WinMagic’s SecureDoc Full-Disk Encryption Earns BITS Certification

September 17, 2007; 06:46 AM

Mississauga, Ontario, and Washington DC – WinMagic Inc. (www.winmagic.com), the innovative leader in disk encryption, today announces that its SecureDoc full-disk encryption solution for desktops, laptops, and mobile devices has been awarded the BITS Tested Mark, one of the most respected corporate security specifications in the U.S.  The certification is awarded by BITS, a non-profit industry consortium comprised of 100 of the largest financial institutions in the United States.

A division of The Financial Services Roundtable, BITS was founded in 1996 to foster the growth and development of electronic financial services and e-commerce for the benefit of financial institutions and their customers.  Working to sustain consumer confidence and trust by ensuring the security, privacy and integrity of financial transactions, BITS provides intellectual capital and addresses emerging issues where financial services, technology and commerce intersect, acting quickly to address problems and galvanize the industry.

“In today’s highly sophisticated and connected financial world, consistent and reliable data security is perhaps the greatest IT imperative,” said Leigh Williams, President of BITS.  “The BITS Tested Mark is a high standard, and we commend WinMagic for this achievement.”

“With data security and compliance becoming increasingly important WinMagic has witnessed a significant increase in demand for SecureDoc from financial service organizations looking for the most reliable and transparent method to protect against information leakage from lost, stolen, or discarded laptops and mobile devices," said Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO for WinMagic.  "This certification is yet another example of WinMagic teaming with industry leaders within a specific vertical to ensure SecureDoc meets all of their unique data security requirements."

“Protecting customer information is a top priority for financial institutions nationwide,” said Ann Patterson, Vice President of BITS.  “In providing support for this goal, the BITS certification process is a consistent and objective means of evaluating and testing security standards.”
 
In addition to its BITS certification, SecureDoc also holds not only FIPS 140-2 Level 1 but is also the only encryption solution to achieve Level 2 from the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) of the US Department of Commerce.  SecureDoc has also earned Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL 4) Certification (the highest level that is recognized in over 20 countries worldwide), while its FORTEZZA-based version of SecureDoc is the only disk encryption software certified by the NSA to safeguard U.S. government’s “SECRET” level data.

Compatible with all editions of Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, and 2000, SecureDoc Enterprise Server (SES) edition also makes it simple to configure user/group profiles, deploy them, and manage them for tens of thousands of users.  Remote features permit adding, removing, or augmenting user/group profiles as well as allowing password recovery and integration/synchronization with Active Directory and other LDAP servers.

In addition, SES is uniquely positioned to provide the dynamic provisioning of keys and key files to users, and possesses the unique ability to label keys in human readable terms so that they can be easily identified and recognized for encrypted archived data stores.  Problems related to unlocking these long term storage archives are solved as the respective encryption key can now be dynamically provisioned.  Passwords will not be remembered 20 years from now, but the encryption keys can still be easily identified in human readable text formats.

About WinMagic Inc.
WinMagic’s robust and innovative SecureDoc software provides the world’s most secure full-disk encryption. Easy to use, deploy, and manage, SecureDoc Enterprise Edition makes it simple to combine full-disk encryption with user authentication at pre-boot. Authentication is provisioned in a single- or multi-factor fashion including password, smart card, TPM, hardware token, PKI, and biometrics. SecureDoc protects data at rest for endpoint devices including desktops, notebooks, external USB drives, and CD/DVDs. WinMagic’s data at rest solution provides granular capabilities of end-user management at an enterprise level through integration with MS Active Directory, LDAP servers, or PKI. SecureDoc’s unparalleled robustness, operability, and performance allows for easy enterprise deployments offering centralized administration with remote installation, and password recovery. Headquartered in Mississauga, Canada, WinMagic operates in over 43 countries. For more information on products or services, please visit www.WinMagic.com, call 1-888-879-5879, or email info@WinMagic.com.

About BITS
BITS was created in 1996 to foster the growth and development of electronic financial services and e-commerce for the benefit of financial institutions and their customers.  A division of The Financial Services Roundtable, BITS works to sustain consumer confidence and trust by ensuring the security, privacy and integrity of financial transactions.  BITS provides intellectual capital and addresses emerging issues where financial services, technology and commerce intersect, acting quickly to address problems and galvanize the industry.  BITS' efforts involve representatives from throughout our member institutions, including CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, and fraud, compliance and vendor management specialists.  For more information, go to www.bitsinfo.org.

About The Financial Services Roundtable
The Financial Services Roundtable represents 100 of the largest integrated financial services companies providing banking, insurance, and investment products and services to the American consumer. Member companies participate through the Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives nominated by the CEO. Roundtable member companies provide fuel for America's economic engine, accounting directly for $65.8 trillion in managed assets, $1 trillion in revenue, and 2.4 million jobs.