Upcoming Webcasts
CipherPoint conducts webcasts on SharePoint security and compliance topics, including HITECH compliance and SharePoint, SharePoint Defense in Depth, content security, and others. For links to replays of recent webcasts, please visit our webcasts page.
The Need for Data Security in SharePoint
- 7-22-2010
CipherPoint Software was created to address what we believe is a significant market need, namely to add security for sensitive files and information being stored in Enterprise Content Management platforms such as SharePoint.
Our initial research into this market opportunity leads us to believe that there’s a crying need for enhanced security in these environments. And clearly, as more compliance regulations come into existence suggesting or mandating the use of encryption for sensitive information, encryption controls for ECM platforms will be required. In terms of where data security fits in the priority list for SharePoint implementations, a quote from a study by Osterman Research captured our belief perfectly: ”the focus of SharePoint security concerns appears to be much more focused on protecting sensitive information than on traditional malware”.
Our second assumption is that because SharePoint is so easy to deploy, it is likely being used to store all sorts of sensitive data, frequently without the knowledge or blessing of IT. A Gartner analyst validated this point recently, suggesting that as many as 30% of SharePoint deployments were rogue installations done outside of IT.
Finally, our core belief is that by providing a rock-solid data security solution for SharePoint, using advanced encryption, CipherPoint can help to expand the uses and the market for SharePoint. This has been borne out by discussions with many SharePoint integrators and developers over the past few months, as we have heard time and again “we haven’t been able to use SharePoint for all the applications we’d like to, primarily because of security concerns around sensitive data”.
We have been hard at work creating what we believe to be a robust, transparent data encryption solution for SharePoint. Our technology functions as server-side software (a first), and is truly transparent to end users (which we believe is critical). We are presently beta testing the software, and are pleased at the positive reaction we’ve received to date. Watch this blog and our website for more details on our commercial product launch.
What do you think? Is security a big deal in SharePoint? Is SharePoint being used to store sensitive information? Will the existence of a solid protection mechanism for SharePoint expand the possible applications and uses of SharePoint for your organization or your customers? We’d love to hear your thoughts…
JD
Our initial research into this market opportunity leads us to believe that there’s a crying need for enhanced security in these environments. And clearly, as more compliance regulations come into existence suggesting or mandating the use of encryption for sensitive information, encryption controls for ECM platforms will be required. In terms of where data security fits in the priority list for SharePoint implementations, a quote from a study by Osterman Research captured our belief perfectly: ”the focus of SharePoint security concerns appears to be much more focused on protecting sensitive information than on traditional malware”.
Our second assumption is that because SharePoint is so easy to deploy, it is likely being used to store all sorts of sensitive data, frequently without the knowledge or blessing of IT. A Gartner analyst validated this point recently, suggesting that as many as 30% of SharePoint deployments were rogue installations done outside of IT.
Finally, our core belief is that by providing a rock-solid data security solution for SharePoint, using advanced encryption, CipherPoint can help to expand the uses and the market for SharePoint. This has been borne out by discussions with many SharePoint integrators and developers over the past few months, as we have heard time and again “we haven’t been able to use SharePoint for all the applications we’d like to, primarily because of security concerns around sensitive data”.
We have been hard at work creating what we believe to be a robust, transparent data encryption solution for SharePoint. Our technology functions as server-side software (a first), and is truly transparent to end users (which we believe is critical). We are presently beta testing the software, and are pleased at the positive reaction we’ve received to date. Watch this blog and our website for more details on our commercial product launch.
What do you think? Is security a big deal in SharePoint? Is SharePoint being used to store sensitive information? Will the existence of a solid protection mechanism for SharePoint expand the possible applications and uses of SharePoint for your organization or your customers? We’d love to hear your thoughts…
JD
Recent Blogs
- What SharePoint Security and Compliance Problems Do You Need to Solve?
- Wikileaks and SharePoint: Yes, There’s a Connection
- Security Breaches in 2011: Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel
- And Speaking of Insider Threats...
- Digital Universe, and the Growth of Unstructured Content
- Cloud Security
- Healthcare, Compliance, Security, and Microsoft SharePoint
- New SEC Guidelines Suggest Breach and Cybersecurity Disclosure in Financial Statements
- SharePoint: There's compliance, and then there's Compliance
- Top Security Mistakes and SharePoint
