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A new security appliance from Reconnex Corp. will protect small financial services and health care companies from information leaks by insiders using e-mail, instant messaging, the Web and other online channels.
The iGuard 1300 is a dedicated network appliance that captures and analyzes network traffic for information leaks that could be used in identity theft scams or that violate recent federal data privacy regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and GLBA (Graham-Leach-Bliley Act).
The new device can generate immediate reports when sensitive information is disclosed, alerting administrators to potentially harmful data leaks, said Reconnex officials in Mountain View, Calif.
The iGuard 1300 is a 1U (1.75-inch) rack-mounted appliance that can be connected to a switch or router behind an organizations firewall. The device has a content analysis engine that captures network traffic as it leaves a network and stores it on an internal 250GB drive. The analysis engine then compares network traffic with security and confidentiality policies, flagging suspicious activity and generating reports.
The product comes with two e-Risk Modules: one for financial services and one for health care. The modules contain predefined rules and reporting templates that help small companies comply with federal regulations such as HIPAA and GLBA, company officials said.
At Community Bank of Dearborn, in Michigan, the iGuard 1300 appliance will be used to help the company implement Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and provisions of GLBA and prepare the company for biannual audits by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.), said Jeff Karafa, senior vice president and chief technology officer at the bank.
Community Bank recently completed a trial of the appliance and will soon deploy an iGuard 1300 on its network. During the trial, the device flagged a document containing Social Security numbers that an employee mistakenly sent to a third-party processor in unencrypted form, Karafa said.
Regulatory compliance is the main reason for purchasing the iGuard, but Community Bank will also use features that monitor employee Web surfing use, spot pornographic images on Web sites and track other behavior that violates company policy, he said.
“We use it to keep our honest employees honest,” Karafa said.
The iGuard 1300 is available starting June 15 and costs $25,000, Reconnex officials said.
Companies like Reconnex and competitors such as Tablus Inc. and Verdasys Inc. are serving a nascent but growing market for products that can spot threats from employees, contractors and other privileged insiders, said Jonathan Penn, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., in Cambridge, Mass.
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