Local marketing firm CG Consulting has deployed SystemSkan, a world-class internal security management system and user management tool that provides business owners with the ability to view and record every user's actions on the computer network, including Internet usage. Local SystemSkan distributor J2 Software implemented the solution.
CG Consulting is a strategic marketing firm that specialises in finding new and improved methods to market products for clients, quickly and effectively in order to increase sales revenue. The company is customer-centric and delivers a world-class service to predominantly the ICT industry looking to expand their footprint in the South-African and Sub-Saharan African markets.
SystemSkan is used to identify security risks within an organisation and provides policy enforcement tools to minimise these risks. It also assists in setting the appropriate policy and provides enforcement tools to protect company information.
Louise Robinson, the owner of CG Consulting, says the entire business is based on their intellectual property and information, hence protecting this investment is vital for their success. “We needed a policy enforcement solution which would protect us against any business threats. Our main priority was the security of our information and making sure it was not being stolen or misused. In addition, we needed a tool to evaluate user productivity and we needed a way to measure whether users were abusing rights and using resources correctly.”
The SystemSkan solution suite is primarily focused on enhanced productivity, loss containment, revenue enhancements and operational efficiencies. The solution has been developed to protect enterprises from “the enemy within”, by allowing organisations to monitor, restrict and control the activities of individuals or groups of users, thereby enforcing company security policies across the enterprise.
J2 Software managing director John Mc Loughlin says most companies do not have the tools to monitor users on the network. “It has become critical that access to information is managed and that users are held accountable for their actions. With users being able to access the Internet, send and receive e-mail and browse the local network, often in an unstructured manner, it is more important than ever that employees are monitored and kept productive.”
CG Consulting had a requirement to protect its information as well as the data of its customers. It was vital to address governance, risk and compliance issues and also prevent any possible fraud. More importantly, the company needed to manage its bandwidth utilisation by monitoring Internet usage.
Unlike basic monitoring products that only provide a report reactively once a security breach has occurred, SystemSkan also provides proactive security features. This proactive functionality prevents policy breaches before they occur by continually and automatically screening all activity, and can be configured to prevent inappropriate activities or lock users' PCs when the company's policy has been broken.
Robinson says the obvious choice was SystemSkan. “The benefits were immediate, within the first week. There was a noticeable increase in productivity and enhanced security of information because the applications being used were controlled according to policy. Users could no longer abuse the systems and their information is protected to greater degree as SystemSkan controls the use of external USB devices and CD/DVD devices to prevent data loss.”
“The use of unsecured external e-mail systems has also been stopped, cutting out the most widely used avenues for data loss. The solution has been deployed and successfully communicated to all users, thus ensuring a better understanding of security and governance issues and allowing for simple enforcement of policies,” he explains.
Mc Loughlin is excited to add CG Consulting as a customer, providing them with greater control and better governance of their sensitive data. “We have already seen the benefits of offering CG Consulting true business value, it has enabled them to reduce costs and protect their investment in their information. CG Consulting has been added to our growing list of clients through our Cape Town operation. We look forward to helping them keep their information secure for a long time into the future.”
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