SAFENET
SafeNet Announces Upgrades to Strengthen Security with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
The Luna SA Product Integration Supports Enhanced Security and Database Management
BALTIMORE
April 21, 2010
SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in information security, today announced that its Luna SA and Luna PCI Hardware Security Modules (HSM) help secure Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. The SafeNet HSMs work with the database management system to provide organizations with a highly secure platform for storing and managing sensitive data. This combination delivers enhanced cryptography and encryption as well as high-speed and seamless installation.
The integration of SafeNet's Luna SA with SQL Server 2008 R2 allows storage of the server's master cryptographic keys - the foundation of any robust security solution - and provides greater application security and performance by separating select key management functionality. When embedded directly into the database server, the Luna PCI provides added security, as well as accelerated cryptographic performance and CPU offload.
"SafeNet's Luna SA and Luna PCI provide organizations using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 with additional security features to help meet today's ever-evolving data threats and compliance mandates," said Claude Lorenson, director of SQL Server marketing at Microsoft Corp.. "Organizations can add a layer of security technology that helps protect keys to be separate from the data it protects while accelerating complex features such as key rotation."
In addition to providing greater security, the updated technology will allow many end users to meet compliance regulations, battle e-privacy issues, and operate more efficiently and at a lower cost.
"The SafeNet Luna SA and Luna PCI offer users of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 two flexible encryption options for their deployment scenarios," said Chris Fedde, president and COO, SafeNet. "With the integration of SQL Server 2008 R2, we are confident that we are further enabling customers to fully realize a seamless, security-enhanced integration, and become more compliant with government standards and regulations."
Integration with Microsoft applications is facilitated via the SafeNet Luna EKM, which is used to set up Extensible Key Management (EKM) for SQL Server 2008 R2. The Luna EKM Configuration Utility allows the flexibility to set parameters required by the EKM module and allows for the encryption of data using encryption keys on the external Luna EKM module.
The relationship with Microsoft dates back to the development of the Luna HSM. This latest collaboration continues the strong history of working together to provide more secure products and operating environments.
"In some performance testing, I found the Luna SA hardware implementation was able to decrypt data that was a previously encrypted with a 2048 Bit RSA key over 200 times faster than the CryptoAPI software implementation in Microsoft SQL Server," stated Michael Coles, Microsoft SQL Server MVP and consultant.
SafeNet's HSM technology is a key component of its overall approach to data security and risk management. These tools persistently protect data across the entire enterprise via an integrated security platform. For more information please visit:
http://www.safenet-inc.com/Products/Data_Protection/Hardware_Security_Modules_(HSMs).aspx
About SafeNet, Inc.
Founded in 1983, SafeNet is a global leader in information security. SafeNet protects its customers' most valuable assets, including identities, transactions, communications, data and software licensing, throughout the data lifecycle. More than 25,000 customers across both commercial enterprises and government agencies and in over 100 countries trust their information security needs to SafeNet.
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SafeNet and Akamai Simplify Electronic Software Delivery for Software Vendors and End Users
Companies Team to Offer Solution for Secure Automated Electronic Software Delivery and Entitlement Management
BALTIMORE
March 30, 2010
SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in information security, and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions, enterprise applications online, today announced they have entered into a new relationship that enables software vendors to combine a user-friendly, automated entitlement management solution and a secure, scalable electronic software delivery solution.
Together, the two solutions combine the back office licensing fulfillment and automation features of Sentinel EMS, SafeNet's web based entitlement management platform, with the secure and reliable download functionality of Akamai's Electronic Software Delivery solution. The resulting solution is designed to enable software vendors to improve their end-user software purchasing and activation experience, while protecting revenue and reducing internal operating costs.
"SafeNet and Akamai have entered into this partnership with one goal - to bring together our complimentary solutions to create a cost-effective electronic software management and delivery solution for companies to more easily secure and automate their software purchasing, delivery, and license management processes, " said Rich Kennelly, Vice President of Media at Akamai.
