Four out of five UK companies have little or no visibility of data movement, a study has revealed.

Half of more than 100 firms polled by Ipswitch File Transfer admitted they have no visibility of files being transferred within and outside their organisation.

A further 30% said they have only limited visibility, despite 64% of respondents saying secure file-sharing was vital to the security of the company data.

“A high level of visibility is critical for any organisation that is serious about protecting its most valuable asset – information,” said Rich Kennelly, president of Ipswitch’s File Transfer division.

“The ability to know who is moving data, where, when, how and why across an enterprise, is crucial, not only for data security,” he said.

Kennelly said data management and visibility is also important for streamlined workflows that improve productivity, and meeting compliance requirements.

Regarding who should be blamed if valuable or confidential company data file are sent or shared unsecured, 52% of respondents said it was a collective responsibility.

More than a third said accountability should lie with the employees; 7% said management should be blamed for not having robust policies in place; and just 3% said IT departments were to blame.

“We’re seeing a real shift in attitude, understanding and acceptance of managed file transfer technologies,” said Kennelly.

“Users know that information is at the core of their business and crucial to its existence, competitive advantage and longevity.”

The survey shows there is now greater understanding that efficient data security demands collective responsibility.

However, Kennelly said users cannot play their part unless the business provides easy-to-use, accessible and simple solutions that make their jobs easier.

The survey reveals that moving sensitive information by email is most prevalent, with 44% admitting to sending classified or confidential materials by email at least once a day.

Almost half admitted to using personal email accounts to send company files, with 21% blaming the slowness of work email, difficulties in connecting and limited file sizes.

Some 11% said they used personal email because their company did not monitor what they send and 8% admitted keeping business documents to use at their next place of work.

More than a quarter of respondents admitted using unsecured file-sharing websites and cloud services to share work-related files, while almost two-thirds confess to using USB drives, smartphones, tablets and other personal devices for backing up corporate files.

About Us

Pro2col are a Certified Ipswitch Elite Reseller based in the UK.  Since 2003 we have been helping companies of all shapes and sizes to tackle their data transfer challenges and maximise their investment in secure managed file transfer products.  If you’d like to know more about how to attain full visibility and control over the data moving into, out of and around your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0333 123 1240.

The post Most UK firms lack data transfer visibility, Ipswitch study shows appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

These results should alarm IT and security professionals.  Findings show that employees are circumventing IT staff by sending confidential and highly sensitive company files via means that are insecure and lack auditability. The results serve as a graphic reminder that when company systems hinder employee productivity, it’s both a security risk and bad for business.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the results of the survey, the highlights of which you can see in the Infographic below. Click here to register to receive the full research report results and recommendations.

The post Are Employees Putting Your Company’s Data at Risk? appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

Micheal Osterman of Osterman Research succinctly summarises some of the key issues surrounding personal file sharing in his white paper, “Business-Class File Sharing Best Practices”.  Here is an excerpt from the paper:

Excerpted from “Business-Class File Sharing Best Practices”

The Status Quo Doesn’t Work

If you’d like to learn more about secure file sharing practices, you can access the full Osterman whitepaper here.  Alternatively, if you’d like to discuss your specific file sharing challenges with one of our managed file transfer experts, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0333 123 1240.

The post Personal File Sharing in the Business: The Risks appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

On a similar note, this is the ideal moment to publically release our lastest e-book: The Council’s Guide to Secure Managed File Transfer, which is now available for download.  It covers a range of issues surrounding the secure movement within councils including:

If you’re at the conference and would like to speak to one of our managed file transfer experts, drop by stand 8 (piccy attached) – we’re always happy to help.  If you’ve not been able to make it this year and you’d like to talk to us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the office on 0333 123 1240.

The post Socitm 2012: Managed File Transfer for Councils appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

The mounting costs generated by work duplication and management overheads, accompanied by the risk associated with the absence of failover was becoming a genuine concern.  Bearing in mind that these systems were executing business critical processes such as billing, debt management, banking and delivering mission dependent data to employees in the field – recreating these undocumented workflows in the event of a disaster would be costly.  Considering the sensitive nature of certain pieces of data moving through these workflows, securing data was also a priority.

