Page 13 - GCN, Jun/July 2016

CYBERSECURITY SECURITY SOLUTIONS WORKING TOGETHER
on data sent in the open. These days, organizations require all data travel- ing across the network to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. That’s fine as far as ensuring the data is secure in transit. Bad guys can’t spy on it while it’s getting from one place to another. But the bad guys have realized they can use this security requirement to their advan- tage. They can effectively hide their attacks behind that SSL encryption.
It takes a lot of effort to inter-
cept traffic in route, unencrypt it, inspect each data packet, and then re-encrypt it before it’s sent on its way. There’s a lot of sophisticated traffic and data handling that has to happen. “Most of the time a lot of the big chassis solutions from a network security perspective have scaling limitations ,” says Dang. “They’d reach a peak and then new larger and larger platforms are needed.”
Dell Security has a full-line of hard- ware and software solutions to can
Security for All
handle those inspection tasks. Its next generation firewalls, for example, can scale in size from handling the traffic going through the smallest agency branch office all the way up to what’s needed for state government head- quarters-level populations.
It can also scale horizontally and de- ploy incrementally, says Dang, by com- bining Dell’s firewalls, gateways and access solutions with network switches an organization already has in place. Agencies can do this to “almost infinite extents” as their environment grows. And they can manage all that from a single console through Dell’s global management system, which lets op- erators manage thousands of devices through that one pane of glass.
MEET THE NEED
It’s not that government agencies don’t understand the need for security. They clearly do. From Dell’s perspective, though, organizations are trying to tackle security issues by looking at what they can’t do. Applying security or increasing vulnerabilities by clamping down on security would affect how workers do their jobs.
Slapping too many controls and restrictions can also create security problems, Dang points out. It can lead to so-called “shadow IT,” where employees download apps or use devices unknown to the IT depart- ment. They do this in order to get around those controls and restric- tions, so they can better do their jobs.
“We understand that’s a big challenge for many IT departments today,” says Dang, “and we want to help them not to say no to providing resources for the changing workforce, or for the workplace environment.”
Dell’s approach is to put all the security components together in such a way that they work as an enabler, instead of acting as a restric- tion on what the organization can do. Instead of the CIO or security officer having to tell people, “No, you can’t do something,” Dell wants them to be able to say, “Yes, you can.”
No state or local government is unaware of the need for security today. Many of them have been investing in security technologies for years. Some may already have what they consider a sophisticated security infrastructure in place. What could Dell Security’s approach do for them?
“I think it’s relevant across the board,” for all government agencies, says Jeffrey Honeyman, Dell Securities industries marketing manager. It’s unlikely that even agencies and organizations with existing infrastructures would have the kind of environment in which everything talked to each other and shared information in a holistic way. “So those broad security infrastructures may well be out there, but they are monolithic, un-agile and un-mobile,” he says.
As with other public and private organizations, state and local governments face expectations from both employees and citizens for anytime, anywhere access to any resources they need. That’s a simple reality when dealing with the demands of the 2016 workforce and citizenry.
Unlike the federal government, however, state and local institutions have to deal with restrictive and likely ongoing budget and resource constraints. So they won’t buy into any new security solution unless they can do so cost-effectively, and can see a rapid return on investment. “That’s where I think our solutions pretty much stand out across the board,” Honeyman says. “They’re pretty easy to deploy, far less monolithic than others that are out there, scale well and offer
”Put all the security components together in such a way that they work as an enabler.”
For more information, please visit security.dell.com
governments a heck of a lot more agility around security that they now have.”
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