Customer experience, revenue protection, and resource optimization are top of mind for all organizations, including software vendors. SafeNet and Akamai have nearly four decades of combined experience helping software vendors improve usability and reduce operating costs to maximize profitability. SafeNet solutions automate order entry, fulfillment, and license management. Akamai's Electronic Delivery platform is architected to give companies an alternative to physical distribution and allow them to create a customized, branded download experience, increase consumer engagement, improve conversion rates and garner business-critical download analytics reporting and data. Together, the solutions are designed to improve the end-user experience and enable software vendors to maximize profitability with secure, automated electronic software delivery.
"The core business value of Sentinel EMS is the system's ability to reduce the cost and complexity of software fulfillment management for software vendors through automation. Similarly, Akamai's industry-leading solutions have demonstrated unmatched global scale and reliability that significantly reduce software delivery costs," said Chris Holland, vice president, software rights management, SafeNet. "By joining forces, SafeNet and Akamai are now able to provide customers with the ultimate business process improvement solution for achieving maximum profitability."
SafeNet's Sentinel® solutions meet the unique license enablement, enforcement, and management requirements of any organization. The solution is easy to integrate and use, innovative, and feature-focused and provides anti-piracy, IP protection, license enablement, and license management challenges while increasing overall profitability, improving internal operations, maintaining competitive positioning, and enhancing relationships with their customers and end users.
The Akamai Difference
Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering video, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable and secure place to inform, entertain, advertise, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.
About SafeNet, Inc.
Founded in 1983, SafeNet is a global leader in information security. SafeNet protects its customers' most valuable assets, including identities, transactions, communications, data and software licensing, throughout the data lifecycle. More than 25,000 customers across both commercial enterprises and government agencies and in over 100 countries trust their information security needs to SafeNet.
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SafeNet Solutions Secure Cloud Computing Deployments
Customers Maintain Control and Compliance While Keeping Sensitive Information Secure in the Cloud
RSA SAN FRANCISCO
March 01, 2010
SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in information security, today announced the availability of solutions that enable organizations to ensure the security of sensitive data in cloud deployments.
Data is at the center of everything -- allowing for businesses to run and enabling the products and services that will drive competitive advantage for them in the future. And protecting that data is paramount. Today, issues of risk, data privacy, and compliance are the chief inhibitors to most organizations' adoption of cloud services. While security can be seen as an obstacle to the broad adoption of cloud computing, it can also be an enabler. By finding a way to effectively safeguard data in the cloud, enterprises can begin to fully maximize the business potential of cloud offerings, allowing for continued innovation and growth in the industry.
In response to customer demands, and in an effort to help mitigate the inhibitions towards the adoption of cloud computing, SafeNet offers the following data-centric security solutions to protect data in the cloud:
- Intelligent Authentication Tokens– Ensuring that only authorized users gain access to cloud-based resources is critical for cloud providers and enterprises. SafeNet's multi-factor strong authentication solutions ensure that only authorized individuals access an organization's sensitive information – enabling business, protecting data, lowering IT costs, and boosting user productivity.
- Secure Cryptographic Key Storage– A centralized, hardened security appliance manages cryptographic keys, access control, and other security policies. In addition, a virtualized instance of this appliance is deployed in the cloud to replicate policies and security enforcement on the data. Security administrators can dictate policy based on business content, documents, and folders in order to ensure only authorized users and groups access sensitive data. SafeNet hardware security modules offer centralized, FIPS- and Common Criteria-certified storage of cryptographic keys.
- Secure storage in the cloud across file, application, and database systems–Driven by a need to use the cloud's elastic storage, organizations can securely store data in the cloud, effectively using the cloud for the backup, disaster recovery, and archival of data. SafeNet provides protection of stored data through a hardened appliance that centralizes encryption processing, keys, logging, auditing, and policy administration across file, application, and database systems.
SafeNet's intelligent, data-centric solutions persistently protect data throughout the information lifecycle and adapt to support emerging cloud delivery models – from today's SaaS and private clouds to the evolving demands of hybrid and public clouds. Together, these solutions deliver the critical capabilities required for a robust, cost-effective, and secure cloud implementation.
"In today's dynamic cloud environments, the legacy physical security approaches of the past simply don't cut it any longer," said Russ Dietz, chief technical officer, SafeNet. "With proven solutions that offer granular, persistent security controls, SafeNet enables customers to fully leverage the business benefits of cloud computing - without having to make sacrifices in security."
