E-mail gets a cold shoulder

Dmitri Gunn works at MIT’s Media Lab, one of the most hyperconnected places on Earth. But when it comes to the one ubiquitous form of communication of the digital era, Gunn is unplugging.

He’s turning off his e-mail to the outside world: Gunn won’t give out his e-mail address to most people and doesn’t even list it on his business card. To stay in touch, Gunn reverts to a relic of the analog age — the phone.

“If it’s urgent, or important, then by God, they’ll call,” said Gunn, who has been on a yearlong campaign to take back control of his inbox after it became overrun with virtual junk and superfluous messages.

With billions of e-mails shooting around the world every day, clogging Gmail and Yahoo accounts everywhere, many are recoiling from the torrent. It’s either too much of a chore, or just uncool. The young set has bypassed it altogether, seizing on social media tools such as Twitter, or texting, as their primary means of electronic chatter. Some big companies find e-mail outdated, and instead are using more sophisticated internal messaging networks that filter out outside noise. And some busy professionals say it isn’t convenient anymore — a time-waster, in fact.

“Here’s the thing: You hand people cards and they send you e-mail,” said Rudina Seseri, a partner at the Cambridge venture capital firm Fairhaven Capital, who no longer puts her e-mail address on business cards. “If someone actually cares what I think, they can make an effort and follow me on Twitter.”

Seseri, like Gunn, isn’t going cold turkey. She still gets more than 100 e-mails every day, but now spends much less time deleting unwanted messages.

(Article by Michael B. Farrell)

Waltam, Mass./Munich, March 26, 2013 –Verdasys and iT-Cube Systems GmbH, a pioneer in cutting-edge IT Security in Germany, have announced an agreement under which iT-CUBE is providing implementation and data protection consulting service practices based on Verdasys’ Digital Guardian Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) platform to its German and German-speaking customers in intellectual property-focused industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, high technology, energy, financial services and government.

iT-Cube Systems S is a pioneer in reselling, implementing and supporting many next-generation security technologies, including network security solutions such as FireEye, Palo Alto Networks and Sourcefire, as well as HP’s ArcSight Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. With the addition of Verdasys’ Digital Guardian®, iT-CUBE SYSTEMS provides customers with visibility and control at the endpoint, including laptops, desktops, servers and mobile devices, protecting intellectual property, trade secrets and other sensitive data against insider and cyber threats. Verdasys’ endpoint data and application event streams can be correlated with network security event data in the ArcSight SIEM to detect and then stop even the most sophisticated targeted cyber attacks. Verdasys Digital Guardian classifies data based on content, context and/or user input at the endpoint. This enables differentiated control policies that do not break business processes.

“iT-CUBE already supports best of breed, next-generation security technologies for customers in which protection of IP from insider and cyber threats is critical,” said Verdasys CEO Jim Ricotta. “With iT-CUBE’s security expertise and proven track record combined with Digital Guardian’s visibility and control over data loss threats and its integration with advanced security technologies, customers can be confident they will have in place the very best detection and defense capabilities to protect against the latest insider and cyber threats.”

According to Andreas Mertz, Managing Director and Principal Consultant, iT-CUBE SYSTEMS, “With Verdasys and Digital Guardian, our data protection experts have been able to broaden our next-generation security technology portfolio with the ability to prevent the uncontrolled exfiltration of sensitive information by both insiders and malware, while keeping usage in line with corporate policy and complying with statutory provisions and requirements.”

Digital Guardian provides iT-CUBE and its customers with the ability to:

Monitor and control data access and movement by malicious code (cyber threat) on the endpoint

Monitor and control sensitive data usage (insider threat) on laptops, desktops, servers and mobile devices

Classify and locate data-at-rest across host systems

View gold image and rogue application download and usage (application control)

Exceed current and future data security compliance audit requirements

For more about iT-CUBE SYSTEMS and Verdasys Digital Guardian solutions in Germany: http://www.it-cube.net/verdasys

About iT-CUBE SYSTEMS

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, iT-CUBE SYSTEMS (www.it-cube.net) is a leading full-service provider for IT-Security with a proven track record in delivering IT security projects with a measurable reduction in business risk and lower long term investment in information security. iT-CUBE is committed to providing excellence and innovation through highly specialized products and services, including Development, Consulting, Customization, System Integration, Training, and Operational Services. With over 10 years of experience and a highly qualified and experienced team iT-CUBE serves national and international blue chip organizations.

