Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/10646
File W Transfer Technologies Offer Security and Audit Trails BY STEPHANIE JORDAN ith the passage of time, many aspects of the digital age seem to keep improv- ing, while other areas, like securing data in motion, become more com- plex. Especially as the potential ways to move data continues to increase. In May, another data loss incident occurred to remind us to secure valu- able data while it is in motion. This time it is in a supermarket parking lot in the U.K. where unencrypted sensi- tive information and health records of mental health patients were found on a USB stick by a 12-year old boy. “The national health authority in England was quoted as saying they have safeguards and policies in re- gard to portable devices and it is like,” comments Paula Skokowski, chief marketing officer for Accellion on the parking lot discovery. “Yes, you have a policy, but it was obviously not clear to this person and it wasn’t enforced. They somehow thought transferring data on a USB stick was a good idea. I mean who knows it could have just fallen out of this guy’s pocket—I just want to tell everybody, don’t do that! What if it had been encrypted? Would that make it better? Not necessarily, especially when working with very large files contends Paul French vice president product and solutions mar- keting for Axway. “We hear the grand panacea is to just encrypt everything. That is the governmental response these days—just encrypt and that makes sense until you get to files that are gigabytes, and gigabytes, and gigabytes. Then you are talking about needing new computers to handle the processing of that.” Vendors that offer managed file transfer (MFT) believe their solutions are the best way to go for send- ing not only files securely, but also keeping tabs on them. “The ‘man- aged’ file transfer industry grew out of three common business needs,” explains Jonathan Lampe, CISSP, VP product management for Ipswitch File Transfer. “First, businesses found themselves needing to set up, track and reconfigure hundreds of sched- uled FTP jobs. Second, businesses needed to permit but monitor end- users performing Web-based or other ad hoc transfers. Third, businesses wanted their key internal systems to interact with partners or far flung 20 MESSAGING NEWS MAY/JUNE 2010