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As organizations scale up in size and geographies, corporate boundaries are no longer limited to a local office and local workforce. There is a dramatic growth in mobile workforce and remote users accessing organisation's network from multiple locations through multiple devices. This has increased the possibilities of spyware, viruses and other malware entering directly into the data center.
With organizations adopting VoIP, where the entry point into a network is no more restricted to three or four from one location, but from multiple locations and devices, the network has become more vulnerable.
In this scenario, secure application access from anywhere is the need of the hour, according to PortWise, a UK -based provider of secure application access solutions. The company entered the Indian market 18 months back and currently focuses on enterprise verticals, including finance, government and healthcare. It claims to have captured 65 percent market share in the access management segment in the country.
Jonathan Martin, chief marketing officer, PortWise, said, "Today, organizations require comprehensive solutions that serve multiple functions, which in turn allow you to secure access from any device from any location on any application."
There are many security software products in organizations. However, most of them are not integrated and in the case of many oranizations, the solutions come from multiple vendors and do not operate with or 'talk' to each other, Martin said. Here's where the PortWise 4.0 comes into place.
PortWise introduced an integrated and completely extensible software platform, which addresses six critical areas or the six A's in ensuring secure application -- Assess, Authenticate, Authorise, Access, Audit and Abolish. The company ensures secure access to critical information and applications for the mobile workforce and disrtributed partner networks. The six As are:
Assess
In the first level of secure application access strategy by PortWise, a device is given access to the organization's network based on certain parameters. "It is more like a security health check to determine if the device conforms to the corporate security policy," added Martin. It allows only approved devices to access enterprise applications.
Authenticate
PortWise 4.0 come with a two-factor authentication solution -- the usual password that is the first factor and an alphanumeric password with 60-120 characters that is saved on your mobile phone. This provides an extra layer of security, crucial for enterprise applications containing sensitive information, said Martin.
Authorize
Authorization is given to a user based on three factors -- location logged in from, authentication and device used.
Access
An encrypted safe link- SSL VPN is created between the user and the application.
Audit
Portwise solution captures all communications and transactions in a network, irrespective of the vendor, in an audit.
Abolish
A user can end a session and abolish all the traces of access to the system including cookies, URL history, cached information, registry entries and downloadable components.
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