* Configuresoft's Rapid Security Configuration Assessment Program
I’m a big fan of Configuresoft’s Enterprise Configuration Manager product. If you aren’t familiar with ECM, the company describes it as “a comprehensive configuration management solution that ensures operational compliance to standards and best-practice guidelines throughout a computing infrastructure.”
According to Configuresoft, ECM collects detailed critical configuration data from servers and workstations on the network and stores that information in a centralized SQL database for immediate access, analysis, and reporting. The company adds that these capabilities enable IT organizations to optimize their operational expectations, while ensuring security compliance with regulatory mandates such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Sarbanes-Oxley and FISMA.
ECM collects, collates and catalogs vast amounts of data. Data that’s necessary to meet compliance requirements for the regulations listed as well as many others – and more still in the planning stages.
What ECM can’t do is to digest all of the data for you. Provided you have a smallish network, and provided you have the necessary time, then you can do the analysis and determine your security vulnerabilities and needs in light of the regulatory requirements. Well, provided you’re up to speed on which regulations and which requirements you need to fulfill. If that sounds like a daunting task, it is.
Configuresoft talked to its customers and listened to their requests. So this week the company is launching a program designed for large enterprise clients concerned about the security configurations of their Microsoft Windows environment and subsequent issues regarding compliance to IT or governmental standards and regulations.
The Rapid Security Configuration Assessment (RSCA) Program is intended for organizations that lack the time, objectivity and expertise to accurately assess vulnerabilities to their infrastructure. RSCA is designed to quickly identify what areas in an organization are vulnerable and creates a prioritized action plan, which offers a running start for securing an organization’s most vulnerable assets while meeting regulatory needs.
Typically, An RSCA engagement will use Configuresoft’s ECM to quickly and accurately collect detailed configuration information from a sample of servers and workstations. Then Configuresoft’s Center for Policy and Compliance experts will analyze this data to assess the environments’ security level based on IT Best Practices and Government mandates.
The Center has developed several RSCA tracks tailored for various industries and needs which include “RSCA – Microsoft’s Securing and Hardening Guides”, “RSCA – SOX” and “RSCA – HIPAA.” People trained in the implementation of the regulations as well as in the intricacies of Windows networking will do the work that you and your team have neither the time or, in many cases, the expertise to handle.
Pricing wasn’t available to me last week when I wrote this, but it won’t be cheap. Still, how much is it worth to keep you and your bosses out of court – and out of jail?
