Securing sales in new ICO regime
Ian Kilpatrick looks at sales opportunities in the wake of the tougher ICO and PCI stance
Kilpatrick: Encryption is needed across much of the IT infrastructure
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) have toughened up their acts, creating great sales opportunities for the quiet summer months.
The ICO can now enforce fines in some cases where data is lost and encryption hasn’t been used. So encryption is now essential for companies holding personal information.
This means all portable and mobile devices (laptops, memory sticks, magnetic media, etc) used to store and transmit personal information, as well as static devices (such as PCs) and when data is being transmitted electronically (such as over the internet).
Other areas your clients may want to encrypt include hard drives, network passwords, wireless networks, individual files containing sensitive information, network servers, NAS, email, and data transmitted between offices.
Many organisations fail to prevent unencrypted access to overlapping and unsecured networks. Mobile and remote working generally is high risk. It involves the use of a lot of mobile devices and users need to protect data when they connect to the corporate network.
This can be done with the use of encrypted virtual private networks, SSL or encrypted virtual connections.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) also includes the threat of a fine. Many companies believe that they won’t carry out this threat, but I have heard that Visa and MasterCard are pressing non-compliant companies to improve their practices.
There is now a flurry of activity among providers trying to sell PCI compliance solutions to companies. The opportunities for resellers are huge.
Most requirements are not particularly onerous or difficult, and are well within the capabilities of many resellers.
They include basic security measures which any company should take, such as installing and maintaining a firewall configuration, implementing strong access control measures, encrypting the transmission of cardholder data across public networks, and monitoring all access to network resources and cardholder data. Support is available to the channel from manufacturers and VADs.
You can sell a wide range of security solutions such as firewalls, UTMs, XTMs, strong authentication, log management and SIEM, encryption and, of course, virus, spyware and endpoint protection, as well as providing services and consultancy advice.
Ian Kilpatrick is chairman of Wick Hill