Contact: Susann Knöfler, +49(0)89 2000 148 24 s.knoefler@it-cube.net

About Verdasys

Verdasys (http://verdasys.com) provides Enterprise Information Protection solutions and managed services to secure sensitive data and assure the integrity of business processes, enabling midsize and global businesses to successfully compete in collaborative and mobile environments. Digital Guardian, a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention, is a proven technology platform that provides complete, policy-based data lifecycle monitoring, classification, control and forensics on endpoints and servers, virtual machines and enterprise applications, networks, mobile devices and cloud environments. Digital Guardian protects IP and regulated data from compromise by insiders, contractors, partners and targeted cyber attacks. Since 2003, millions of Digital Guardian agents have been deployed to protect critical data for global leaders in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, high technology, energy, financial services, and government.

Contact: Betsy Kosheff, 413-232-7057 bkosheff@verdasys.com

San Francisco, Ca., Feb. 26, 2013 – Verdasys, provider of Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) solutions for Global 2000 and mid-sized companies, and TITUS, a leading provider of information security and data governance software, today announced an extension of their successful partnership to deliver advanced user-based classification as a fully integrated service in the recently launched Verdasys Managed Service for Information Protection (MSIP).

Verdasys MSIP is the first cloud-based, turnkey managed service for complete IP and insider threat protection. TITUS user-based classification enables superior discretion over the identification and management of sensitive documents, while assuring end user accountability with real-time decision support and fully-auditable activity logs. The announcement is made at the RSA Conference 2013 at the Moscone Center Feb. 25-March 1.

Verdasys and TITUS announced a partnership in 2011 to add integrated user classification to the Verdasys Digital Guardian® EIP platform, used to secure some of the world’s most proprietary and valuable data. Today’s announcement extends integration to Verdasys MSIP, a turnkey managed service built on Digital Guardian that allows organizations such as finance, manufacturing, technology, pharmaceutical and defense to quickly implement a best-of-breed data security program without costly investments in supporting infrastructure or staff. The TITUS-based MSIP “User Classification Module” extends Verdasys’ content and context-based classification capabilities to include multiple user-driven and auditable metadata options from TITUS, including TITUS Message Classification (TMC), TITUS Classification for Microsoft Office(TCO) and TITUS Classification for Desktop (TCD).

According to Tim Upton, President and CEO of TITUS, “With MSIP, Verdasys brings over a decade of data loss prevention expertise to enable advanced, risk-based protection from both internal and external threats. We’re very pleased to be partnering with them to again offer integration of our classification products in this innovative new service.”

Verdasys President and CEO Jim Ricotta added, “With TITUS, we can offer our managed service customers powerful, user-driven information classification, metadata tagging and electronic data watermarking capabilities that are unequaled in providing discretion over the identification and management of sensitive documents. ” With the added capabilities of TITUS delivered through Verdasys MSIP, a team member can, for example, add a “trade secret” design feature to a file and re-classify it as “SECRET” by simply invoking User Classification, thus, instructing MSIP agents to enforce a more restrictive policy limiting file access to only the internal design team.

Verdasys MSIP with integrated TITUS user-based classification is deployed, configured and administered by Verdasys data security experts through the MSIP Secure Cloud, eliminating the need for substantial investments in infrastructure and specialized staff in order to put into action the type of data security and intellectual property protection previously accessible only by the world’s largest companies.

Verdasys is at the RSA Security Conference Booth 2738; TITUS is at Booth 1017.

