McAfee releases Total Protection for Data 23 January, 2008 By Vanessa Ho

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"Protecting confidential data or losing confidential data remain a top issue for CIOs today," said Vimal Solanki, vice president, solution and competitive marketing at McAfee.

McAfee's Total Protection for Data offers centralized policy management and enforcement in a packaged solution that includes McAfee Endpoint Encryption, McAfee Host Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and McAfee Device Control and as well as the management of McAfee Encrypted USB and McAfee DLP network (users have to buy the physical USB key and network box separately). Additionally, Total Protection for Data can be managed with McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO).

The McAfee Endpoint Encryption encrypts everything on the end point of a mobile device such as a laptop or PDA and McAfee Encrypted USB encrypts everything that is copied rendering data useless in the event of loss or theft. McAfee Device Control will only allow authorized devices to be connected to the PC and it's aware to the point where even an authorized device will not be able to copy any confidential information on to it.

"There are more and more mobile devices that we are using like laptops, PDAs, USB keys and it is very easy to lose them and it doesn't matter how they get lost. If I am a company and I lose my laptop that has customer data on it, my company is forced to disclose this loss," said Solanki.

The next two products, DLP Host and Network, essentially guard against the movement of confidential data in and out of corporate machines and shared servers via third party e-mail, corporate e-mail, instant messaging and FTP. This prevents accidental exposure of sensitive data and prevents data loss without disrupting legitimate business activities.

Solanki said that the reason why McAfee is offering so many products is that there are multiple ways data can get loss. "It enables users to protect against certain use cases and also offer Total Protection for Data as an all encompassing solution."

McAfee Total Protection for Data was created in response to the growing number of regulations placed on enterprises that require them to ensure customer privacy and data confidentiality.

"Regulations require companies to safeguard data and when they don't, they get penalties or lawsuits or have to publicly disclose and the public embarrassment that comes with all of this . . . becomes a big issue," said Solanki. "[Disclosure of a breach] is the event [companies] dread the most."

He added that the best way to protect against these issues is to implement a solution that protects against all possibilities that a data can get loss.

"If you lose a laptop and it is encrypted, you are not required to disclose that."

Solanki said that McAfee's Total Protection for Data offers many drivers for channel partners including giving partners an interesting way to offer something that is simple for customers to do an add-on because it is integrated with ePO. Another benefit for partners is that Total Protection for Data will work with any vendor.

"We are finding that partners will be able to successfully take this into all the non-McAfee accounts and position this product to solve the data protection problem in a holistic manner."

According to Charles Kolodgy, research director of the secure content and threat management products with IDC, McAfee's release of Total Protection for Data validates research that IDC has conducted in this space.

"Enterprises and buyers want [DLP and encryption solutions] together and McAfee is first to take these and put them together," said Kolodgy.

He added McAfee is leading the way in presenting this to the market and what the market is demanding is protection that meets encryption, confidentially and compliance needs.

"Customers and the market are asking vendors to give me something that fits all these needs."

Kolodgy said that McAfee's Total Protection for Data will be first of many to be released and other vendors will soon be coming out with similar products.

McAfee Total Protection for Data is available now. For more information, visit McAfee's Web site. For 10,000 users and above, the price per device is $66 (U.S.) for Total Protection for Data; $53 for Endpoint Encryption; $42.22 for Host DLP; and $16.19 for Port Control.