Skyhigh Networks, SafeNet Partner for Data Security in the Cloud

Cloud security software provider Skyhigh Networks has joined SafeNet, an enterprise data protection company, to deliver flexible and secure key management solutions to protect corporate data in the cloud.

Skyhigh and SafeNet will provide a cloud-based model for data security that is scalable and minimizes upfront costs.

“The need to meet privacy, security, compliance and data governance requirements continues to be an impediment to cloud adoption,” Kamal Shah, Skyhigh’s vice president of products and marketing, told Talkin’ Cloud. “By teaming together, Skyhigh and SafeNet are providing enterprises with the ability to protect their corporate data in the cloud, and thereby accelerate the adoption of cloud services in the enterprise.”

Skyhigh Secure encryption gateways can be integrated with on-premises SafeNet key management solutions, according to Skyhigh.

“Through integration with SafeNet’s leading key management solutions, we’re providing a scalable, standards-based approach that gives customers flexibility of deployment models so that they can leverage the benefits of cloud services while ensuring the best possible security controls,” Chris Cesio, Skyhigh’s vice president of business development and alliances, said in a prepared statement.

These solutions also can be used separately or together, depending on the type of data and keys they need to protect.

“Customer-controlled keys with strong key management are essential for illustrating security, compliance and control of data in the cloud,” said David Etue, SafeNet’s vice president of corporate development strategy. “SafeNet and Skyhigh are working together to ensure that security teams can uniformly view, control and administer cryptographic policies and keys for all their sensitive data, wherever it resides.”

What is the true cost of data security?

Data security can be costly, especially for enterprises that cannot protect their sensitive information against cyber attacks.

A Netskope and Ponemon Institute study released last month showed the probability of data breaches appears to be increasing in today’s IT environment.

“With a $201 price tag for every record lost, the cost of a data breach of just 100,000 records is $20 million. Imagine then if the probability of that data breach were to triple simply because you increased your use of the cloud. That’s what enterprise IT folks are coming to grips with and they’ve started to recognize the need to align their security programs to account for it,” Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri said in a prepared statement.

“Shadow IT,” the unauthorized use of IT solutions and systems, is an IT security problem for many enterprises as well.

Softchoice‘s “Shadow IT in the Enterprise” study, released in Oct. 2013, revealed there is widespread use of unapproved software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications in enterprises.

Forrester Research echoed Softchoice’s findings in a May 2014 report.

The research firm found 43 percent of IT decision-makers said they believe shadow IT practices were major threats to information security.

Researchers also noted shadow IT is “here to stay and cannot be ignored.”

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