SAN JOSE, Ca. – Trend Micro has unveiled a new release of its data loss prevention (DLP) solution, LeakProof 5.0, with added features and benefits designed to reduce the complexity and cost often associated with the discovery, monitoring and blocking of sensitive data.

LeakProof is designed to protect information such as customer and employee data, as well as intellectual property by monitoring and preventing information leaks across multiple threat vectors, the company said.

The DLP market can be a tough nut to crack. But Trend Micro is providing its channel partners all the support and resources necessary to get them up and running, explained Mark Bloom, global manager of DLP product marketing, Trend Micro.

“DLP is a very competitive market and it’s a very new one to effectively sell and to consult in the DLP market requires a certain level of knowledge and experience,” he said. “That’s the requirement we’re asking our partners to step up and a lot of them are.”

Data breaches are skyrocketing, he continued, with more than 35 million data records were reportedly breached in 2008, more than double from the year before. Nearly 80 percent of internal breaches come from authorized insiders. Losing intellectual property impacts competitiveness and market share and a data loss prevention solution is critical for companies to stop accidental and malicious data leaks.

“For the midmarket, there hasn’t been a big percentage deploying DLP because up to now the products have been too complex and the VARs, it’s required them to put too much effort to learn the products and then to work with customers to help them find their data,” said Glen Kosaka, director of marketing for the data protection segment at Trend Micro. “That’s what we focused on with this product release . . . SMBs just want to push a few buttons and protect their employee or customer privacy and be compliant with certain regulations.”

Available in two versions, LeakProof Standard helps organizations comply with regulatory mandates by securing employee and customer data. LeakProof Advanced offers the same protection plus advanced DataDNA fingerprinting to secure intellectual property and trade secrets.

Trend Micro’s patented DataDNA technology provides optimal accuracy and performance for detecting sensitive data. At the core of the technology are sophisticated algorithms that extract the “DNA” of sensitive data embedded in files, records, emails, and other content and stores them as signatures. Like fingerprints, this provides a unique DNA sequence for the information in the document.

The LeakProof fingerprinting method delivers complete accuracy and virtually zero false positives, allowing enterprises to search a fingerprint database of millions of records in order to determine instantly if there is a match with the content. It’s small enough to run even on laptops without eating up memory, or causing slowdown. In addition, Trend Micro’s character-based technology extracts fingerprints from any language.

With Active Update, compliance templates, validators, and applications can be easily updated. For example, any application changes such as IM and Webmail formats can all be handled through this new feature for faster, more immediate protection. This automatic deployment avoids delays and speeds delivery of application changes.

“Today’s economic turmoil has sensitized businesses and governments to the need to protect privacy and intellectual property,” said Punit Minocha, general manager of the data protection unit at Trend Micro. “Given that a big chunk of data breaches come from the inside, our customers are asking for a solution to stop accidental and malicious data leaks, but have hesitated due to complexity. LeakProof 5.0 breaks down complexity barriers that previously inhibited DLP adoption.”

LeakProof 5.0 features include:

*Out of the box compliance templates help companies address compliance with regulations including PCI, HIPAA, GLBA and SB1386.

*Filters control potential loss vectors: Network Printer, Windows File Sharing, Cut & Paste, Roxio/IE DVD, P2P, Skype, MS ActiveSync.

“*Device control (serial number), Windows File Share access controls.

“*Remote fingerprint extraction for file systems and Sharepoint eases data discovery.

*Improved usability and workflows reduce implementation complexity.

“*Flexible Deployment Options reduce costs — LeakProof Server available as appliance or as software software virtual appliance that can be deployed onto bare-metal or within a virtualized environment.

*Active Directory integration eases deployment and management.

LeakProof 5.0 will also be available as part of a Data Protection Pack, which bundles together Trend Micro LeakProof Standard, Trend Micro Email Encryption Gateway and Trend Micro Message Archiver. The Data Protection Pack secures email and prevents the loss of sensitive data in use, in motion and at rest; it is available for Trend Micro NeatSuite Advanced and Client Server Messaging customers with 100-1,000 users and for the 251-500 seat level pricing is $80.04 per user for a one year license.

Trend Micro LeakProof 5.0 is expected to be available in late June 2009. Per user pricing varies by seat count and price decreases with volume. LeakProof 5.0 Client Standard one-year licenses for the 251-500 seat count start at $47.82 per user. LeakProof 5.0 Client Advanced one-year licenses for the 251-500 seat count start at $68.32 per user. To help reduce overall TCO, the LeakProof Server software virtual appliance edition is offered at no charge. This can be deployed on bare-metal or within a virtualized environment. A hardware management appliance is also offered.

Both versions of LeakProof include a client and a management server. LeakProof 5.0 client supports Windows 2008, 2003, Vista and XP. The management server software virtual appliance supports VMware ESX 3.5.

This column was written by Liam Lahey of ConnectIT, an IntegratedMarCompany

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