National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the largest bank in the UAE announced today its decision to protect all its laptops by deploying data encryption solutions from Pointsec Mobile Technologies. In addition to existing NBAD security standards for working online and protecting physical assets, this implementation means that should any NBAD laptop be misplaced or stolen, no one will be able to access the data stored on it, completely securing all the critical information on the hard drive.
“Today, most NBAD employees, and not just the banks top management, who are traveling or working from home most likely use laptop computers,” says Hossam Elkobrosy, Technical Services Manager, NBAD. “All of our laptop computers naturally contain sensitive information in a variety of places – email inboxes, documents and presentations that contain financial illustrations –so the bank took the decision to encrypt all the laptop hard drives, rather than to try to implement a file-by-file encryption policy. “ElKobrossy added.
“It is imperative that banks take preventative and proactive measures to secure confidential customer and company data from potential information leaks and intrusions. NBAD is making all efforts to seal any open ends and ensure that no information is hijacked or trespassed, thereby providing a secure and superior level of banking services to our customers,” continued Elkobrosy.
Mobile computing has become a lifeline for modern business people. But the laptop generation has had to cope with a concurrent increase in thefts, as opportunistic criminals target portable, high-value devices that also contain valuable information. The last two years have witnessed many cases of data leaks due to loss or theft of laptop computers, prompting organizations to look into solutions that keep data resting on devices uncompromised.
"Everyone who has a mobile computing device has to face the risk of it getting stolen or lost at any moment in time," commented Ayman Majzoub, general manager, Pointsec Middle East & Africa. "Companies carry around corporate data on laptops and USB memory drives with almost no protection at all. If you lose a computer or a memory stick with customer data or internal business secrets, you have to make sure it is not accessible to anyone. This is what Pointsec offers to its customers: encryption software solutions that keep their secrets ", he added.
Pointsec’s PC encryption software ensures that all or selected parts of a hard drive’s data can be encrypted in real time and can only be accessed by an authenticated user. Full disk encryption protects the operating system and sensitive system files, ensuring that all security vulnerabilities are closed.
“By encrypting confidential information, NBAD and other organizations can avoid a physical computer loss from becoming a much more serious PR and financial problem, thus protecting customer confidence and the organization’s reputation in the long run,” Majzoub concluded.
