Announcing the NEW PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Dec 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By CORRINA STELLITANO

Next door, down the street, inside respectable brick homes in stately subdivisions, it happens. In computer labs in hotels and airports, it happens.

Most of today's workforce is a mobile army of traveling and remote employees, connecting with their companies' information and resources by computer in varied locations. On the same computers where children type school papers or learn how to hack, where recreational travelers send e-mail to friends, highly critical business transactions are completed.

As more and more business is conducted on remote — and insecure — machines, companies face new and unique challenges. The challenges are exacerbated as companies accommodate the remote business climate by making sensitive data — such as payroll systems or sales contact management systems — available through Web browser-based applications.

An Instant Private Web

Launched in July by Irvine, Calif.-based Rainbow Technologies, the NetSwift iGate Web-based security system meets these challenges, and is affordable and convenient. The NetSwift iGate combines authentication and encryption capabilities, allowing users to access a business's secured browser-based applications with only a small plastic fob called an iKey and a PIN number.

The NetSwift iGate from Rainbow Technologies was chosen from among 68 entries as the 2002 New Product of the Year in a contest sponsored by Access Control & Security Systems magazine. The Product of the Year was chosen by a jury of expert judges and based on a vote of the magazine's readers.

Traditionally, when a remote user needed to access company resources, his computer would be equipped with software allowing him access to a virtual private network (VPN). A traditional VPN secures the transmission of all data between the remote computer and the corporation's network. But the method can be unwieldy and expensive.

The NetSwift iGate is an alternative to a VPN and creates an instant private Web, a secure tunnel that protects the interaction and the application content. Because it's an appliance that's dropped in behind the firewall without any additional system integration or re-configuration, it cuts cost, time and the need for IT support.

“You don't need any software on the (remote user) side,” says Chris Holland, product manager for the NetSwift iGate. “We've created a solution that drops into (a company's) network and instantly secures all the systems they provide over the Web. It's easier to deploy the iGate and it's easier to manage. You get the same security a VPN provides, but in a lot simpler and more cost-effective fashion.”

The NetSwift iGate uses SSL acceleration to encrypt Web content from the point where it leaves a company's protected space until it is viewed at a remote user's desktop. The identity of users is verified through a process called two-factor authentication, requiring them to insert a small authentication key (geared to fit on a keychain) into their PC's USB port and to enter a numeric code. Once the key is removed, the user is automatically shut out of the secure applications.

“It's like your ATM card, because the system requires both something you have — the iKey — and something you know — the PIN number,” says Holland. “At the cornerstone of our product is (the idea that) providing security for content is only really useful if it's easy to use. Security systems that require you to change your password every three months are difficult for people to use. They start writing down passwords and then it becomes less secure. What the iGate does is get rid of all that, because now you have a key.”

Holland describes the installation of the iGate product in terms often alien in the world of computers: quick, convenient, simple.

“Our quick-start installation guide has seven steps you have to go through and it takes a little bit over an hour. This includes unwrapping the appliance from the box,” he says. The process includes identifying the domains a company intends to protect by entering TCP/IP settings, then adding users and configuring their access rights.

Access rights can be very specific, restricting or granting access to individual pages within a Web page. Users' access information is contained within the NetSwift iGate, allowing IT personnel to remove and grant access for all users in one location.

The NetSwift iGate isn't only for remote use. Holland says companies are also using it internally to restrict unauthorized users from entering secure areas in the system, to verify users for software license management and to aid in login speed. “If I tie all my systems together behind a Web page and then use the iKey, there's only one thing I have to do to access all those systems — which is a lot more convenient than having to remember ten different usernames and passwords for ten different systems,” he says.

A Natural Evolution

Founded in 1984, Rainbow has long produced digital content and transaction security solutions for varying markets. Rainbow eSecurity Group serves the wired and wireless worlds and large enterprise organizations, while Rainbow Mykotronx focuses on high-assurance security solutions for the government, military and commercial organizations that require highly-custom security solutions.

The NetSwift iGate represents the melding of two of Rainbow's most successful security products: its SSL acceleration solution, NetSwift, and its authentication keys, previously marketed independently. Rainbow already has a strong footing in the token/key industry. As the market leader of hardware keys used to link software to individual machines, it has shipped more than 28 million of its Sentinel keys worldwide.

Andrew Young, who spent years helping companies to develop Internet browser-based systems to share information, led the team of more than 20 software developers and quality assurance personnel as lead project engineer for the NetSwift iGate. He says the creation two years ago of NetSwift 2012, an acceleration and authentication solution for e-commerce, led naturally to the birth of NetSwift iGate.

“This was kind of the next evolutionary step,” he says. “My experience is that most companies, even once they have Web-enabled an application, still do not allow access to that application outside of their network. The security is not adequate enough for them to allow access to that outside the company. And that's the problem that we solve.”

While product planners describe the installation and operation of the NetSwift iGate as simple, they do not underestimate the difficulty of organizing a company's resources for Web-based access. Rainbow has been distributing the iGate directly since its July debut, and the company is finalizing several partnerships with value-added resellers in the security industry.

“It's not trivial to get your systems on the Web,” says Holland. “(Most companies will) hire value-added resellers who would help them to install these kind of portal applications, configure them and get their backend systems working with them. The iGate provides the security and access control they need on top of those solutions.

So we're looking for value-added resellers who … see the value of secure authentication and who want to provide those services as part of a bigger package.”

Matching Up With the Market

Some resellers of the NetSwift iGate are finding the tool very useful in their own offices as well. SecureSoft Systems, Carlsbad, Calif., is a compliance software solutions company that serves industries affected by federally mandated compliance regulations. Its application service provider solutions help companies unable to support the cost of operating their own compliance equipment and software.

“Our whole solution is browser-based, so the (iGate) encryption is very important,” says Chris Berlandier, SecureSoft's CEO and co-founder. “We use iGate to authenticate and have license management capabilities and keep everything secure. Then we actually sell (the iGate product) into our client's space, so that they can utilize the product and become compliant.

“For instance, security regulations in healthcare say that you have to have everything encrypted. We have to have audit trail and entity authentication that says these are the right people to be looking at pertinent information about a patient. That's where the iGate product actually does solve several issues that are independent, but that they've been able to wrap up into a single box.”

Previously, SecureSoft would have had to acquire the SSL accelerator and authentication products separately, and key fobs weren't a part of the solution at all, Berlandier explains.

“There are other products that could work with browser-based solutions, but they didn't have the iKey. They would use voice recognition and names and passwords, but (from the standpoint of a) security company, names and passwords are just social engineering. You can get those from anybody. And voice recognition isn't a proven technology. The iKeys have been around forever. We know they work, and USB ports are on every new machine. (iGate) allows (our customers) to become compliant without having to spend an incredible amount of money on separate point products (that) don't integrate.

The ability to transfer from one NetSwift iGate appliance to another in the event of equipment failure was also attractive, Berlandier says. “That was very important to us. We have this running in our data centers. Some Web applications are very mission-critical. We need to have our clients be able to access this 24-7.”

Laura Didio, an analyst for the Yankee Group, a Boston-based consulting group, says the iGate offers the right characteristics for companies in today's economy.

“It is end-to-end security. It's easily installed and managed — all the things that really count. There is a real trend away from huge platform solutions. Many companies simply don't have the funds or the resources to operate and maintain the platform solutions, and can't afford the interruption to the organization to install them.”

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Corrina Stellitano is a Fairhope, Ala.-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, please circle the appropriate Reader Service number (listed below) or visit www.securitysolutions.com.

Rainbow Technologies	5
SecureSoft Systems	6

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