Clearswift Secure File Gateway offering aims to stop data leaks

Cyber security firm Clearswift has released a tool to prevent sensitive data being exposed by checking files against security policies whenever someone tries to copy them between departments or outside the organisation.

Available immediately, Secure File Gateway extends the firm's existing web and email security line-up, adding file content inspection capabilities to applications and services running on the customer's own corporate network.

However, the tool is aimed at specialised environments, such as financial services firms or those in the defence sector, Clearswift's vice president of products Dr Guy Bunker told V3.

"These customers have restrictions on the kind of information that can be shared between one department and others, and typically have something like a DMZ drop zone for file transfers between the two," he explained.

According to Clearswift, Secure File Gateway inspects files in this drop zone and is able to apply data loss prevention policies based on both the content of the files and their associated metadata.

Any suspect files are moved into a quarantine directory from where the violation can be visually inspected by an administrator.

Secure File Gateway's content inspection engine recognises specific file types, allowing managers to define policies governing which file types are acceptable and which should be blocked.

It can also be configured to scan the contents of files for specific words or phrases that might indicate a sensitive document, or for data such as credit card or UK National Insurance numbers in Excel worksheets, according to Clearswift.

To prevent fraud, Secure File Gateway supports two-person integrity, meaning that changes to policies must be approved by two different administrators.

In addition, Secure File Gateway can link with Sophos Antivirus to check files for malware, and can recognise and quarantine any encrypted files that cannot be scanned.

One of Clearswift's selling points is that the product is designed to be able to handle very large files up to 16GB in size, Bunker said.

Clearswift Secure File Gateway runs on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise editions with Service Pack 1, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6.1. A quad-core server with at least 8GB memory is recommended.

Licensing for Secure File Gateway starts at £50,000, with support for larger files costing an extra £5,000.