About TITUS

TITUS is a leading provider of security and data governance software that helps organizations share information securely while meeting policy and compliance requirements. With over 2 million users worldwide, our solutions enable enterprises, military and government organizations to classify information and meet regulatory compliance by securing unstructured information. Products include TITUS Classification, the leading message, document and file classification and labeling solutions that enhance data loss prevention by involving end users in identifying sensitive information; TITUS Mobile, a mobile email solution for securely sending email and viewing attachments on mobile devices; and the TITUS family of classification and security solutions for Microsoft SharePoint. TITUS solutions are deployed within over 500 organizations around the world, including Dow Corning, United States Air Force, NATO, Pratt and Whitney, Canadian Department of National Defence, Australian Department of Defence, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. For more information, visit www.titus.com

About Verdasys Verdasys (http://verdasys.com) provides Enterprise Information Protection solutions and managed services to secure sensitive data and assure the integrity of business processes, enabling midsize and global businesses to successfully compete in collaborative and mobile environments. Digital Guardian, a Leader in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention, is a proven technology platform that provides complete, policy-based data lifecycle monitoring, classification, control and forensics on endpoints and servers, virtual machines and enterprise applications, networks, mobile devices and cloud environments. Digital Guardian protects IP and regulated data from compromise by insiders, contractors, partners and targeted cyber attacks. Since 2003, millions of Digital Guardian agents have been deployed to protect critical data for global leaders in financial services, insurance, technology, manufacturing and healthcare industries.

# # #
Contact:
Betsy Kosheff, 413-232-7057 bkosheff@verdasys.com
Nicole Baker, 613-820-5111, x155 Nicole.Baker@Titus.com

Celtra Selected to Participate in IAB Digital Video Rising Stars Ad Control Bar Working Group, a Collaborative Effort That Will Set Industry Standards for Digital Video

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – Feb 25, 2013) – Celtra Inc., the industry leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics, today announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has selected the company as a winner of the IAB Digital Video Rising Stars competition. The Agency Working Group evaluated more than six dozen entries to arrive at the five creative ad product concepts that will become the IAB’s first-ever Digital Video ad format standards. Now that winners have been announced, the IAB will form Working Groups in which the winning companies will collaborate with input from the Agency Working Group and the Ad Ops Working Group, to craft a final Style Guide and Technology Specifications for each of the five Digital Video Rising Stars.

Celtra has been chosen to participate in the IAB Digital Video Rising Stars Ad Control Bar Working Group with fellow digital video innovators to define, build and implement this Digital Video Rising Star. Key aspects of Celtra’s Interactive Video Pre Roll submission was voted among the top in the Ad Control Bar category, and its innovations will be incorporated into the final Style Guide and Tech Specifications for this Digital Video Rising Star.

Celtra’s winning ad concept brings a full range of reliable interactive ad capabilities to digital video. These features, that have been available and used with huge success in Celtra’s standard rich media ad formats, allow advertisers to leverage, among others, social media and location-based services and are expected to push engagement levels and effectiveness of rich media ads even higher within the video context.

“Celtra is honored to be named one of the Digital Video Rising Stars, and extremely happy to be able to contribute to the development of the innovative new mobile ad formats within the IAB Working Groups,” said Matevz Klanjsek, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder at Celtra. “We have always been a huge advocate of quality ads that offer slick end-user experience. The Celtra team is excited to be part of the group bringing a new, standardized ad product to market that will make mobile rich media ads more friendly and exciting for consumers, as well as help brands and agencies deliver more engaging and effective advertising experiences.”

“As a leading mobile partner to publishers and agencies, Celtra is well-placed to help extend the Rising Stars to connected devices,” said Peter Minnium, Head of Brand Initiatives, IAB. “The judges found that their submission to the Digital Video Rising Stars provided an elegant user experience, which is sure to make the IAB Ad Control Bar unit a success in the marketplace.”

About Celtra Inc.

Celtra Inc. is the global leader for rich media mobile ad serving and analytics. Celtra’s AdCreator 3 platform, which is used by world’s leading agencies, publishers and networks in more than 18 countries, is the only complete, SDK and ad server agnostic platform for rich media mobile advertising. Celtra’s unparalleled HTML5 ad products are designed to provide the best user experience, performance and reliability on distinctive mobile platforms with one single ad unit. For more information, visit Celtra at www.celtra.com or @CeltraMobile on Twitter.

Celtra is headquartered in Cambridge (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London (UK), and Ljubljana (SI).

