We Know Why You Haven’t Decided Yet To Purchase A Security Product!

There are many people, who heared about the security tools, available for data protection. But it is not an easy issue to understand to those who are not software literate. In this article we will look at this issue in order to understand that.

With the growth of information technologies, people own a lot of professional or personal information, which has both a financial and emotional value. As people get vulnerable to numerous security threats, they become more and more aware of the ways they could overcome their vulnerability. And this security concern is common to all people, especially when it comes to lose something they possess. This is why the security products, available on the IT security market, are more and more commonly expanded in Europe and USA.

Among many people who rely on different kinds of digital assets in their businesses and private life, there are some whose main concern is how to protect them. There are also people who think that it is too far for them to make a decision on purchasing existing security products, because they do not have any special knowledge in security. Here we would like to come up with the data, which would help you to get a start in considering the ways you could protect your information.

At first look, it seems that the security products market is so sophisticated, that without any professional knowledge it is not possible to understand what kind of products you need. You may think that it is so much complicated to be able to analyze what solutions exist, what for they may be used and which one is right for you to purchase.

These questions and the solutions to them may seem vague to people with excellence in other areas, but with no knowledge in the IT security. By giving the answers to these and other related questions, we will help you define your needs and decide which data protection and access control solutions will best suit your needs.
1. What is the security software for and how can it help people?
While the security products industry is largely expanding in the world, there are more and more areas where it can be used. The Dekart Company has committed itself to developing solutions that can be easily deployed and used by people.

Most of the digital assets, available on the market, are designed with the option for the security hardware installation. The PCs and many mobile devices that can be connected to PCs (like mobile phones) and that may have an increased need for security, are technically available now to be protected.

From another point of view, there are products, which can be of real help in protecting important data (like hard disk encryption and file encryption software, brought to you by Dekart). These products can protect any type of data for any kind of people, who are interested in protection of their business information, scientific researches, as well as personal information. This type of protection ensures that no data will be accessed and viewed by unauthorized malicious users, even if your computer is lost or stolen or if there are many people who can access it.

The security products have another large area of usage. When there is the need to control access to the office computers, Dekart offers its smart card and biometric authentication solutions. The state-of-the-art biometric identification improves the security of login procedures, thus ensuring that no third party will access critically important information.
Users now can also protect and encrypt their email correspondence using Dekart digital certification service in combination with the smart card and biometric authentication.

There are different hardware devices used to provide two- and three-factor authentication to secure access to the information. Dekart offers the flexibility to choose between different vendors’ smart cards, tokens, biometric devices and even USB flash drives to satisfy users’ security needs.

The types of the Hardware Keys (USB tokens and Smart cards)
Dekart Software uses the following types of Hardware Keys to generate secret cryptographic keys and store users’ private data:

1. USB (universal serial bus) tokens are smaller token-style cards that plug directly into the USB port of a computer. The USB-compatible ports are being built into many PCs (i.e., desktops and laptops) and many mobile devices that connect with PCs (i.e., PDAs and mobile phones), as this is the simplest type of reader to connect

2. Smart cards are conventional credit card–shaped contact cards
The Smart Card device contains the cryptographic chip. The use of credit-card size Smart Cards has successfully been adopted by a number of European companies, with a particularly high level of acceptance in Germany and France. However, high hardware deployment costs and the lack of application standards associated with Smart Cards have proved to be significant barriers to their widespread use, especially in the US.

USB Token solution is different from traditional smart card solutions in that it does not require a reader infrastructure, helping to make it less expensive for organizations to deploy and easier for users to adopt.
Dekart has developed the following utilities for managing and deploying the smart cards or tokens used with Dekart applications:

1. Dekart Key Manager Utility can help determining the memory usage of the card, performing backups and duplicating the data stored on the hardware keys.

2. Key Formatting utility or Corporate Key formatting utility allows formatting the smart cards or tokens to be used with Dekart software.
What to consider before purchasing a smart card or USB token?

1. Define all of your anticipated present and future card usage requirements

2. Define the memory requirements for each certificate or application. Here is a sample of Smart Card memory usage:

· Free space – 5K

· Your custom application -1,5 K

· Smart Card logon certificate -2,5 K

· Smart card vendor applications – 8K

· Windows for Smart Cards Operating system -15K

3. Making a decision on which present and future applications are required. It is important to preview the future applications needed, as it is important to leave an extra storage space on the chip.

4. Test smart cards and smart card readers to verify compatibility before deploying them in your production environment.

In conclusion, there are few things important to understand:

1. It is important to remember that there are different types of hardware and software available for them.

2. It is suggested to understand specific needs of the buyer and the variety of existing products in order to make the best purchasing decision.

***You are welcome to drop me a line on liubac@excite.com

Computer’s Data Security: Necessity and Myth

There is no 100 % protection for your computer. But this doesn’t mean you cannot prevent you data to be unauthorized accessed.

