Although data encryption adds cost and complexity, business and government sectors are becoming wedded to it — even though at times it’s like an arranged marriage driven by regulatory compliance and fear of data-breach fiascos.
“We now require encryption for ‘data at rest’ on laptops in the Air Force,” says Greg Garcia, member of the senior executive service of the US. Air Force and director of the 754th Electronic Systems Group at Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery Ala. The group sets security policy for the 500,000 laptops used by the Air Force.
“The contract we awarded for this grew out of what happened at Veterans Affairs,” Garcia points out, alluding to the data breach fiascos of this year and last that led to millions of veterans’ personal information being exposed on lost and stolen laptops.
The VA data-breach incidents spurred the White House Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Defense and the civilian-side General Services Administration to look at government-wide approaches for data-at-rest encryption.
The outcome was the U.S. government’s first-ever blanket purchasing agreements (BPA) for data-at-rest encryption products to protect sensitive but unclassified data on government laptops and removable storage devices.
BPAs were awarded in June to eleven resellers, including Intelligent Decisions, MTM Technologies and GovBuys.
The encryption products on the list include Credant Technologies’ CredantMobile Guardian, Encryption Solutions’ Skylock AtRest, GuardianEdge Technologies’ GuardianEdge, Information security’s secret Agent, Mobile Armor’s Data Armor, Pointsec Mobile Technologies’ Pointsec, SafeBoot’s (acquired by McAfee for $350 million in October) SafeBoot Device Encryption, SafeNet’s SafeNet protectDrive, Spyrus’ Talisman/DS Data security Suite, and WinMagic’s secureDoc.
State and Local Government Viewpoint
What’s known as the data-at-rest encryption BPAs are also available for use by state and local governments.
The Tennessee Department of Revenue is going its own way in adding encryption to its mobile laptops by deploying Entrust encryption software this…