Symantec touts four-pronged approach to security

Symantec promises to reduce overall IT security risk

Security firm Symantec has launched four systems designed to help companies secure and manage IT assets.

IT managers face an increasing number of internal and external threats, and need a new approach to managing security, according to the firm.

Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report found that just under two thirds of personal data breaches last year were the result of hacker attacks, and that every enterprise polled for the survey had suffered some sort of cyber loss in 2009.

"When it comes to preventing cyber attacks and intellectual property theft, the game has completely changed," said Francis deSouza, senior vice president of Symantec's Enterprise Security Group.

"Organisations now require security that moves at the pace of their business, and enables them to reduce overall IT security risk, not just stop the latest malware attack."

Symantec explained that cyber criminals are exploiting four weak points in the enterprise: poorly enforced IT policies; ill-protected information; badly managed systems; and poorly protected infrastructure. The four new solutions are designed to tackle these issues.

Control Compliance Suite version 10.0 will help firms develop and enforce IT policies, and give IT managers and security experts greater insight into a company's IT and compliance risks at a lower cost, Symantec said.

Data Loss Prevention Suite 10.5, meanwhile, has been designed to prevent data loss through social media sites or from private clouds, and the Altiris IT Management Suite 7.0 is a client, server and asset management tool that can help during operating system migrations, for example.

Finally, Symantec has revealed details of three Protection Suites, covering endpoint, gateway and server security, which are expected to be released by this summer.

"This approach to protection suites will enable customers to realise the full value of the protection capabilities offered in each suite, making it easier to solve the IT security challenges that most frequently impact their businesses," said Stephen Morton, vice president of product marketing at Symantec.