Accellion, Inc. Announces its Secure File Transfer Assessment Initiative
Initiative Will Provide Secure File Transfer Process Benchmarks for Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA Compliance
Palo Alto, Calif. — Feb. 14, 2006. Coinciding with the annual RSAŽ Security Conference in San Francisco, CA, Accellion, Inc., an award-winning provider of on-demand secure file transfer appliance and data management solutions, announced today its Secure File Transfer Assessment Initiative (Secure FTA Initiative). The Secure FTA Initiative aims to provide benchmarks for secure file transfer processes among a number of different industries. In addition, the Initiative will help enterprise-level companies to proactively manage key business secure file transfer processes that relate to compliance regulations outlined in laws such as the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
As part of the Initiative, Accellion has commissioned IT analyst Michael Osterman of Osterman Research to undertake a study examining the current state of file transfer methods used in business processes across a number of different industries, as well as the various security and privacy enhancements that have been employed as a result of government mandates such as SOX and HIPAA.
Traditional file transfer methods such as file transfer protocol (FTP) are unencrypted, exposing companies and individual users to potential security breaches. Oftentimes, companies allow multiple users to share FTP account access or maintain "anonymous FTP" accounts that allow anyone to retrieve information from a FTP server; prevalence of these practices can result in a lack of security robustness for business processes. Because of these fundamental insecurities surrounding FTP, many proactive IT organizations have begun to target FTP usage as part of their security and compliance audits.
"As with many recent initiatives, including HIPAA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, internal and external mandates are calling for every process to be documented, auditable, and accountable - including those business processes that incorporate or leverage traditional communications protocols," said Frank L. Kenney, research analyst with Gartner, Inc. "The result is that, in the immediate future, most companies, regardless of industry, need to consider how they are managing their file transfers."
"Accellion's Secure FTA Initiative will be the first study that sheds light on the current state of secure file transfer processes amongst enterprise users while providing benchmarks for organizations to proactively address their security and regulatory compliance needs," said Yorgen Edholm, CEO and President of Accellion, Inc.
Additional information on participating in or receiving the results of the Secure File Transfer Assessment Initiative (Secure FTA Initiative) is available at www.accellion.com or call (650) 739-0095.
About Accellion
Founded in 1999, Accellion, Inc., the premier provider of on-demand secure file transfer solution, is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in North America, Asia and Europe. For more information please visit www.accellion.com or call +1 (650) 739-0095.
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