How to Control Non-Employee Access to SharePoint
Changes to SharePoint 2013 licensing have made it affordable for companies to build non-employee access portals in SharePoint. The expectation was that companies would rapidly deploy non-employee portals to collaborate with clients and suppliers. The reality is that very few SharePoint customers have deployed these portals.
HiSoftware and the BASH Exploits
Bourne again! It seems scarcely a week goes by that we donÁ€™t see another data breach or exploit running wild. Following on the Heartbleed code defect earlier this year, this week has seen the rise of a new round of exploits. The defect covers the BASH command line utilities used on Unix-derived operating systems, such as Linux and Mac OS X. Windows systems are immune to this flaw.
We are pleased to report that all of HiSoftwareÁ€™s solutions are Windows-based, and thus have no known exposure to this defect. Similarly, there are no known exposures in any of the Cryptzone portfolio of products (see CryptzoneÁ€™s statement).
As always, failures of any peripheral controls could lead to indirect exposure for other systems. We encourage all customers to be careful about any potential use of Linux or Macintosh systems until the defects are patched. We will continue to monitor the situation and share relevant information as it becomes available.
Incidents such as this highlight the importance of proper security, audit, compliance and governance solutions.á If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us at info@hisoftware.com.
Almost Half of Organizations Have Suffered a Data Breach
Ponemon Institute and Experian Data Breach Resolution released findings yesterday from the second annual study Á€œIs Your Company Ready for a Data BreachÁ€« that showed almost half of organizations surveyed have suffered at least one security incident involving the loss or theft of more than a 1,000 records, up 10% from 2013. As a result, an increasing number of organizations are putting data breach response plans in place up 12% from 2013 and 48% of organizations increased investments in security technologies in the past 12 months.
Message In a Bottle – Identity and Access Management in the SharePoint World
Source: http://en.wikicollecting.org/antique-ships-in-bottles
For a long time, identity and access management (IAM) has been something outside the world of most implementations. Who you are, and what you can do, have stayed almost entirely within the walled garden of SharePoint farms.
Over the past few years, however, SharePointÁ€™s been spilling out of its bottle Á€“ into the cloud and into engagement with users and systems outside the realm of on-premises data centers, networks, and Active Directory. IAM is no longer something done for Á€œotherÁ€« enterprise systems, but important to consider as new usage comes into SharePoint, and as SharePoint apps and content are extended outside the traditional farm.
HiSoftware and Cryptzone Merger: An Accessibility Perspective
A few of my friends and colleagues have reached out to me in the last week when they heard about our companyÁ€™s merger with Cryptzone, a company noted for its premier solutions in the area of IT security. Was HiSoftware now a security company? Had we turned our back on accessibility? Was I looking for another job?
Rest assured: nothing has changed for the Accessibility Consulting Practice (ACP) that I direct or HiSoftwareÁ€™s plans to support and grow our accessibility products. HiSoftware started as a company focused on accessibility solutions. We have strong roots in accessibility. Many of our customers come from accessibility. We have the best products and services in accessibility. WeÁ€™re not going anywhere.
Data Breaches: Is Confidential Data Lurking on Your Website?
If the most powerful part of your business is your customers and therefore the data you have on them, how are you protecting it? Most companies can tell you what measures they have in place to protect data in their networks and applications, but what about websites?
Customer data is your Á€˜secret sauceÁ€™ as Dave Lewis, Forbes contributor puts it. In a recent Forbes article, Dave does a bit of an experiment using a search engine to find information he shouldnÁ€™t be able to find. He was on the lookout for SQL (structured query language) databases. So just how many websites did Dave find with exposed databases dated 2014?
HiSoftware Site Sheriff Version 2.0 Now Available
Companies continue to leverage SharePoint for internal and external collaboration. As a result, site administrators face many challenges including how to control content access, foster user adoption, manage large lists and build non-employee portals. Today weÁ€™ve released Site Sheriff 2.0 to solve these challenges.
Where in the World is Chris McNulty?
We thought weÁ€™d have some fun this month playing where in the world is Chris McNulty? Some of you might immediately think of WhereÁ€™s Waldo, others of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, but regardless, hereÁ€™s a list of where our very own Microsoft MVP will be speaking over the next month.
Interesting Times and Innovation at HiSoftware and Cryptzone
To follow-up KurtÁ€™s recent blog post on the merger between HiSoftware and Cryptzone, I canÁ€™t tell you how excited I am to be able to share this news with you. As you can imagine, thereÁ€™s been a lot of work behind the scenes to bring our companies together, and itÁ€™s fantastic to be able to finally tell you all about it.
HiSoftware, a KMWorld Trend-Setter for the Fourth Year
KMWorld For the fourth consecutive year, KMWorld honored HiSoftware, on its annual list of Trend-Setting products. Editor in chief at KMWorld, Hugh McKellar, said:
Á€œSecuring content in the age of stringent compliance regulation requires solutions that are innovative and solve a real problem for organizations. Site Sheriff was selected by the panel because it demonstrates thoughtful, well-reasoned innovation and execution for the most important constituency of them all: the customer.Á€«