Security Management Firm Adds Compliance Tools

Business-security administrators are spending more time these days helping to audit computer systems and networks to ensure that they comply with state and federal rules and regulations regarding security, privacy, and other issues. But spending hours or days auditing files and security logs may not be the best use of their time, which could be spent analyzing data for business reports on companywide security preparedness.

E-Security Inc., a security information-management and compliance-monitoring vendor, hopes to return some of that time spent on compliance to security administrators next week when it releases object-based Sentinel Control Packs, which can be used to automate the capture and analysis of security data in real time, identify and respond to any compliance violations, and assess any compliance-monitoring program.

The packs should reduce audit-preparation times and costs, the company says. A pack could be the single source for required controls for multiple regulations. And they can be used as evidence of compliance with the regulations.

An industry analyst thinks these software packs should cut a lot of professional-services costs companies experience early in the auditing processes. "Each Control Pack has agents collect data, correlates the rules, and generates reports based on templates," says George Hamilton, an analyst at Yankee Group. "A lot of compliance work is pretty standard so e-Security can get customers started pretty quickly."