Pro2col worked alongside the customer to develop an understanding of their processes and document their key requirements.  Armed with this information, we were able to identify the technologies that would meet these requirements, and help them through the selection and evaluation process.  Specifically, the company were looking to:

1. Secure the sending and receipt of confidential business and customer data
2. To further automate the retrieval of time sensitive data from remote systems to provide realtime updates of vital information to their workforce at regular intervals throughout the day.

In terms of features, the company were looking for:

Based upon the information we gathered through the consultancy process, we were able to recommend the most suitable solution to meet their objectives – in this case, a combination of Ipswitch MOVEit Central and MOVEit DMZ with the Ad Hoc Module.  MOVEit Central was specifically designed to automate a wide range of mission critical file transfers, enabling the company to automatically “pull, process, and push” all files to any platform, including network architectures, operating systems, and protocols.  It would integrate directly into their existing data workflows, consolidating their automated file transfer tasks and allowing IT staff to create/administer them via a user friendly GUI interface.  For the ad hoc aspect of their file transfer requirements, MOVEit DMZ with the ad hoc module provided a secure, end to end solution for employees to send and receive mission critical files.

This just gives you an idea of the potential of these solutions and the levels of automation that can be achieved.  Within an enterprise environment such as a large utility company, an managed file transfer solution can save hours of manual processing and ensure that all the information is where they need it, when they need it.  As with all of our customers, we’ll be working with this organisation in the months and years to come, and look forward to helping them achieve their maximum ROI.

The post Managed File Transfer in Action – Part 1 appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

The impending release of this new data protection legislation puts increased pressure on businesses to ensure that they have the right measures in place to protect internal data. Especially since one of the change could potential involve the need to disclose data breach incidents within 24 hours of their discovery. Despite the controversy surrounding this specific part of the proposal, it seems European businesses will almost certainly join their peers in most US states in having to comply with mandatory breach disclosure.

Bearing this in mind, the requirement to secure business data will be making it’s way to the top of many companies priority lists. Brand protection and company reputation are invaluable in today’s competitive marketplace and in order to protect this, you’re going to have to protect your data. This can seem like a daunting task, but there are regulations such as ISO 27001 and PCI DSS that provide a framework and a very good set of controls to work with. Although this doesn’t guarantee that you’ll meet the new EU regulations 100%, it gives you a good chance of be close to compliance.

At Pro2col, we provide a range of secure file transfer solutions that meet whole range of security legislation such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOX and many more. So if you’re looking to take the next step when it comes to your data security, please contact us on 0333 123 1240.

The post New data protection rules could come into force as soon as 2013! appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

We’re helping out on the GlobalSCAPE stand this year (check out their stylish booth), as they’re showcasing their latest products for the first time here in the UK – Hosted Enhanced File Transfer Server™ (EFT Server™) and Secure Mobile Access™. As GlobalSCAPE’s primary reseller’s in the UK, it’s been a great opportunity for us to spend some more face-to-face time with the GlobalSCAPE team.

There’s been a lot of interest from businesses spanning all sectors, looking secure their data transfers and comply with regulations such as PCI DSS and The Data Protection Act.  We’re looking forward to being kept busy for the remainder of the exhibition, so if you’re heading down to Earls Court come see us at stand F82.

The post An update from Infosecurity 2012 appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

If you’re thinking about implementing a hosted or on-premise managed file transfer solution, there are a number key points to consider.  Here are a few to start you off:

Cost of Ownership

Cost is the number one factor influencing the choice of managed file transfer solution for most businesses.  Implementing and managing an on-premise MFT solution can be pricey, some of the costs to consider are:

Software – The initial software purchase price can range from £5,000 to in excess of £50,000 but once this has been paid, the solution is yours.  Although hosted services appear cheaper in the short term, ongoing subscriptions can be costly in the long term.

Hardware – Providing an environment to install and run the MFT solution can also add up, especially when you take into account disaster recovery or high availability.

