SkyRecon's StormShield suite is an innovative approach to end-point and server security, providing administrators with tools granular enough to block unsafe user and application behavior while allowing incremental approval of business productivity tools, like smartphones and USB storage device.
Securing data has increasingly required pulling defense perimeters close to the actual information. In addition to traditional perimeter security, desktop, laptop, and server solutions must provide the final line of defense against intruder and employee bahavior.
Solutions deployed by most organizations consist of a set of software security controls, purchased from two or more vendors, and managed via multiple management consoles. The result is a device and data security framework the various parts of which might not integrate with each other--leaving gaps in protection--as well as an unwanted, and usually unnecessary, increase in administrative responsibilities. SkyRecon's approach to data and device security helps administrators eliminate fractured solutions, providing a single endpoint agent and a centralized management console that provide full system protection.
I orginally gave the feature set a 4 rating, because SkyRecon chose to use behavior heuristics without signature analysis when looking for malware. As I wrote in the original review, I don't believe behavior detection alone is sufficient to protect systems. However, after I completed the review, SkyRecon released its version 5.1 of StormShield Security Suite that now contains anti-virus and anti-spyware – all still within a lightweight package and managed through a single security management console. This increases the feature set rating to a 5 as it relieves my concerns about not delivering this security layer. For more information regarding the new release, visit http://skyrecon.com/press.
StormShield provides all the pieces necessary to protect laptops, desktops, and servers in a 7 MB agent. The agent's behavior is controlled via a central management console. Using the console, administrators can implement numerous security contols. The following are just a few:
- Host-based IPS (HIPS) integrated with a personal firewall
- Continuous host-checking, ensuring that the security state of the computer doesn't degrade once it is connected to the network
- Controlling the wireless networks to which a device can connect, including:
- controlling the SSIDs a device can connect to
- preventing prolonged connection to a wi-fi connection seen as insecure
- Data encryption, including:
- full disk encryption
- file encryption based on file type
- sensitive data encryption based on destination of copies or moves
- Controlling which applications users can install or run
- Preventing system connection to rogue wireless access points
Overall, StormShield provides a complete set of fully integrated security controls for enduser and server devices.