Infosec time again

IT Security trade show begins with a flurry of new product launches

IT security conference Infosecurity Europe kicks off in London tomorrow, with over 100 new products and services due to be showcased and keynote speeches from government ministers and industry experts.

Stuart Okin of consultancy Accenture, who will be presenting at the event, told IT Week that the past year has witnessed an increasing number of firms proactively seeking to comply with best practices standards in security, such as ISO 27001.

"There has been a change in attitudes –clients who you wouldn't expect to be worried are asking us about what they can do," Okin added. "High level business decision makers are now asking hard questions of their technology departments."

Okin also said he has seen an increase in the popularity of identity management solutions, arising out of a need to federate with partner organisations, outsourcers and other third parties essential to the business.

Among the vendors exhibiting at the event for the first time will be Aladdin Knowledge Systems, whose eSafe Hellgate content security appliance provides mid-sized firms with "a clean internet connection", according to UK sales director Mark Kacary.

The firm will also be discussing its plans to launch a new eSafe smart card USB solution in June.

IT and security management solutions vendor Criston is set to launch a new version of its Precision Management solution, designed to help IT automate the systems management of desktops, laptops, servers and PDAs, according to the firm's chief executive, Mark Vaillant.

"Securing IT starts by managing IT," Vaillant explained. "If you don't know which software you're using, or how many desktops you're using, how can you be secure?"

Email and internet security specialist Marshal will launch several new products and services, including a new offering for service providers.

The firm has been selling the standard version of its MailMarshal product to service providers for around eight years, but the new Service Provider Edition (SPE) features the ability to manage multiple domains on the same install, and deliver admin and provisioning capabilities to end-users and administrators, according to Marshal chief executive Ed McNair.

"We noticed some customers putting a managed service in front of their MailMarshal product; they don't want spam emails to come near the network because then they have to be archived," McNair added. "If you don't see it you don't need to store it, and that's what's driving this new release."

The firm will also release a new appliance version of MailMarshal that has the ability to support multiple devices so they can be remotely managed in the same way as a software installation, explained McNair.

Network security specialist Crossbeam Systems is improving its C-Series Operating System (COS) to enable the transparent insertion of content security into the network, according to co-founder Throop Wilder.

"We developed a way to make content filtering applications run in transparent mode in the network, which means the network guys don't have to worry about the security box from an operational or failure standpoint," Wilder added.

Version 6.0 also includes capabilities to allow large-scale updates to routers, which can be a time-consuming task, said Wilder.

Security compliance specialist BigFix will launch its Data Leak Prevention solution.

"It allows IT to attach policies to specific data and provides continuous enforcement on a global scale, whether a laptop is stolen or disconnected from the corporate network, used on a public Wi-Fi network, or even if a file has been heavily edited, rearranged, or split," explained the firm's European managing director, Colin Gray.