Dell claims that most security software doesn't meet UK data protection laws

TIN BOX FLOGGER Dell has released a data encryption product, claiming that it needs more than just software to protect data.

The Dell Data Protection Encryption system offers firms file based encryption that meets with the UK data protection act and payment card industry regulations, however Bob Bennett, product manager at Dell told The INQUIRER that to ensure data protection, "software is not enough" and that "security is not about a widget, it is mainly about people and policy".

Bennett said that Dell's customers were complaining that data protection is not easy and that it is hard to deploy, thus "forcing them to do other things". However Bennett said that the recent spate of data breaches due to the activities of Anonymous and Lulzsec has resulted in firms' "conversations [regarding security] heightening" and that the attacks had "increased awareness for the need to have data protection to be in place".

Now more than ever, according to Bennett, "the organisation's security guy is important". However Bennett claimed, "most security applications work on US data protection laws" and that compliance with local data polices put pressure on companies to deploy stricter data protection policies.

Bennett said that the goal of Dell's software is to make it "transparent to the user as much as possible, without affecting the business". The reason for this, according to Bennett, is that if the software requires users to change the way they work then it is likely that it won't get deployed or worse still, won't get used.

What both Anonymous and Lulzsec have managed to achieve is to make companies scared of what will happen if hackers take liberties with their users' personal data. The success of both hacker groups is a testament that firms were either too lazy to meet the UK's strict data privacy laws or incapable of doing so because they were employing inadequate data protection policies.

The actions of Anonymous and Lulzsec might in the end prove to be a boon for security vendors such as Dell and others, as businesses realise that they cannot just hope for the best when it comes to users' data. µ