and which folders should sync. Details on these features include:

Selective Sync – Enables users to select and de-select syncing for shared files and folders.Selective Sync makes it easier for users to synchronize the content that matters the most to them. Users can decide which content they want to synchronize and when.

Scheduled Sync – Enables users to schedule the synchronization of files and folders. Users can easily get the most up–to-date content across devices with the frequency they want. Users can synchronize content on a frequency of every 60 minutes to every 24 hours. Kitedrive is the ideal cloud and file management enterprise solution, making sure critical business information is everywhere your users need it to be.

Say goodbye to the thumb drive and hello to kitedrive file synchronization.

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Customer Spotlight: Texas Juvenile Justice Department takes action to protect youth data.

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

For the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), the ability to communicate quickly and securely makes all the difference for the youth they serve. Operating dozens of treatment facilities, correctional institutions and halfway houses throughout the state, TJJD needed a way for its 2,500 employees to share confidential data efficiently and reliably between parents, medical staff and legal counsel.

Before switching to Accellion, staff members often turned to mailing hard copies of documents, burning CDs, or encrypting individual emails in order to work around a cumbersome file transfer and encryption mechanism provided by a dedicated TLS link. TJJD clearly needed a better option, fast.

After undergoing rigorous testing, Accellion was successfully deployed at TJJD, and the number of licenses has since grown from 100 to 600. Josh Kuntz, ISO with TJJD, cites the user-friendly nature of the Accellion solution as the driving force behind this rapid growth.

“Adoption of Accellion has taken off because it allows users to work as they always have,” said Kuntz. “It looks email and acts like email, making it a no-brainer to use.”

TJJD staff members from medical services employees to legal counsel and case workers are now using the Accellion solution to securely share confidential youth data, meeting the requirements of new legislation such as Texas Family Code, Chapter 58, which requires TJJD maintain the integrity of all juvenile justice information. The solution has also been invaluable for community interactions, allowing TJJD employees to better communicate with family members.

“95 percent of our data must be kept confidential for one reason or another, driving us to find a secure mode to exchange information with parents, between staff members, and with the community at large,” said Kuntz. “Accellion was the only solution that met our strict security guidelines, yet made it easy for non-technical individuals to use.”

Click here to read the full case study.

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“The Met” Safeguards The Olympic Torch

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

 

We’re just hours from the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games, marked by the arrival of the Olympic torch in London. The torch is ready for a place to call home, as it’s been on an intense journey through more than 1,000 cities and towns in the U.K over the past 70 days.

There’s a lot riding on this time-honored tradition (dating back to 1936) that includes more than 8,000 torchbearers, who were selected through a nomination process, and millions of spectators along the route. With security a top priority for all involved, the host city police force – The Metropolitan Police (The Met) – takes their job very seriously, preparing for the past 18 months as intensely as the athletes scheduled to compete.

An Accellion customer, The Met spearheads safety procedures for both the Olympic Flame and the torchbearers, synchronizing activities with National Olympic Coordination Centre and maintaining teams on the ground that shadow the torch as it passes through 95 percent of the country.

While the torch ends its travels tonight, with the final torchbearer lighting the Olympic cauldron, The Met’s job is far from over. The police force will also guard the security of the Paralympic Torch Relay in August, with four flames coming together from London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

We’re proud to call The Met an Accellion customer and of all they did to bring the torch safely to Olympic Stadium. Let the games begin…

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“What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: File Sharing and DLP”

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

Product development plans, quarterly reports, partner SOWs, customer account data, design specs – the list of proprietary data that you need to keep safe goes on and on. So often, data security conversations focus on external threats – due to the huge uptick in malware and security breaches – yet, you can’t ignore risks lurking within your own company walls.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, 13.4 percent of the total number of reported data breaches in 2011 were incidents of insider thefts. That figure represents malicious activities, but there are also a huge number of unintentional acts – with users completely unaware that they’re sharing documents that include sensitive information. You have enough to worry about – as do your employees – which is why you want to make sure all enterprise content leaving your organization is automatically protected.

The good news is that we’ve made it easy. We have taken our strong focus on security a step further, allowing you to easily integrate Accellion file sharing with leading data loss prevention (DLP) platforms, including Symantec (Vontu), RSA, Fidelis, Palisades, Code Green Networks, and most recently, Websense.  And, we’re proud to say, that we’re the only file sharing vendor that offers this ease of integration and protection.

You simply choose your preferred DLP solution, which inspects all data before it leaves your organization – scanning for confidential data (social security numbers, credit card numbers, product information, etc.) and blocking and/or quarantining file transfers that violate established policies. Basically, you establish the rules and we make sure that users follow them whenever they are sharing files. It’s automated, integrated, and easy to use file sharing ntegrated with DLP – keeping your business in motion while safeguarding your most precious assets. Learn more.

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How Protected is Your Brand from a Virus?

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Your brand reaches far beyond your logo, tagline and website – encompassing all interactions with current and potential customers, and often boiling down to how professional (and pleasant) it is to do business with you. How you communicate with investors, partners, and prospects says a lot about your company and helps you create a rapport and level of trust with those critical to your company’s success. The last thing you want is an employee sharing a file from their mobile device and inadvertently also sharing a virus with a valued customer, contaminating external recipients along with all you’ve done to build your company’s brand.

Continuing our discussion about the risks of the growing Bring Your Own Device trend, employees are sharing files from any number of mobile devices and antivirus protection needs to follow suit. According to Juniper Networks’ 2011 Mobile Threats Report, there was a 155 percent increase in malware on mobile platforms in 2011 as compared to the previous year.

But, just because mobile malware is on the rise, doesn’t mean your risks have to increase at the same pace. If your employees are sharing files, you need the ability to run antivirus – on any device, at any time – before the document goes out. It seems like a no-brainer, but vendors such as Box, Dropbox, and SugarSync would disagree, with Gartner’s new “Mobile File Synchronization Evaluation Criteria” report (May 2012) showing all three in the “No” category when it comes to offering antivirus on mobile files.

More mobile devices plus more malware has to equal a file sharing device that comes with antivirus protection. Does Accellion offer antivirus? The answer is a resounding “yes” as no enterprise file sharing solution is secure without it.

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