Civil Engineering Firm Relies on DeviceLock Endpoint Security for Intellectual Property Protection
DeviceLock, Inc., a worldwide leader in endpoint device control and context-aware data leak prevention software solutions, announced that Bury + Partners, a leading Austin, Texas-based civil engineering firm is using DeviceLock software to protect against the unsanctioned download of proprietary CADD files used in its large-scale engineering, surveying, project management, landscape architecture, public works, traffic engineering and mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) projects.
“Civil engineering is a creative and rewarding profession that requires specialized skills. You have to expect that there will be attempts by competitors to lure away employees and, with them, precious knowledge of customer work,” said James Curtis, Bury + Partners Director of IT. “So one facet of our job in IT is to ensure that employees have the tools to work comfortably and productively; and, another is to ensure that the firm’s IP is secure. This was the case in the relative boom times of the last few decades and is likely to be an even greater concern in the current leaner times. We’re happy that we’ve already taken steps like deploying DeviceLock to defend against the leakage of valuable files off our network and onto employees’ personal devices.”
Today Bury + Partners has a clear corporate policy related to device use, which it has complemented with DeviceLock to monitor activity at the local workstation-level to ensure that this policy is being observed. DeviceLock enables administrators to precisely control, log, shadow-copy and audit end-user access to ports and peripheral devices, including local, network and virtual printers, as well as Windows Mobile(R) and Palm(R) OS based personal mobile devices. It proactively protects against data leakage and prevents the infiltration of corporate networks by malware through local ports of employees’ computers. It significantly reduces business risks resulting from insider negligence, errors or malicious actions. DeviceLock software is designed for Microsoft Windows operating systems and features comprehensive central management that is natively integrated with Microsoft Active Directory(R) Group Policy. It also integrates with leading encryption products from PGP, Lexar, and TrueCrypt, in order to protect data on removable storage devices. In addition, DeviceLock blocks operations of USB and PS/2 hardware keyloggers.
“We understand that listening to music, for example, can help employees stay focused and relaxed when drawing throughout the day and late into the night,” Curtis commented. “Having music devices is not a problem; but, we have asked our employees not to plug their iPods and other devices into the corporate network. It is feasible that they could be used to upload and download proprietary files. You can have such suspicions, but it’s difficult to catch someone in the act without the proper system in place, should the need ever arise. This is why we’ve implemented DeviceLock.”
“The fact that DeviceLock is selected by customers like Bury + Partners with the goal of IP protection is a clear demonstration of what differentiates our solution in the endpoint DLP market,” said David Matthiesen, Sales Director of North American Operations at DeviceLock. “Some of the lower-end products considered were simply incomplete, did not cover enough data channels, and did not audit or enforce as flexibly as DeviceLock. Bury wants to actively monitor and eventually also reduce access to thwart any attempts to steal data, so it needs a solution like DeviceLock that manages all open data leakage channels. This includes print jobs destined for hardcopy output, which by itself can be a critical channel of IP theft in the Engineering industry context.”
“We purchased DeviceLock in April of 2008, and rolled it out to all the workstations in the office in June. Deployment went smoothly due to the integration of the product into Microsoft Active Directory for Windows and the push installation via the DeviceLock admin console. Initially, we are using the software only for monitoring local ports and drives. We haven’t blocked access privileges for any particular category of device or user; but, we do have plans to do so in the future,” explained Curtis.
Source: DeviceLock, Inc.