CEO Dr Ngair Teow Hin of SecureAge Technology, a firm that provides data encryption and related security solutions and security appliances.

September 2008: In October 2007, two computer disks containing detailed personal information on 25 million British citizens (about 40 percent of the population) were lost. In addition to bank account numbers, there were names, addresses and national insurance numbers. The disks also held data on almost every child under 16.

The loss of the disks comes with a high price tag; Prime Minister Gordon Brown had to issue a public apology and the head of Britain's Revenue and Customs office was forced to resign.

Although the two disks were protected by a password, they were not encrypted. It means as long as the password is broken, the information can be read.

The disks were sent out from a government tax office unregistered, via a private delivery service. To add insult to injury, the public was not told about the loss until very much later.

This and the many similar cases of data leakage have hit the headlines, sparking debates on the need for data leakage prevention and the protection and transparency in the disclosure of such loss to the public and specifically to those concerned.

The most worrying aspect is that public servants and corporate employees responsible for handling sensitive and confidential information treat computer data storage haphazardly.

One way to overcome all these difficulties is an application known as SecureDs (Secure Data System), from local ICT firm SecureAge Technology. The application enforces data privacy requirements and prevent data loss and data leaks.

Leak prevention and loss prevention generally mean the same thing, and to ensure its effectiveness, there is a need for encryption. The operating principle of SecureDs is to provide transparent encryption for data files regardless of the medium of storage. Using this application, any data file that is created, edited, moved, or copied to any local, external or network storage devices will automatically be encrypted.
Consequently, when users lose their laptop or portable storage device, there is no risk of compromising the sensitive information stored in it.

According to CEO and founder Dr Ngair Teow Hin of SecureAge Technology, oganisations have to appreciate the fact that it is impossible to change the way employees and users handle data stored in their laptop. So, with SecureDs, all data files are simply encrypted. Even when files are accessed by hackers over the Internet, the data are useless.

Additional features of SecureDs include device blocking and application binding. Device blocking restricts the use of certain devices, such as a CD or DVD for writing data to them, although the computer can read them.

Application binding allows highly sensitive documents to be “locked in” with certain applications so that only such applications can access these documents while unauthorised applications or virus programs would be blocked from accessing the documents. A valuable electronics circuit design file could be edited by an authorised employee in the office or at home, but the same employee cannot leak the file to other unauthorized external parties.

Like all important data, sensitive data files that are encrypted need to be properly back up so that they could be recovered later. For virtual volume or full disk encryption, the only way to safely backup the files in encrypted format would be to copy the full disk image which would take up enormous storage space. With SecureDs, the data backup operation could be performed in the usual fashion with standard backup software. Individual files will remain encrypted in the backup media and fully protected from unauthorised access even if the media is lost. One could also perform daily incremental backups of files that have changed to significantly reduce the backup storage requirement.

SecureDs leverages on the comprehensive suite of security features of the SecureAge platform to provide state-of-the-art security protection for the users.

In addition to protecting data files by encryption, SecureDs provides complete data access audit log. It could be configured to provide different level of details of data access log entries to fit individual enterprise requirements. The audit trail could provide detailed information of every file access by different application, moving of information to external devices, file ownership information, and blocked operations. A centralised log server could consolidate all user log entries to provide a consolidated view of user activities and raises alerts when it detects patterns of undesirable file access activities.

Unique Proposition

“In order to provide a total security against data breach, a single overriding data security solution is needed to safeguard important organisation information without having to use a host of different solutions to stop data leaks from different channels,” says Dr Ngair.

“A single solution also entails a unified policy could be imposed to protect sensitive data from being compromised regardless of where the data is stored; be it on local hard drive, network file server, data tapes, USB drives, CD/DVD, and even yet-to-be-invented future storage devices,” he adds.

SecureDs is able to provide a one-stop complete data breach prevention solution to safeguard sensitive organisation information from leaking out. Its total transparent operations ensure the users would enjoy the added layer of security it provides without being inconvenienced by it.

In respect to the concerns for email security, SecureAge has SecureEmail, which transparently signs and encrypts e-mails based on the S/MIME standard, which authenticates the e-mails and ensures its confidentiality.

SecureAge Technology, a Singapore-based company was founded in 2003 to create and commercialise innovative proprietary data security solutions. These solutions are now successfully deployed by various government agencies and large enterprises (such as the financial and healthcare sectors and those that value their data) in the Asia Pacific region.

Dr Ngair equates risk management issues such as data loss prevention software products and policies as insurance policies and that it should be implemented before anything happens, especially with the high human error factor probability.

He points out that not disclosing or notifying someone else does not mean that there is no data loss and leakage issues. He applauds industry watchdogs, agencies, organisations and governments who are pushing for the data disclosure law to be implemented in their respective cities and countries.

The most commonly cited precedent is California’s data disclosure law, which compels any public or private agency holding financial records of a state resident to inform them directly in the event of a breach. This was enacted in 2003 and similar versions of the law have since been introduced in 40 US states. The original California law’s remit has since been widened to cover medical and insurance records.

Virtual Private Network Service for Wireless@SG
Since mid Jun 2008, SecureAge together with Singtel, QMax and iCell under an IDA initiative have been providing Wireless@SG Virtual Private Network (VPN) service free to all Wireless@SG users.

The Virtual Private Network service which is being offered free until December 2009, provides secure wireless access by encrypting data transmitted over the Wireless@SG network, so that users can have a greater peace of mind while surfing the Internet and using applications such as e-mail, instant messaging and file-sharing.

Plans for 2008

Dr Ngair noted that there is a lack of awareness and regulations in SE Asia for data leakage disclosure and issues pertaining to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) as compared with the large number of requirements in the US.

Currently SecureAge Technology has distributors in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

More on SecureAge Technology

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