With SafeNet's security offerings, customers can fully leverage the business benefits of cloud environments, while ensuring trust, compliance, and privacy. As a result, users gain confidence in how data is used and shared, which not only promotes trust but fuels business agility, innovation, and productivity.
"With its focus on the persistent protection of information throughout its lifecycle, SafeNet's data-centric security expertise and offerings will help put organizations at ease and ensure their trust in migrating to the cloud," said Jim Reavis, co-founder of the Cloud Security Alliance. "We are excited to have SafeNet as a member of the Cloud Security Alliance. The company will be a valuable partner as we continue to help the industry embrace the opportunities of secure cloud computing."
SafeNet is also launching its "SafeCloud" Web site to provide organizations with a central resource for information on cloud computing and how to implement it securely within their business environment. To visit the SafeCloud site, go to
www.safenet-inc.com/cloudsecurity.
About SafeNet, Inc.
Founded in 1983, SafeNet is a global leader in information security. SafeNet protects its customers' most valuable assets, including identities, transactions, communications, data and software licensing, throughout the data lifecycle. More than 25,000 customers across both commercial enterprises and government agencies and in over 100 countries trust their information security needs to SafeNet.
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Europeans Feel Left Alone With Data Protection
Only 15% feel well enough informed about how their personal data is used; low level of trust in Social Networking websites
LONDON
February 03, 2010
European citizens desire more information about what organizations do with their personal data. Only 15% of Europeans feel well or quite well informed about how their personal data is used by companies or public authorities. These are results from a 2010 street survey [1] in seven European countries, commissioned by data security and software rights management provider SafeNet on the occasion of the 4th European Data Protection Day [2].
More than half of the respondents said there was a lack of information about usage of their personal data. On the other hand, less than 10% always check how their personal data would be protected. Here, Germany is a positive exception with 26% of respondents checking before they give away their data. But more than two thirds of Europeans seldom or never read through a privacy policy before giving away sensitive information. In the Netherlands, 59% never read a privacy statement. This is in line with the result that 34% of the Dutch respondents feel well enough informed.
When asked how much they would trust six different types of organizations in protecting people's personal data, Europeans showed an exceptional level of unity in giving bad marks to Social Networking websites. On a scale from 1 (trust completely) to 5 (do not trust at all), Social Networking sites received an average of 4.09, followed by Telecommunications providers (3.50) and eCommerce companies (3.26). Interestingly, doctors/hospitals received the highest trust level (1.94), followed by banks (2.02) and public authorities (2.30). Whereas the ranks of other organizations varied from country to country, Social Networks were always the least trusted type of organization.
While banks were among the most trusted organizations in all countries, many respondents (36 %) still see an immediate need for improvements by their bank in securing personal data and account details. In Sweden and Italy about every second interviewee requested better data protection from their bank whereas in France only 22% called for action. This desire for better data protection does not seem to be the result of a lack of information. Three out of four respondents knew at least generally which security measures their bank has in place to protect client data. Especially Germans are well aware of the mechanisms their bank uses to protect their data: 70% could name some of these mechanisms when asked whereas in France only 14% were able to give examples.
"We can learn from this street survey that there is obviously a lot of uncertainty regarding data privacy among citizens. People do not want to read through complicated privacy statements but nevertheless have a strong desire to have their personal data well protected", said Gary Clark, VP EMEA at SafeNet. "It is no surprise that we see a very low level of trust for the types of organizations that had security breaches in the past, losing large quantities of client data. These organizations should assign high priority to the task of securing data privacy because people will only re-gain confidence if the series of negative news about data leaks can be stopped. At SafeNet, we have a long track record in protecting sensitive data and privacy, and advise our enterprise and government customers to the highest protection level for their customer's data."
When asked what they would do if a company had lost their data, more than half of the respondents would immediately stop doing business with this company (70% in the UK). An additional 30% would either call the police or a consumer rights organization or both and 14% even said that they would bring this to a court.
[1] The street survey of 367 people was conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands in January 2010.
