Combining Information Security And ComplianceCombining Information Security And Compliance

Protecting your information can be challenging. Proving that you're in compliance with rules and regulations governing information security can be even more difficult. For many businesses, accomplishing both can be costly. A new release of software from Elemental Security Inc. combines access control, policy management, and compliance features to make it easier for companies to improve data security and regulatory compliance.

The new release of the Elemental Compliance System, introduced on Monday, adds security and systems-management capabilities to a multiplatform compliance system to let business-technology managers impose security policies on individual computers on the network as well as track user activity to create metrics used to measure effectiveness.

The software includes support for multiple Windows desktops and Red Hat Linux EL 3.0, as well as an expanded policy library that adds templates for Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and more Windows applications.

The software should appeal to businesses because it scales well and can make it easier to track and report on regulatory compliance, says Andrew Braunberg, a security analyst at Current Analysis. Software agents can now support 30,000 users, he says, "meaning less costs for dedicated servers. And Elemental is building up a library of pre-built rules to build out the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance capabilities."