MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM and BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Jun 12, 2012) - Avecto, the leader in Windows privilege management, today launched the latest version of their award-winning Privilege Guard solution.
"At its core, Privilege Guard helps organizations resolve three key challenges -- it strengthens their security posture, reduces operational costs and helps them achieve compliance," explains Mark Austin, Avecto's co-founder and chief technology officer. "The workforce's ability to function effectively has a direct impact on an organization's productivity, yet users' actions directly affect enterprise security. Too restrictive and support costs spiral, too lax and support is of least concern. The functionality we've introduced in Privilege Guard 3.5 makes it even easier for organizations to strike that perfect balance."
With Privilege Guard all users operate under a standard user account and privileges are assigned directly to the applications that require them. Privilege Guard 3.5 introduces a number of unique features, which now make it even easier for organizations to introduce scalable, adaptive privilege management, with an unparalleled end user experience and enterprise class reporting.
"Compliance requirements and security concerns remain the primary impetuses for the expanding implementation of Windows privilege management. As organizations begin to apply a set of policies to how privileges are controlled and distributed in order to facilitate normal business processes, the platform coverage of those policies as well as the degree to which they are automated emerge as governance and operational issues. Alongside reporting tools that allow organizations to better quantify and benchmark privileged accounts under management, Avecto has developed deeper hooks into the Windows operating system, and built a set of filters to apply policies in a more automated fashion," says Steve Coplan, Research Manager at 451 Research.
From a commercial perspective, Andy Bristow, World Wide Director of HP Enterprise Security Services, says, "Avecto's Privilege Guard is an important part of the HP ESS Identity and Access Management security portfolio. Privilege Guard is used by our customers to bolster the security of Windows based systems, achieve compliance and improve operational effectiveness. The latest enhancements in v3.5 have raised the bar in terms of managing both external and insider threats, delivering enterprises the ability to implement more intuitive and flexible security measures. Avecto listened and responded to customer requirements and this latest version really sets their technology apart from other offerings available in the market today. Combined with HP ESS implementation and support services, we are able to deliver solutions globally that enables customers to implement a least privilege, least risk and least cost environment."
What's new in Privilege Guard 3.5
New Enterprise Reporting Health Dashboard
Privilege Guard Enterprise Reporting now includes a new health dashboard which reports on all privileged logons across the enterprise. Trend analysis reports help to track the migration of all users to least privilege over time, with the ability to switch quickly between daily, weekly, monthly or yearly dashboards.
New Smart Card Authentication
With its new Smartcard Authentication, Privilege Guard 3.5 introduces support for two factor authentication. Integrated seamlessly with existing smart card infrastructures, this new feature can be configured to enforce a specific type of authentication based on policy.
New COM Class Application Type
Privilege Guard is the first privilege management solution to provide granular control over COM Classes and includes a complete set of templates to simplify policy creation. Windows relies on COM extensively to seamlessly embed more than 120 privileged tasks within the explorer shell, including:
- Device installations and power options
- Language, region and display settings
- Network, sharing and synchronization settings
- Windows Updates and Language Packs
- File, folder and drive settings
- 3rd Party software, such as the Apple Software Updater
New WMI Filter
The introduction of the WMI Filter in Privilege Guard 3.5 leverages the wealth of information accessible through Windows Management Instrumentation, to enable the targeting of policies based on a wide variety of conditions, including operating system, hardware and software settings.
Deeper Audit & Reporting Integration
Following on from the success of its McAfee ePO integration in Privilege Guard 3.0, Avecto has opened up Privilege Guard 3.5 to allow administrators to script their own integrations with other third party products or proprietary reporting and ticketing systems.
For more information about all of the new features in Privilege Guard 3.5 visit http://www.avecto.com/whats-new.
About Avecto
Avecto is the leader in Windows privilege management, helping organizations to deploy secure and compliant desktops and servers. With its award-winning Privilege Guard technology, organizations can now empower all Windows based desktop and server users with the privileges they require to perform their roles, without compromising the integrity and security of their systems.
Customers of all sizes rely on Avecto to reduce operating expenses and strengthen security across their Windows based environments. Our mission is to enable our customers to lower operating costs and improve system security by implementing least privilege. Avecto is building a worldwide channel of partners and system integrators and is headquartered in Manchester, UK with key regional offices in Andover, MA. For more information, visit www.avecto.com.