Equifax Data Breach Means Continued Data Security Vigilance is Essential
The massive Equifax data breach illustrates once again that organizations who have the most at stake in protecting secrets can still be vulnerable to catastrophic missteps and security holes. These security laps may cause harm for years and even decades.
Equifax is a publicly-held company. Its business as an international credit bureau by definition makes it the repository to some of the most precious personal data in existence. Yet due to poor controls, the credit histories of 143 million people have now been exposed to the bad guys. In a similar way, government agencies hold extremely valuable secrets, many related to private information or national security. In recent years government agencies at all levels have proved vulnerable to significant data losses. The data breaches are well known and include agencies such as the National Security Agency, the office of Personnel Management, the Georgia Secretary of State, the U.S. Postal Service, and the Internal Revenue Service.
A critical aspect of good data security is protecting government information networks. Examples of protected information networks include NIPRNet (private IP network), SIPRNet (classified), and JWICS (top secret). To access these networks, agencies may use multiple Virtual Machines on a single PC or workstation to access different classification levels. This may be most effeciently done through SecureView, developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and implemented by NCS Technologies.
SecureView runs multiple securely isolated environments on one PC or workstation, with hardware-enforced security. This increasingly popular security solution is the result of extensive and continuing development work by AFRL, the open source community, Assured Information Security and NCS Technologies. The latest version, SecureView 3.0, will be available in the coming months.
SecureView is a low-cost, multiple-independent-levels of security (MILS) workstation-based-COTS technology which is based on Type 1 or bare metal client hypervisor. It allows single computer-to-host multiple-guest VMs running at different classification levels.
Access Multiple Security Domains Easily and Securely
SecureView provides local application execution and concurrent access to multiple security domains. This supports mission requirements, giving analysts the needed performance to run advanced applications, assess threats and share findings across agencies. NCS Technologies systems approved for use include the Stratus MT and Stratus DT desktops and the Vortex MT and Vortex MDT workstations.
NCS Is a Preferred SecureView SupplierNCS is committed to SecureView solutions and is the home for SecureView expertise.
Today, SecureView 2.3 is accredited and qualified to run on NCS desktop and workstation systems. NCS supports the memory and processing power required for the heavy workloads associated with running many VMs. The NCS development team works very closely with component vendors to optimize our hardware solutions - Vortex and Stratus computers - for SecureView implementations. NCS will deliver the exact form-factor needed, from the ultra-compact NUCs right up to full tower dual processor workstations.
Please browse our homepage to learn more about NCS SecureView solutions, or simply download this handy brochure.
