RSA Unveils Data Protection

WASHINGTON -- RSA Security (NASDAQ:RSAS) today announced an initiative to provide companies with a more comprehensive approach to enterprise data protection (EDP). RSA Security's EDP approach is designed to provide a robust framework for protecting an organization's sensitive data in any place where data reside: at the application-level; within databases; in files and operating systems; on laptops and mobile devices, and in storage. In addition, this EDP framework addresses the management of associated encryption keys, access control and authentication -- helping organizations mitigate risk and reduce costs, while protecting consumer, employee and partner information.

As the cornerstone of this initiative, RSA Security also announced a new RSA Key Manager Partner Program and a strategic partnership with Protegrity(R) Corporation to deliver seamless interoperability between Protegrity Defiance(TM) Data Protection System (DPS) and Protegrity VPDisk, and RSA Key Manager software.

A New and Comprehensive Approach to Enterprise Data Protection

To date, EDP has focused on data in backup and storage systems. However, regional and vertical mandates -- such as U.S. state breach notification laws (e.g., California Senate Bill 1386), the European Union's Data Privacy Directive, Japan's Personal Information Protection Act and the Payment Card Industry standard -- are driving companies to take a more proactive stance on protecting data at rest. In addition, according to Gartner, Inc.: "Protecting customer data is much less expensive than dealing with a security breach in which records are exposed and potentially misused." Specifically, Gartner estimates that compromises involving more than 1 million accounts will be close to $50 per account. Smaller breaches carry significant costs, as well -- in 2002, Gartner estimated that the cost per account will be closer to $1,500 per account, not including market cap fluctuation, when about 5,000 accounts were compromised. (source: "Data Protection is Less Costly than Data Breaches," John Pescatore and Avivah Litan. September 16, 2005)

RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: EMC)