Media Contact
Jane Ypsilantis
SHIFT Communications
+1 (617) 779-1833
jypsilantis@shiftcomm.com

​NanoSteel Names Harald Lemke Vice President & General Manager of Powder Metallurgy

• Role to drive adoption of AHSS (Advanced High Strength Steel) breakthrough and steel coatings into industrial applications utilizing powder metallurgy
• Appointment brings deep expertise in product innovation, processing and commercialization of advanced materials

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Wednesday, February 13, 2013) – The NanoSteel® Company, a leader in nano-structured steel materials design, today announced that Harald Lemke has joined the company as vice president & general manager of powder metallurgy.

In this new role, Lemke will lead the commercialization of NanoSteel’s alloys into the powder metallurgy industry utilizing both the recent breakthrough in AHSS and the company’s established coatings products. Lemke will focus on high hardness, wear and yield strength applications that also require ductility traditionally served by specialty and hard materials. Initial target industries for the company’s PM business will be oil & gas, power generation and mining.

Lemke’s leadership experience spans a broad range of advanced materials including metals, ceramics, plastics and composites. Across this spectrum of businesses, he established a track record of delivering customer value through the optimization of materials design, manufacture and component forming processing.

“There is significant opportunity to leverage our breakthrough in nano-structured sheet steel into the cladding and near-net shape parts businesses of powder metallurgy,” said David Paratore, president and CEO. “Harald’s proven leadership in growing a number of advanced materials categories makes him the ideal choice to build this business.”

“NanoSteel’s combination of exceptional performance capabilities and cost competitiveness makes the company uniquely positioned to meet customer requirements in increasingly more demanding industrial environments,” Lemke said. “With NanoSteel’s broad portfolio of products, we have the opportunity to extend steel’s footprint outside of traditional metal performance boundaries into new markets and applications.”

Lemke was most recently the global vice president of materials marketing at the $650M coatings division of Sulzer-Metco where he raised top and bottom line growth. Previously, Lemke was business development manager for Kennametal’s advanced materials division and chief operating officer & general manager of Powdermet, where he scaled a metal and metal matrix powder start-up business. Lemke has also held key positions at Conoco-Phillips, Air Liquide and Nalco-Exxon Energy Chemicals L.P.

About NanoSteel

NanoSteel is the world leader in proprietary nano-structured steel material designs. Over its ten-year history, NanoSteel has created progressive generations of iron-based alloys from surface coatings to foils to sheet steel and powder metals. For the oil & gas, mining and power industries, NanoSteel has successfully introduced commercial applications of metallic coatings to prolong service lifetime in the most extreme industrial environments. For the automotive industry, NanoSteel has achieved a significant breakthrough in the development of nano-structured sheet steel with exceptional strength and ductility. NanoSteel is a privately held company funded by lead shareholders EnerTech and Fairhaven Capital. For more information, visit www.nanosteelco.com or follow us on Twitter @NanoSteelCo.

Source: TechCrunch

Cylance,a cyber security company founded by former Global McAfee CTO Stuart McClure, has raised $15 million in a round led by Khosla Ventures and Fairhaven Capital.

Cylance uses data to help keep core systems healthy. In particular its focus is on critical infrastructure and the types of threats President Barack Obama mentioned in his State of the Union address last night when he announced he had signed an executive order to protect the nation’s infrastructure from the escalating danger of cyber attacks, urging the U.S. Congress to pass a Cyber Security bill. McClure, in an interview yesterday, said Obama recognizes that the physical and cyber worlds are coming together. Power grids, utilities, they all are vulnerable to attack. The problem: nobody is fixing it.

McClure said the answer to our troubles is something we have known we could do since the late 1990s. Organizations need to treat its systems like a healthy person treats their body. For instance, getting a flu shot is not the answer to keep from getting sick. Most people who don’t get the flu take care of themselves. They have a good diet, exercise and get enough sleep.

Systems need similar treatment except their nutrients are in the form of data algorithms. Taking preventative measures makes the difference between falling victim to attack and withstanding the virus by showing strength in the core of an organization’s system defenses.

