GuardianEdge announced new versions of its Hard Disk and Removable Storage solutions as well as the introduction of GuardianEdge Advanced Authentication. GuardianEdge Advanced Authentication gives large enterprises and government agencies the ability to identify users before they are granted access to the operating system or data on removable media and devices. The solution offers extensive support for software and hardware certificates, including support for embedded PC, USB and PCMCIA readers plus a wide range of tokens and smartcards that utilize X.509 certificates for user authentication.

    This new product establishes strong proof of identity by going beyond a log-in ID and password when accessing encrypted data on systems and removable media with extensive support for multi-factor authentication. GuardianEdge Advanced Authentication is fully integrated into the overarching GuardianEdge Data Protection Platform, and is closely integrated with two newly updated core platform components: GuardianEdge Hard Disk Encryption 9.0 and GuardianEdge Removable Storage 3.0. Multi-factor authentication further safeguards private, sensitive and legally protected data on endpoints, providing highly secure identification to ensure that only authorized users and administrators can access encrypted data on protected devices.

    This includes support for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Common Access Card (CAC), a smartcard issued as standard identification for active duty military personnel, reserve personnel, civilian employees, and eligible government contractors. GuardianEdge Hard Disk Encryption 9.0 expands on the company's best-in-class integration with Microsoft Active Directory, providing the ability to enable full disk encryption protection for independent endpoints that are not managed through the domain. New migration support allows users of previous GuardianEdge solutions, such as Encryption Plus, to easily adopt the present GuardianEdge Data Protection Platform.

    According to Jon Oltsik, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group: "Data protection solutions must protect the full spectrum of vulnerable, enterprise endpoints and authentication is a pivotal part of this comprehensive process. Multi-factor authentication, that works well with smartcards and tokens, is one of the best ways to fully monitor who accesses private encrypted information and further supports the ongoing efforts of organizations to protect their valuable internal assets."

    The GuardianEdge Data Protection Platform enables group policy objects-based policy deployment in Active Directory, shared security and management services across data protection applications, a unified auditing and reporting environment, and single sign-on integration with secure client/server communications. Minimal to no intrusion into existing user workflows and operations, and key/password administration and recovery are also key features associated with the platform. GuardianEdge Advanced Authentication, GuardianEdge Hard Disk Encryption 9.0 and GuardianEdge Removable Storage Encryption 3.0 will be available in March 2008.

 ...