Infrastructure – Hosting files on your own server can prove a problem, bear in mind the impact on your Internet connection when a 1Gb file is shared with 50 or more external users!

Support & Management

Another point to take into account after the initial go-live of a managed file transfer solution are the costs associated with ongoing support and management. Specifically:

Internal Support – If you deploy an MFT solution, the responsibility of support and management falls on internal team members, whereas with a hosted solution much of the ongoing support is outsourced to the service provider.

Availability – Generally hosted services run in high availability data centers.  Therefore, they offer guaranteed uptime with load-balanced solutions as the norm and include SLA’s.

Scalability – In a hosted environment, scalability of your product is generally available on demand or at the touch of a button.  It’s not always quite so simple with an on-premise MFT solution.

Back-up/disaster recovery – Usually provided as part of the service by hosting providers, back up and disaster recovery can be costly when purchased as part of a solution package.

Deployment

Bringing an on-premise managed file transfer solution online has its challenges. Ports need opening on firewalls, rules need setting up, plus there are considerations about the design of the solution and how it will sit within the corporate infrastructure.  Hosted solutions are incredibly fast to deploy given that much of the above doesn’t come into play.

Functionality & workflow

Typically, functionality and workflow features are key drivers in the decision making process. On-premise managed file transfer solutions offer far more in the way of a comprehensive feature set:

Bottlenecks – Having files local to you, when you need them can save a considerable amount of time in terms of loss of productivity, especially for larger enterprise deployments.  Pushing data to remote services can impact upon an end users time or can delay internal processes.

Integration – More often than not, hosted solutions are somewhat limited in the level of integration capabilities they offer.  This is an important factor to take into consideration as lack of integration reduces the potential to automate tasks and minimise the man hours wasted on routine tasks.  There are of course exceptions to the rule as there are some very capable hosted technologies.

These are just some of the key areas to be mindful of if you’re weighing up the pros and cons of hosted vs on premise managed file transfer solutions.  Ultimately, the decision will be fueled by the scope of your requirements and the size of your budget.  Whatever these may be, there is a managed file transfer solution out there to fit your business needs.  If you want some help pinpointing the right solution for you, please contact Pro2col on 0333 123 1240.

The post Hosted v’s On Premise Managed File Transfer appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

So businesses are reacting to these issues by implementing sophisticated technologies that address these concerns – which is great – but unfortunately, this is a 1-dimensional solution to a 2-dimensional problem. Providing the facilities to send files securely is one thing, guaranteeing that all file transfers within the business are completed using these facilities is another matter altogether.

The question is, how do you stop staff members bypassing new technologies in favour of good old trusty, familiar solutions such as email? The answer is – enable them to continue to use it. Alongside web browser upload options provided, email attachment management solutions offer plugins that can be integrated with existing email clients, to enable ground level users to attach files and send them securely via email.   The difference is that rather than filtering through email servers, large email attachments are handed off to the email attachment management solution where they are encrypted, stored and a notification email sent onto the recipient containing a secure download link to the file.

So…

Take a look at this short video to find out more about what an email attachment management solution can offer you…

If you’d like to find out more about email attachment management, Biscom Delivery Server or any of the other secure, ad hoc file transfer solutions we provide, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0333 123 1240.

The post Email Attachment Management: Facilitating Secure, Large File Transfer appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.

After reviewing product attributes such as features, ease of use, performance, documentation, support and value for money, Ipswitch MOVEit DMZ was award a full 5 stars in every category and labelled as one of SC Magazine’s ‘Best Buys’. Stating no possible negative points against the solution, the overall verdict deemed MOVEit DMZ a “A flexible, web-based product which allows tight control over end-to-end file transfer security.”

See here for full details of the SC Magazine review or for more information regarding the Ipswitch File Transfer product range. Please also feel free to contact Pro2col on 0333 123 1240 to speak to one of our consultants.

The post Ipswitch MOVEit DMZ Managed File Transfer Review appeared first on Managed File Transfer Solutions | Secure File Transfer Software | UK.