Safend Case Study: Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc.

The Company

Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (TKT) fights a battle against rare diseases every day. The global biopharmaceutical company currently markets the drug Replagal™, which is used in the treatment of Fabry disease. With a market capitalization greater than $1.1 billion and 400 employees located in Massachusetts, the UK, Canada, South America, and Sweden, the fight against data loss is one TKT cannot afford to lose.

The Need

“Although we are not aware of a specific instance of data loss via USB ports, we certainly recognize the risks,” says Bob Litterer, Information Security Manager for TKT. “After running a preliminary scan of our network using Safend’s USB Auditor we decided to be proactive and eliminate what could be a potential problem. My two areas of concern are the connections of unauthorized USB devices and the use of a rogue wireless device such as a wireless router. That’s what keeps me up at night.”

Understandable, given that data theft cost U.S. corporations more than $50B in 2004 . With this trend, enterprise customers are becoming increasingly concerned with the security of their assets. The proliferation of products using USB, FireWire, Bluetooth and other protocols allows unauthorized devices easy access to enterprise PCs. The increasing popularity and expanding storage capabilities of devices such as Disk on Keys and iPods takes visibility and control away from network administrators, leaving data vulnerable to two distinct threats: information leakage and targeted attacks.

As part of its information security policy, TKT decided to restrict the use of removable storage devices, authorizing only specific encrypted drives that the IT department would issue to employees. Difficulty in enforcing this policy became apparent as soon as the new drives were procured. The company needed a high-quality, scalable solution that would control USB devices without shutting down USB ports entirely – that would be just too high a productivity price to pay. “We use an approved USB mass storage device with data encryption,” comments Litterer. “We needed to be able to utilize that system.” Another requirement was integration with Microsoft Windows 2000 Active Directory back office and the capability of supporting desktop clients running Windows XP. TKT’s objective was to deploy software that would silently install on all workstations throughout the enterprise without causing any reboots or blue screens. The inability of end-users to remove the software or shut down the service was of prime importance.

The Solution

Litterer chose Safend’s USB Port Protector solution and USB Auditor after researching several products in the security software market. “Safend’s USB Port Protector and Auditor combo was the first I ran across that had everything we needed,” he says. “We’re able to scan and approve or restrict whatever we want and we’ve never had a legitimate device disabled.” The USB Port Protector enables IT administrators to design and implement an enterprise-wide security policy regulating which USB devices are connected to laptop and desktop computers. By analyzing drivers, unique device identifiers, and packet flows between an individual computer and a peripheral device, the USB Port Protector can accurately determine the class, vendor, and model of the device. This level of granularity gives the administrator tremendous flexibility in assigning different levels of connectivity rights to various user groups and minimizes the likelihood that end-users are able to circumvent corporate policy. Litterer concurs, “It would be very difficult for even advanced end-users to remove or tamper with the software.”

The USB Auditor allows Litterer and his team to immediately access data identifying who and what is connected at each USB port within the organization. This data can then be used to create a report displaying the USB devices currently connected to enterprise endpoints as well as those that were recently connected. USB Auditor can export this report to an MS Excel file pre-configured with the most commonly used queries. An added benefit is that USB Auditor is a non-intrusive and clientless software solution. “The latest version of USB Auditor made deployment of our security policies very easy. Roll-out was painless,” he says.

Final Analysis

The TKT information security team found Safend’s Port Protector easy to install and deploy using Microsoft’s Active Directory. Litterer states, “If your Active Directory is in good shape, installation is a breeze.” The company now has visibility and control over all its endpoints and is so pleased with the strength of Safend’s product policies that it has joined Safend’s Design Partner Program. In this capacity, TKT will provide useful suggestions and customer perspectives on Safend’s future product designs, product performance and feature updates. Litterer chuckles, “The only complaint we’ve had so far is from end-users who can’t use some of the devices they’d like. That just tells me the product is working.”

“Securing intellectual property during the product development stage is critical for our customer's long term success,” said Dor Skuler, Vice President of Business Development for Safend. “We’re pleased that TKT recognizes the unique solutions Safend offers and shares our vision of endpoint security.”

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