Once I was chatting with my colleagues about the security issues and the ways the information can be protected. Our main goal was to understand if the Dekart family products can be used for assuring data access protection. We were talking about existing software, about the devices available for buyers and about the percentage of an assurance we can get from these tools available on the modern market so far. We also touched the other side of protection: it’s vulnerability. We came to the conclusion that it is not simple to get the information protected, as there are many well-established strategies and methods developers (to say nicely), whose target is to get to know what is valuable for you.

But anyway there are the directions we can work on in order to minimize the risks for unauthorized access to our data. Here are they.

1. If you want to protect your data it is important to assure the building (office, home), security access and protection. There are many security agencies available on the market, which can be of real help. They have different protection strategies and tools. But as this is not directly related to your computer we will let the specialists in the area to let us know about it and we will move forward.

2. Hardware protection. There are many tools available for computer protection, like physical computers locks, which may be locked through a hole in the desk/object, or can be locked to a mounting bracket affixed to the vertical surface. There are different kits, mostly consisting of security cables and locks. These anti-theft devices are designed for Notebook laptops and PCs, with special requirements adjusted for different models.

3. Computer data access limiting. There are tolls and software, which may be used for home and business computer access protection. The multifactor authentification (with password, pin code and biometric data) can be used with Dekart Logon software, which can be of real help for storing all passwords to Windows machines on one removable storage device and add the strong authentication and convenience to the standard Windows logon procedure.

4. Information encryption. While we were talking about these issues, we were able to note that there is a tool which can protect data, even if it is stolen, even if there will be the most brilliant software hackers working on getting to know it. It is amazing! We were surprised to get to know that any important data can be stored and encrypted with Dekart Private Disk, which an easy-to-use, reliable, user-friendly and smart program. It is of real help in creating encrypted disk partitions (drive letters) to keep private and confidential data secure. It uses 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. So, here is a no risk solution to protect data!

5. E-mail protection.

6. And the last important thing to note is don’t forget to assure that you have the same plans for the part of the world, as God has in terms of earth cracks, tsunami, etc.

Together with our colleagues we came to conclusion that there is no perfect security environment, although it is not wise at all to stay unaware of the risks existed and to minimize the solutions to this issue available. At least we were satisfied with Dekart Products we were testing, so we decided to get Dekart Private Disk and Dekart Logon.

This is not so difficult topic to understand. We just wanted to encourage you to think of solutions existed. Just look for the information and act!

***you can drop me a line on liubac@excite.com

Information Protection Technologies For Doctors

If earlier mostly all information was kept on the papers, the recent informational technologies expanding growth gives medical staff the opportunity to use them in their job. We can not deny the advantages which are coming to every job with using computer and specialized software. But together with this the old, as Hyppoctates outh, there is a problem of information protection.

At first look the health information became more vulnerable with this technologies using, as there are dangers of it’s stealing while the information is stored on the computer, as well as when it is transmitted through the Internet. This may lead uninitiated people to say that there is no solution to this issue. Is it really so?

If you are a medical worker, you may face different situations, when the information, you work with, is vulnerable. Sometimes you may wonder where the problem may come from or to feel stressed by the reasons for your electronic information storage and transmitting and the ways you can you do it.

In this article I will try to point the reasons why should we do it and to suggest some practical answers to these sometimes challenging situations.
Reasons for protecting medical information

1. Laws

Every country is protecting the patients with different laws. There are different official documents which underline the importance of protecting the confidentiality of people’s health information and as a consequence, their privacy. And this is not an option, this is a obligation of each medical worker. Medical staff should not allow private information misuse

2. Etiquette rules and Hypocrates oath

Etiquette rules require us to be able to protect the information we get from our neighbors. Hypocrates oath requires a doctor to protect the information, he get from the patients. It says: “Whatever in connection with my professional practice or not in connection with it I may see or hear in the lives of my patients which ought not be spoken abroad I will not divulge, reckoning that all such should be kept secret.” And these requirements, philosophically saying, are designed to protect our safety as well as our patients. Thinking only of our well-being is a limited way to treat this issue.

3. Marketing issues

Looking for medical services, patients may fear, reasonably or not, that their personal health information will be exposed. So, it is of real advantage for you to use strong information protection tools, as one of the key point in developing marketing positioning for your services. If you want your services to develop a brand and are really interested to have competitive status, you may not neglect the information protection issue. When you present your services with high information protection opportunities, it gives you higher lever of trust and will bring you more patients.

4. Staff and leaders protection from the frauds

Sometimes there are situations, when the information is stolen because of stuff neglection. This also is caused by the lack of serious protection policy for medical services in the company. This may happen because the services managers do not know about safe and easy-to-use computer information protection tools existence and about the places where to look for them. Information technologies availability for the info thefts makes this issue more difficult to be understood at first look.

What you need to know about information security?

The most important thing is to remember that there is no unique solution to this complex, but not unsolvable issue. One important thing here is to overcome the fear of using informational technologies, which offer information protection tools.