Data represents the nutrients that our systems need to stay healthy. Data, when applied to algorithms, acts as a way for an organization to keep its defenses strong.

Cylance is using data in not such a different way than Google uses it to develop self-driving cars. Data is at the core of Google’s capability, connecting disparate data points to form patterns that can be used for a car to drive itself down the road. For Cylance, it means using data to form patterns to understand the preventative measures required to keep a water utility safe from attack.

The threat to our infrastructure is not just limited to electrical grids or other high profile infrastructure. Cylance will focus quite a bit on embedded systems, the technologies used in all kinds of medical equipment. These embedded technologies, be they in printers or defibrillators, will increasingly be the subject of attack. And data is the best safeguard.

The biggest problem Cylance will face is not the attackers — it’s the security industry resistant to change and a public apathetic about the risks we face from attacks that could shut off our water or plunge entire regions into darkness. Without those forces engaged, Cylance will only be able to solve a small part of a problem that grows ever wider in scope.

(Article by Alex Williams)

Springpad tastemakers and brands including Wayfair, Snooth and Breville collaborate to help people get organized for everything from workouts, finances and college searches to a $100 wine party for six

Date of Publication:
06/06/2012
Waltham, MA, June 6, 2012 – Verdasys, the leading provider of Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) solutions for the Global 2000, today announced the availability of the industry’s first on-demand data risk assessment solution, powered by its Managed Service for Information Protection (MSIP) platform. This all-inclusive Triple 5 package provides five (5) months of precise data usage monitoring, reporting, risk analysis, and security consulting for up to 500 end users on physical or virtual endpoints for around $50K US.

The Verdasys Triple 5 Data Risk Assessment provides an opportunity for organizations to gain unprecedented visibility into how their sensitive data is actually being accessed, stored, and used on and off the network with no additional infrastructure or personnel requirements. Once deployed, Digital Guardian host agents begin immediately and continuously capturing details on data inventory, usage trends, compliance rates, and threatening behaviors in their complete business context.

The service includes a configurable reporting dashboard through a web portal driven by Digital Guardian’s powerful data intelligence engine. Clients are provided up-to-the-minute access to policy alerts and activity reports throughout the assessment period, with support from Verdasys consultants to help with custom report creation, risk analysis, and determining actionable steps to manage potential threats.

The Digital Guardian Data Risk Assessment includes:

• Digital Guardian agent installation for up to 500 users

• Self-service portal with preconfigured monitoring reports for common data security risks:

o Web uploads; by file extension, destination domain, and top 10 users

o Outlook Email; by file extension, recipient domain, and top 10 users

o Removable Media (USB & CD/DVD); by device type, file extension; and top 10 users

o Printing; by file extension, activities on and off the network, and top 10 users

o Copy/Move to Network Shares; by file extension and activity on or off the network

o Application Activity Reports; by executable type and frequency of use

• Detailed Forensic Reports

• Verdasys consulting & support

o 24×7 support, including monthly scheduled consulting engagements to review reports,

identify potential threats, and advise appropriate risk management strategies

The Data Risks Management service is completely implemented and managed by Verdasys experts at its secure hosting facilities. It is offered for a standard rate of $50,000 USD.

About Verdasys

Verdasys (Twitter: @Verdasys_Inc.) provides Enterprise Information Protection (EIP) solutions that secure proprietary and sensitive data and the integrity of business processes essential for Global 2000 companies to successfully compete in today’s highly collaborative and mobile environments. Digital Guardian, recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s 2011 Magic Quadrant for Content-Aware Data Loss Prevention, is a proven technology platform that provides complete policy-based data lifecycle monitoring, classification, forensics, and control on endpoints and servers; virtual machines & enterprise applications; mobile devices; and cloud environments. Digital Guardian is offered as an in-house or managed service solution to protect IP and regulated data from compromise by privileged insiders, strategic partners, and targeted cyber attacks. Since 2003, millions of Digital Guardian agents have been deployed to protect critical data for global leaders in financial services, insurance, technology, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Companies serious about information protection choose Verdasys.

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Contact: Susanne Gurman, 781-902-7858 (sgurman@verdasys.com)