Dunross & Co Selects HiSoftware for SharePoint Security
Today we announced that Dunross & Co, an independent international investment company, has selected HiSoftware Security Sheriff™ SP to secure content in its SharePoint 2013 environment.
Following a review of SharePoint security products in the market, we were able to meet Dunross & Co’s requirements, where other vendors fell short, to classify, restrict access to and encrypt SharePoint content and documents. Additionally, Dunross & Co will use Security Sheriff to prevent the distribution of confidential content and track the entire lifecycle of documents for added security and control.
SharePoint Collaboration: How to Control Company Confidential Documents on iPads
Previously I’ve blogged about two of the “Top 10” security challenges with SharePoint collaboration. The first was on how to prevent breaches caused by downloading and sharing sensitive SharePoint documents and the second on how to stop IT staff from reading highly confidential documents in SharePoint. In my last post of the series I’ll look at how to control company confidential documents accessed on iPads.
Problem
The explosion of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to work offers the promise of increased productivity for contributors and managers. There are increasing demands on IT from senior managers to provide corporate documents on their iPads for internal and external meetings. Senior executives also need access to highly confidential information. However, most of their documents are not confidential and need to be shared with their staff and colleagues. How do you balance these conflicting requirements?
Federal Accessibility Experts Discuss Section 508 Updates
Last week, my fellow blogger, Irena Mroz, moderated a panel discussion at the HiSoftware Federal User Group meeting in Washington, DC. I was joined alongside Bruce Bailey from the Access Board to answer questions on Section 508, the forthcoming changes and how these will affect Federal agencies. Some of the questions Irena asked the panel included:
- While we know you can’t tell us what’s in the Section 508 NPRM yet, can you tell us which sections are likely most different from the ANPRM and which ones have changed the least?
- What is M376, CVAA, and WCAG 2.0? Are they a useful “sneak peek” at what is coming in the new Section 508 standards?
HiSoftware Re-Launches the Cynthia Says Portal for Accessibility Testing
In conjunction with Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#gaad) which seeks to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities, we have announced the re-launch of the Cynthia Says™ Portal.
Cynthia Says is a free Web accessibility testing tool for validating Web content against US and international accessibility standards. Built on the HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff platform, the new portal features Section 508 and WCAG 2 A-AAA testing capabilities, improved reporting and faster results. To read more about the makeover, read the press release.
Prevent Breaches Caused by Downloading and Sharing Sensitive SharePoint Documents
Many companies have invested in SharePoint for managing their unstructured information. However, few have realized the potential efficiencies and productivities that SharePoint offers because of concerns about the security of the information stored in it. Worse still, many continue to maintain legacy document management systems to store sensitive information and continue to incur the associated software maintenance, labor and hardware costs. This drastically reduces the ROI on their SharePoint investment.
Our latest white paper The Top 10 Security Challenges with SharePoint Collaboration looks at the top security challenges facing executives and IT managers today.
Previously I answered How to stop IT staff from reading highly confidential documents in SharePoint? In this second post, I will discuss how to keep confidential documents safe when downloaded or shared:
What happens when a user downloads a confidential document from SharePoint to his/her desktop or shares a document from their SharePoint Workspace?
451 Group Says to Automate Information Governance
In a 451 Group report Defining and driving ‘information governance’ in the era of the cloud and ‘big data’, analysts David Horrigan, Carl Lehmann and Alan Pelz-Sharpe position the importance of information governance. The introduction is particularly interesting:
“Information governance means different things to different actors in the enterprise; hence, defining and implementing information governance is much easier said than done. Nevertheless, now is the time to do so because it has become possible to automate much of the process, and the potential benefits of doing so now far outweigh the cost and effort.”
We define information governance as the need to control the content within your organization. It includes the policies created to comply with regulations for privacy and accessibility, and internal policies for confidential company information and intellectual property. It even extends to include website quality and brand integrity. More importantly, it should encompass how these policies are enforced and updated to fit how an individual organization is actually using the information. As highlighted in the 451 Group quote above, automating this process offers significant benefits despite the costs.
Make SharePoint Accessible
Regulations governing the accessibility of Web content and applications are gaining momentum. Public-facing websites have traditionally been the focus for accessibility; however with the growing reliance on systems like SharePoint for internal collaboration, organizations must also consider application accessibility.
To ensure SharePoint environments can be used and accessed by everyone in compliance with Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 standards, organizations often require a third party solution that can address the changes that need to be made to the framework.
The latest version of the Accessibility Foundation Module (AFM) for SharePoint provides just that. AFM version 3.0 offers several enhancements for faster deployment as a set of three SharePoint Solution Packages (WSPs) and the ability to implement accessibility fixes more easily with minimum impact to existing SharePoint sites and no modifications to Master pages.
Web Accessibility Lawsuit Against H&R Block
On April 8, the National Federation of the Blind announced a lawsuit against H&R Block and several subsidiary organizations [Read more on Internet Retailer] for failing to make its online tax preparation service (and related products and services) accessible to blind and visually-impaired consumers.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is another step in the continuing trend of combining Federal and state anti-discrimination laws against companies that fail to make their websites accessible. I’ll soon have more to say about how this case fits into the bigger picture in a white paper and webinar that focuses on risk management and the kind of issues that tend to catch the attention of advocates.
In the meantime, learn more about Compliance Software to Meet Global Web Accessibility Requirements and Increase Market Share.
HiSoftware Receives High Marks in Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Delivering a high quality solution is essential to our business. Part of this is to ensure that not only are our customers satisfied with our solution, but that they feel supported during installation, deployment and that they are provided with exceptional on-going support.
With that in mind, we are extremely pleased to announce our renewed membership as a Microsoft Gold Certified Application Development Partner. But more importantly, the results behind the survey that showed we are delivering on our mission to support our customers. HiSoftware received:
- 100% in the customer satisfaction and loyalty category for Customer Satisfaction
- 100% in the customer satisfaction and loyalty category for Likely to Recommend
- 20-30 percent higher than the overall national Microsoft partner average in the category:
- Ability to Meet Your Needs
- Competitive Advantage
- Overall Performance
- 32 percent higher in the Value Received category than the overall national Microsoft partner average.
Healthcare IT Priorities: Patient Data and Meeting Regulatory Requirements
The InformationWeek 2013 Healthcare IT Priorities survey showed that “more than 60% of health IT pros…cite managing digital patient data and meeting regulatory requirements among their top priorities, rating each a 5 on a 1-to-5 scale.”
The survey also highlighted that healthcare IT pros are struggling to keep pace with the change in the industry. One respondent said, “Most healthcare CIOs are supportive of the majority of the new functional requirements that are being forced on us. However, federal requirements are coming too many, too fast. … The rate of change is such that systems and changes are being implemented less than optimally.”
Another key point within the report is that “less than 15% of healthcare providers have qualified for federal subsidies based on meeting Meaningful Use requirements.” Not only are healthcare organizations struggling to keep up, but they are also losing out on incentive payments.
How can healthcare organizations keep patient data protected, meet regulatory requirements and comply with the Meaningful Use standards to receive subsidies?
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