Securing the enterprise beyond the perimeter
Trying to secure laptops, cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices today is "terrifying," says Christopher Paidhrin, IT security and HIPAA compliance officer at Southwest Washington Medical Center. "End-point security is scarily immature."
No doubt these are menacing times. Cloud computing continues to push data and apps online and beyond traditional network security perimeters. Business users demand access to data using newfangled mobile devices over 3G wireless networks. Every day, creative hackers invent ways to steal data to sell on the black market -- and Internet security lags behind the curve.
Catching up won't be easy, yet the answer might be found in the cloud itself. Security pros know they need to extend perimeter security controls to end-point devices before it's too late. One way is to put security agents on laptops, which is an expensive proposition fraught with risk. Another option is to leverage an emerging class of Web-based security service providers, such as startups Purewire and Zscaler.
