We Know Why You Haven’t Decided Yet To Purchase A Security Product

By Liuba Ceban
Posted Wednesday, July 28, 2004

With the growth of information technologies, people own a lot of professional or personal information, which has both a financial and emotional value. As people get vulnerable to numerous security threats, they become more and more aware of the ways they could overcome their vulnerability. And this security concern is common to all people, especially when it comes to lose something they possess. This is why the security products, available on the IT security market, are more and more commonly expanded in Europe and USA.

Among many people who rely on different kinds of digital assets in their businesses and private life, there are some whose main concern is how to protect them. There are also people who think that it is too far for them to make a decision on purchasing existing security products, because they do not have any special knowledge in security. Here we would like to come up with the data, which would help you to get a start in considering the ways you could protect your information.

At first look, it seems that the security products market is so sophisticated, that without any professional knowledge it is not possible to understand what kind of products you need. You may think that it is so much complicated to be able to analyze what solutions exist, what for they may be used and which one is right for you to purchase.

These questions and the solutions to them may seem vague to people with excellence in other areas, but with no knowledge in the IT security. By giving the answers to these and other related questions, we will help you define your needs and decide which data protection and access control solutions will best suit your needs.

1. What is the security software for and how can it help people?

While the security products industry is largely expanding in the world, there are more and more areas where it can be used. The Dekart Company has committed itself to developing solutions that can be easily deployed and used by people.

Most of the digital assets, available on the market, are designed with the option for the security hardware installation. The PCs and many mobile devices that can be connected to PCs (like mobile phones) and that may have an increased need for security, are technically available now to be protected .

From another point of view, there are products, which can be of real help in protecting important data (like hard disk encryption and file encryption software, brought to you by Dekart). These products can protect any type of data for any kind of people, who are interested in protection of their business information, scientific researches, as well as personal information. This type of protection ensures that no data will be accessed and viewed by unauthorized malicious users, even if your computer is lost or stolen or if there are many people who can access it.

The security products have another large area of usage. When there is the need to control access to the office computers, Dekart offers its smart card and biometric authentication solutions. The state-of-the-art biometric identification improves the security of login procedures, thus ensuring that no third party will access critically important information.

Users now can also protect and encrypt their email correspondence using Dekart digital certification service in combination with the smart card and biometric authentication.

There are different hardware devices used to provide two- and three-factor authentication to secure access to the information. Dekart offers the flexibility to choose between different vendors’ smart cards, tokens, biometric devices and even USB flash drives to satisfy users’ security needs.

The types of the Hardware Keys (USB tokens and Smart cards)

Dekart Software uses the following types of Hardware Keys to generate secret cryptographic keys and store users’ private data:

1. USB (universal serial bus) tokens are smaller token-style cards that plug directly into the USB port of a computer. The USB-compatible ports are being built into many PCs (i.e., desktops and laptops) and many mobile devices that connect with PCs (i.e., PDAs and mobile phones), as this is the simplest type of reader to connect

2. Smart cards are conventional credit card–shaped contact cards

The Smart Card device contains the cryptographic chip. The use of credit-card size Smart Cards has successfully been adopted by a number of European companies, with a particularly high level of acceptance in Germany and France. However, high hardware deployment costs and the lack of application standards associated with Smart Cards have proved to be significant barriers to their widespread use, especially in the US.

USB Token solution is different from traditional smart card solutions in that it does not require a reader infrastructure, helping to make it less expensive for organizations to deploy and easier for users to adopt.

Dekart has developed the following utilities for managing and deploying the smart cards or tokens used with Dekart applications:

1. Dekart Key Manager Utility can help determining the memory usage of the card, performing backups and duplicating the data stored on the hardware keys.

2. Key Formatting utility or Corporate Key formatting utility allows formatting the smart cards or tokens to be used with Dekart software.

What to consider before purchasing a smart card or USB token?

1. Define all of your anticipated present and future card usage requirements

2. Define the memory requirements for each certificate or application. Here is a sample of Smart Card memory usage:

* Free space – 5K
* Your custom application -1,5 K
* Smart Card logon certificate -2,5 K
* Smart card vendor applications - 8K
* Windows for Smart Cards Operating system -15K

3. Making a decision on which present and future applications are required. It is important to preview the future applications needed, as it is important to leave an extra storage space on the chip.

4. Test smart cards and smart card readers to verify compatibility before deploying them in your production environment.

In conclusion, there are few things important to understand:

1. It is important to remember that there are different types of hardware and software available for them.

2. It is suggested to understand specific needs of the buyer and the variety of existing products in order to make the best purchasing decision.

For more information about the products designed to protect your confidential information, please, visit (www.dekart.com)

About The Author
Ceban Liuba
Born in 1974 in Ukraine (former USSR)
Now lives in Moldova
Studien Social Work and theology in 1991-1996 in Romania
In 2003-2004 Was in Nonprofit Management Masters Program
Since 1998 works on Internet
Since 2004 works in the IT security Software Company as a Technical Writer
l.ceban@dekart.com