Data Encryption: Is It Mainstream?

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It's a chief security officer's worst nightmare. Some executive in hurry to make a meeting forgets her laptop in a cab. On it is enough sensitive data to put the company on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and not in a good way.

Increasingly the answer is to encrypt -- either the whole hard drive, or selected files. Microsoft's BitLocker can do the job, but what it doesn't do is offer IT the extensive policy controls and logging that many industries require. More problematic for many, it requires Windows Vista, which most enterprises have not yet adopted, and the technology won't protect mobile devices.

That leaves a nice, healthy market for third parties. Today the primary customers are exactly whom you'd expect: financial institutions, the government, and the military are all significant users of laptop encryption technology and, increasingly, smartphone encryption. Of course, the continuing stream of reported data leaks has piqued the interest of many other security officers in a range of industries.

Network Computing did a review of full-disk encryption products late last year. At that time, SafeBoot was the preferred choice of our editors. The company's officers again showed up in my office this week, this time with big news about their IPO, which should happen in mid to late October.

SafeBoot's encryption technology is solid, but then so is the competition's. What sets SafeBoot apart is its logging and policy management capabilities, as well as the broad range of devices the company now supports, ranging from Windows 98 to Symbian and Windows Mobile.

SafeBoot's IPO after 12 years in the business says something about this technology. Namely, that it's increasingly necessary.

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