Top Security Experts Band Together To Safeguard the Consumerized
Workplace with Industry Leader WorkLight
LONDON--(Business Wire)--WorkLight(TM) Inc., an Enterprise 2.0 company, today announced the
inception of the "Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum." Led by senior
information security executives from Fortune Global 500 corporations,
the initiative will raise awareness, define industry standards and
best practices, and facilitate interoperability for secure use of Web
2.0 technologies in the enterprise.
Security is becoming a major issue for the consumerization of
technology in the workplace, defined by analysts as the most important
corporate IT trend for the foreseeable future. Today, Web 2.0
technologies are present in the enterprise, both with and without the
blessing of corporate management and IT departments. As the workforce
becomes younger and tech-savvy, grassroots adoption of widgets and
gadgets, RSS, personalized homepages, social networks, instant
messaging, blogs and wikis is becoming standard practice within
organizations worldwide. To meet this trend, WorkLight has spearheaded
efforts to assemble a top-tier group of industry experts that will
examine security issues for Web 2.0 adoption and implementation in
corporate environments.
The Forum's debut event, held Wednesday in London, featured
keynote speakers, group discussions and a plenary session that seeks
to bring new clarity to the promises and pitfalls of Enterprise 2.0.
Speakers at the event include Thomas Raschke, a senior security
analyst from Forrester Research, Shlomo Kramer, a recognized security
expert, CEO of Imperva, and a co-founder of Checkpoint Software, as
well as Yuval Tarsi, CTO and co-founder of WorkLight.
"Very early on we identified the issue of security as a critical
decision factor for companies deploying Web 2.0 solutions in the
Enterprise," said Yuval Tarsi, CTO and co-founder of WorkLight. "In
order for IT consumerization to become pervasive, Enterprise 2.0
vulnerabilities must be addressed as a joint effort by experts across
many industries and sectors. The Forum is an important step forward in
allowing business to leverage the power of Web 2.0 technologies in the
enterprise, to increase productivity and to become more competitive."
Dr. Chenxi Wang, a principal analyst and a top security expert at
Forrester Research, has highlighted the need for adequate safeguards -
"The Internet today is an increasingly risky environment, not just for
consumers but also for enterprise users accessing from work. The
advent of Web 2.0 sees a new wave of rich, interactive content that
promises to be fertile ground for malware gestation". ("Web Filtering
Market Overview 2007: Managing Risks on the Web, November 2007).
Thomas Raschke, Forrester's leading expert on European IT
security, risk management, and compliance, addressed these issues at
the Forum's debut session.
The following are perspectives from some of the founding members
of the Forum:
"The adoption of consumer technologies in the workplace increases
the linkage between Web applications and other business systems. This
linkage in turn increases the need for a complete application data
security and compliance solution with full visibility into data usage
and user behavior, from the data in the database through the
application end user," said Shlomo Kramer, president and CEO of
Imperva. "I believe this Forum will be invaluable as a means for
defining best practices to address the security challenges related to
the adoption of Web 2.0 technology in the workplace."
"For the Financial Services industry, security is absolutely
paramount. When we consider new technology adoption, Web 2.0 or
otherwise, we need to explore every vulnerability and risk factor and
ensure our customers' data is protected," said Chris Swan, Director,
IT Research & Development, Credit Suisse. "We look forward to working
together with our peers to establish tangible guidelines in a
multi-industry open discussion."
"As an international financial institution with a global
footprint, our customers rely on us to ensure their financial and
personal data is safeguarded at all times and in all locations, while
offering them the highest levels of service and efficiency," said John
Meakin, Group Head of Information Security, Standard Chartered Bank.
"Therefore it is absolutely critical that we maintain trust in our
security, while providing our employees with the collaboration and
interactivity tools that enable them to operate effectively and be
very responsive and innovative for our customers."
"Consumer technology is finding its way onto corporate desktops,
and the right controls must be defined and implemented to manage the
associated risks," said Stephen Bonner, Head of Information Risk
Management at a global financial services organization. "The intention
of the Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum is to work together to improve the
management of threats to corporate assets via Web 2.0 technologies and
services, both current and future."
"As both a global news organization and a financial data and
analysis provider, we believe safeguarding critical assets must go
hand-in-hand with maximizing our direct contact with clients," said
Simon Riggs, Global Head of IT Security with Reuters. "Web 2.0
solutions not only increase internal employee productivity and
collaboration, but also enhance the interaction with clients using
widgets and gadgets and other innovative solutions. This added-value
cannot come blindly at the expense of security; you've got to
consciously trade off the relative risks and benefits."
"The traditional command and control capacity of the IT department
in the enterprise is being eroded, as more collaboration and
mind-sharing tools are used at work," said Graeme Burnett, top
security executive at a global investment management firm.
"Consequently, we believe that security must be a critical centerpiece
for any Web 2.0 technology in the workplace."
"To get business advantage, the Enterprise 2.0 wants to use these
cutting-edge tools for collaboration, both amongst employees and
between organizations", said Andrew Yeomans, a top security expert at
a leading financial institution and a member of the Jericho Forum. "We
hope the Forum will establish guidelines for secure interoperability
in a trustworthy environment that meets corporate and regulatory
requirements."
"The security risk associated with utilizing popular consumer
applications in the workplace may result in information leakage and
compromised corporate privacy," said Avi Corfas, an
internationally-recognized security expert. "Beyond functionality and
improved user experience, Web 2.0 must be examined under the
scrutinizing eye of the corporate watchdog. This is what we hope to
achieve at the Forum."
Interested end-user organizations, vendors, integrators,
consultants, analysts, and other interested parties are invited to
join the Forum. For more information about the Secure Enterprise 2.0
Forum, please visit http://secure-enterprise20.org or contact:
David Lavenda
VP Marketing and Product Strategy, WorkLight
+1.617.674.320 / +972.54.223.9006
dal@MyWorkLight.com
About WorkLight
WorkLight(TM) Inc. develops and markets a line of WorkLight server
products that consumerize the corporate computing experience, by
making popular consumer services like iGoogle, MS Live, Netvibes, and
Facebook "enterprise-ready." Through WorkLight, employees and
consumers connect to protected enterprise data (and to each other)
using Web 2.0 services.
WorkLight is a venture-backed company with offices in Boston,
Massachusetts and Yakum, Israel. WorkLight has received prestigious
industry accolades including being named one of the "Five Enterprise
2.0 Startups to Watch," by Information Week magazine, being selected
as part of CIO Magazine's Web 2.0 Product Suite, and being singled out
with an honorable mention as one of Computerworld's "10 Cool
Cutting-edge Technologies on the Horizon." WorkLight also received the
"Stay Organized" award at Microsoft's Under the Radar Conference, and
was named a Red Herring 100 International finalist. For more
information, visit www.myWorkLight.com
Eskenzi PR for WorkLight
United Kingdom
Neil Stinchcombe, 44 (0) 20 8449 1007
neil@eskenzipr.com
or
Articulate Communications for WorkLight
United States
Mark Van Hook, 212 255 0080 ext. 33
mvanhook@articulatepr.com
or
WorkLight Contact
Yonni Harif
Marketing Manager
US: +1.617.674.3261
Intl: +972.54.250.0767
yonni@myworklight.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
