Des Moines Register
04-16-07
Most of our clients are shocked by what they learn
Iowa firm's technology monitors computer networks, protects data
By BONNIE HARRIS
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
Put Palisade Systems' "big brother" software on your company's network and
Kurt Shedenhelm swears it'll find something you won't like.
Confidential information being sent out. Copyrighted music or videos coming in.
Employees visiting inappropriate Web sites. Data being shared, either
maliciously or by accident, that could draw steep fines for the company should
regulators find out.
"Within an hour of our software being installed, we usually find a hundred
violations," said Shedenhelm, president of Palisade Systems in Ames, which
provides content monitoring and filtering solutions for businesses. "It's amazing
what it can do. Most of our clients are shocked by what they learn."
The "data loss prevention" market is in many ways the result of a shift to more
defensive thinking in tech security. For years, much focus was placed on keeping
threats out by building firewalls and using other tools to thwart hackers.
Now companies are looking within, and realizing insider threats can be just as
harmful, said Shedenhelm, 42. The data loss prevention market has grown from
$10 million in 2004 to more than $150 million this year, according to analysts and
trade publications.
"It's become a huge liability issue for businesses," said Shedenhelm, whose
company has grown from 14 employees to 22 in two years and now serves 500
customers in the United States and Europe. "If you lose private information, no
matter what, the government can make you pay."
Palisade Systems' technology, called PacketSure, is a box attached to the main
entry point of the network, where it can be "trained" to monitor every scrap of
data moving through the company's systems. Shedenhelm said the product will
protect account numbers, patient histories, Social Security numbers and other
sensitive information commonly kept on networks. Anyone trying to send out the
protected data is unable to do so, and a report is generated for the company's
supervisors.
The recent loss of more than 45 million credit card numbers at retail chain TJ
Maxx, for example, could have been prevented with PacketSure, Shedenhelm
said. Even if hackers are able to access a company's network, as they did in that
widely publicized case, the Palisade technology prevents any sensitive material
from leaving it.
"We are like the big brother out there on your network, enforcing your policies,"
Shedenhelm said. "Whatever you tell it to look out for, it will."
Of course, nearly all cases of internal data loss happen by accident, or in a
nonmalicious manner, Shedenhelm said. Some companies use the Palisade
technology simply to monitor employees' activity on the Web. This can boost
performance and free up precious bandwidth, he said.
Chris Ollila, vice present of technology at DSI Systems in Des Moines, said about
nine months ago his team suspected there was "a lot of non-business Internet
usage" going on throughout the company. The satellite and electronics
distributor, which employs about 400 people, already had a policy on Internet use
during company time.
Ollila said the staff was reminded of it before PacketSure was installed.
Employees were then told that the new technology would be monitoring Web use
and certain sites would be restricted.
"We immediately noticed a significant change in our bandwidth utilization," Ollila
said, noting that most of the employees' activity had been music and video
streaming. "Productivity immediately improved as a result ... it was exactly what
we needed."
While DSI Systems does allow workers to check personal e-mail accounts during
their break times or over lunch, Ollila said it's nice to know that he can change or
further customize PacketSure's settings whenever the company sees fit.
"Basically I can spend ten seconds to check a few boxes and all that will be
blocked," Ollila said. "It's very smart."
Too smart at times. Shedenhelm said when working with companies that want to
protect a top-secret recipe, for example, the Palisade technology must learn how
to recognize what a recipe looks like.
"That means it'll probably block that cookie recipe you're trying to e-mail to your
mom," he laughed. "So you might want to just pick up the phone."
Palisade Systems
OFFICES: Ames and West Des Moines
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 22
WEB SITE: www.palisadesys.com
PRESIDENT: Kurt Shedenhelm
FOUNDER: Doug Jacobson
THE SOFTWARE: The company's content monitoring software was first
developed 10 years ago by Doug Jacobson, a professor of computer
engineering at Iowa State University, as a way to prevent students from
playing computer games on the school's network. Jacobson said he started
toying with ways to block the activity without modifying the network - and without
having to confront the students.
"I wanted to be able to passively watch the network and shut down certain
systems that were doing what I didn't want them to do," Jacobson said. "Pretty
soon we decided we were on to something."
THE MARKET: Jacobson patented the technology and founded Palisade
Systems, initially thinking schools and universities would be its primary market.
But as the technology grew and changed, it became clear that businesses
needed the tool more, he said.
"The classic way companies used to think about protecting themselves was to
build the fort, build the wall, hunker down and shoot whatever comes over,"
Jacobson said. "But then we started to realize that our walls are very porous, and
we need to protect our valuables from the inside, too."
DEFENSES: Jacobson, who now serves as Palisade's chief technology officer,
said threats today are growing at an alarming rate because hacking into networks
is a profitable activity.
"It used to be that hackers did what they did for the thrill of it," Jacobson said.
"Now it's incredibly lucrative. When people find they can make money from
information you have in your possession, it's become even more critical that you
protect it."
Reporter Bonnie Harris can be reached at (515) 284-8247 or
boharris@dmreg.com