[2] The European Data Protection Day is an initiative by the Council of Europe. "The aim of the Data Protection Day is to give European citizens the chance to understand what personal data is collected and processed about them and why, and what their rights are with respect to this processing." (Quoted from the Website http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protection/Default_DP_Day_en.asp)
About SafeNet, Inc.
Founded in 1983, SafeNet is a global leader in information security. SafeNet protects its customers' most valuable assets, including identities, transactions, communications, data and software licensing, throughout the data lifecycle. More than 25,000 customers across both commercial enterprises and government agencies and in over 100 countries trust their information security needs to SafeNet.
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Qatar Central Bank
SafeNet Selected to Protect the State of Qatar's
Financial Communications and Transactions
Background
The Qatar Central Bank is one of the most advanced central banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the regulatory authority for banks, exchange houses, investment companies, and financial companies within the state of Qatar.
Business Challenge
Qatar Central Bank was looking for a solution for securing financial
transactions, communications, and digital identities. Existing MPLS
networks resulted in the lack of secure communication between QCB
and the local banks in Qatar for financial bank transfers. Additionally,
there was no way to secure and manage the identities of the system
users, in order to create reliable and secure non-repudiation
characteristics.
Qatar Central Bank was looking for a complete end-to-end solution for
their infrastructure that would secure the inter-bank network and
provide:
- Secure local money transactions between local banks
- Provide local banks with a means for trusting and securing
communications
- Offer users a single sign-on feature for local applications
- Have a reliable PKI based infrastructure for future applications
that need security, integration, and non-repudiation
SafeNet Solution
After reviewing several solutions in the market, QCB selected SafeNet.
They chose SafeNet because they could get a complete end-to-end
solution from one vendor that provided the most secure products
available and could be easily integrated into the current infrastructure.
“When looking for a solution to handling the local money transactions
of a country like Qatar, we felt we had to use the most advanced
solution. We wanted it to be easy to integrate, manage, and the most
secure. SafeNet was chosen because they were able to secure the root
key of QCB Certificate Authority and provide the local banks' operators
with a true end-to-end secure connection with two-factor
authentication. This enabled the local banks' operators to securely
submit their customers' transactions,” said Global Forte partner for the
QCB project.
SafeNet and its regional partner, Global Forte, deployed a complete PKI
infrastructure using Microsoft Certificate Authority, SafeNet Luna
Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), and the Time Stamping Authority.
This infrastructure enabled QCB to issue certificates to system users for
authentication, signing, and securing communications between local
banks by signing and encrypting financial transactions, payments, and
email communications. The PKI infrastructure deployed included:
- SafeNet Luna PCI HSM- the fastest, most secure HSM on the
market, used for securing the QCB's Certificate Authority root
key.
- SafeNet Luna SP HSM- the most secure, and easiest to manage
and integrate HSM that is a web server embedded HSM that is
used along with Global Forte's java based Time Stamping
Authority (TSA) to achieve date and time non-repudiation.
- SafeNet High Assurance 2000 with SMC- hardware based
solution for managing VPN connectivity providing secure VPN
connectivity with two-factor authentication tunnels established
between QCB and the Local Banks true end to end
communication security.
- SafeNet iKey Tokens-provide strong authentication for securely
generating user keys pairs and two-factor authentication for
VPN connectivity as well as for signing transactions and
exchanged data.
- SafeNet Axis- used for establishing single sign-on capabilities.
Conclusion
Shortly after deploying the SafeNet PKI Infrastructure, Global Forte realized
immediate results including:
- A secure communication line between QCB and the local banks in
Qatar
- The successful deployment of a Microsoft Certificate Authority to
secure and validate system users and digital identities.
- A trusted means for the banks to time-stamp financial and payment
transactions.
- A complete set of integrated solutions providing application
integration.
- The convenience of a single sign-on option that allows the users to logon
into any application they specify automatically.
- The ability to launch a new service for local inter-bank transactions
that was more cost effective compared to other alternatives, and
provided for secure communications between banks.
In addition to the successful installation and deployment of the entire PKI
infrastructure solution, the Qatar Central back was more than pleased with
the integration of Global Forte's TSA with the Luna SP. They are now able to
digitally sign any type of transaction in an impressive amount of time, and do
it securely.
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