1. First, you need to work on physical building and hardware protection.

It is possible to look for the businesses, which provide solutions for the building access security. Nowadays we have many products and services in this area. What can be done is just find out which are the security companies in your city and just find out what products and services they have. There are businesses which can offer you hardware protection tools, like locks and wires which are designed specially for the computer type you have . these physical protection tools can help you minimize the risk for your physical computer access.

2. Get a professional advice from the security experts.

Deciding on physical protection is only a part of your task. If you are really aware of information protection, you should think of computer access protection and of data protection inside of it.
As I am literate in computer access software and utilities, as well as security software, I can give you some suggestions here about using Dekart Family Security products.

I suggest you an easy-to-use Dekart Private Disk, which will allow you to encrypt any of your information. You can create a virtual disk with this simple and secure tool, compatible with all medical software, which can be securely installed and encrypted on it. More about it you may read on http://www.dekart.com/products/file_disk_encryption/private_disk/

Another product is Dekart Logon, which may be used for computer access protection, as well as for passwords management. This product will help you avoid forever a passwords forgetting issue. The computer access passwords can be stored on different devices and keys. More on this on http://www.dekart.com/products/authentication_access/logon/

The SIM card and My Curiosity’s Satisfaction

Have you ever thought what’s the deal with that golden-colored plate, inserted to your mobile phone? I did, so I looked for the information and now I can share with you what I found out.

When I was a little girl, I was always interested to know what is inside of the different devices and tools my dad was keeping in his garage. I wanted to know what he stores in his different sizes boxes, what is in his furniture. My dad used to spend a lot of time in his garage, the thing which often made my mom be mad at him.

Being a kid, I was thinking: “As my dad, an adult, is interested to spend so much time with his spare parts for his cars, for the radio and for his tools, there is something interesting about them, my mom doesn’t know about”.

So, whenever I had a chance, I was spending my time alone in my father’s garage, trying to find out his secret. I wasn’t able to understand what was keeping him there, but I got curious and interested to get to know about all the staff, which was kept in garage.

My curiosity had so much place to get satisfaction. Sometimes this curiosity led me to disclose the radio, my father was listening to all the time, being in the garage. For sure, I even tried to repair it several times until it stopped working. Even now my father has in his garage 5 broken radios , which I tried to repair!

This curiosity is still with me and I am glad for that. For sure, it affected my computer, as when I purchased it I didn’t have any knowledge in hardware and software. I didn’t even know the difference between them. But I wanted to know what computer is. This made me try different programs, go to different setups and learn to manage them. There were several times, when my good friends had to come and repair my computer, but the good news is that I learned so many new things!

Guess what is my next curiosity technical obsession? I can tell you. This is my mobile phone. In my country I had to buy a phone and the number for it separately. I was curious to understand how they get connected. And I got to know that there is a golden-colored plate, which should be inserted in the mobile phone, which contains my number. Looking carefully on that plate, I didn’t find out anything. So, I gave up for a while with the only understanding that that plate is called SIM card.

For a not long time ago I started to work for a company which provides different software, including the mobile phones software. There again I heard about this golden colored plate. Studying this company‘s products, I found out that this plate contains a chip, which has information stored on it. I saw this chip inserted on smart cards and tokens, they provide software for too.

First I found out that my card’s memory is partially filled with the wireless connection provider’s information and that there is a free space available for the data about my contacts, I can add and manage. Provider inserted my phone number on the card, its name and other data, which can not be deleted or replaced by myself. The other part of the memory can be used for data storage, like my phone numbers or SMSs. Some of the information, which I may insert, can be stored on this card, another one – on the phone’s memory.

Now I wanted to get access to my personal data on the card. I was thinking for a longer time about the opportunity to do it with the card management software on my computer, which could help me easily make order in my phone entries (like editing some numbers, deleting other and adding new once).

The company I work for provided me with the opportunity to test a easy-to-use software, called Dekart SIM Manager. This software helped me easily get inside my SIM card. You can imagine how happy I was that I finally was getting a chance to access my phone data by using personal computer instead of phone’s keypad! I was anticipating my long time wish accomplishment. It was so exciting!

Thanks to Dekart SIM Manager I got to know that my card has protection tools, like PIN codes. I heard of them and was always confuse about using them. Now with this friendly designed software I was able easily to manage these codes too.

One new thing I was able to find out from the developer of this software, is that it also supports the Universal SIM cards found in third-generation generation mobile wireless systems, as well as different types of GSM SIM cards, containing more than 250 phonebook entries.

My needs as an individual user were totally satisfied by this software’s opportunities to manage my contacts and codes. I think it may be for real use for GSM operators, requiring such special features as possibility to view SIM serial number, PIN1 state, technical data of the phonebook, its memory size and the number of free entries.

My curiosity was totally satisfied. I got even much more! What about you?
Please, drop me a line on liubac@excite.com