DriveSentry News Blog

In the same way bacterial viruses such as the recent H1N1 or ‘Swine Flu’ quickly spread across the globe, computer virus attacks and data loss can equally be as widespread due to the ever increasing inter-connectivity of the world online.

Many of these cases occur simply due to the reactive nature of antivirus software coupled with poor backup procedures and management of removable media which result in loss and corruption of valuable data when infection occurs.

Today sees the launch of DriveSentry Security Suite, which is the first product of its kind to combine antivirus, data encryption and backup for both PC’s and portable storage devices such as USB memory keys and flash media.

Until today computer users have needed to purchase and setup multiple and diverse applications to prevent and protect valuable information on home computers, networked and portable storage devices. DriveSentry have addressed the complexity of multiple diverse prevention and protection applications by launching the DriveSentry Security Suite.

This totally new and unique approach to protection provides DriveSentry users with the tools required to protect against data loss and corruption from zero day attacks, something that has been previously unavailable in one solution. The DriveSentry Security Suite performs all manner of complex tasks out-of-site ensuring that the user and their data remains safe and secure. Applications such as the latest in virus protection, military strength AES 256bit encryption and secure data synchronisation/backup are now all in an easy to use package designed specifically for the home user.

“Our market research showed that most people using portable storage devices often failed to backup the data on the device and so in the unfortunate situation where they lose the device they also lost a wealth of personal data too.” said Alan Jones CEO of DriveSentry. He continued “We also recognised that the lost data could easily fall into the wrong hands, so DriveSentry has developed what we feel is the easiest method of encrypting and backing up personal data on portable storage devices. DriveSentry Security Suite is unique in that it synchronises and backs up all sensitive data each time a portable device is connected to its nominated host computer. It’s completely automated and works out the box without any complex setup or configuration“
DriveSentry, now includes protection for network drives with real-time automated database updates that happen in the background and use very little system resources.

“DriveSentry has enjoyed a rapid growth in our community since we launched our first product DriveSentry 3.0 last year. This is due to our unique lifetime licence and we now have paying customers enjoying the very best in data protection in every corner of the globe” said Mike Maurice COO “This is an exciting time for our company as we introduce a security suite of exclusive protection features that will provide our vast community the ability to purchase the tools they require to protect all their valuable and personal data.”

About DriveSentry
DriveSentry is a pioneer in next generation security 2.0 antivirus technology for PC’s and portable storage devices that protect digital assets and personal data. The company was founded in 2005 with a mission to provide zero-day protection against new and emerging security threats. DriveSentry recently received an Editors Choice award from PC Plus for an independent security test where it came top of the list for malware detection ahead of the leading commercial antivirus packages.
DriveSentry software is used in over 180 countries worldwide and has received numerous awards including Checkmark certification from West Coast Labs – the world’s fastest growing certification program for information security products and services.
DriveSentry is a privately held company with offices in Mountain View, California and Nottingham, England.

Further information about DriveSentry and its products can be found at www.drivesentry.com.

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) February 24, 2009 -- By including Next Generation antivirus protection from DriveSentry in Security Centre, Microsoft ® customers are finally protected from the very latest virus threats. Known as Zero day threats, they are the preferred method of identity theft on the web. However even these are thwarted with significant ease by the technology known as whitelisting.

DriveSentry Free AntiVirus
"It is vitally important that Microsoft ® consumers are protected from zero day attacks such as the latest variant of the Mdropper Trojan that was reported by Adam J. O'Donnell for ZDNet earlier today. This fresh zero day virus is now in the wild and causes a code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Excel ® 2007 SP1" said Alan Jones CEO, DriveSentry. He continued "while other security firms scramble to patch their security products, DriveSentry users are already protected, as we use the latest whitelisting technology"

DriveSentry addresses the issues regarding how restrictive whitelisting can be by combining it with multiple protection technologies. Unique to the security industry, DriveSentry offers whitelisting (for the latest protection), blacklisting and heuristics (to reduce interference) and finally live community feedback in one simple package.

As DriveSentry incorporates whitelisting into it's antivirus application, it is possible to operate the software with a minimal overhead. This major feature means that DriveSentry is an ideal solution for Netbook computers and also means a common issue with antivirus solutions -high memory usage - is avoided.

The latest version of the product DriveSentry 3.3 is incredibly simple to setup and use and is specifically designed to protect the user with minimal fuss, what's more the antivirus protection is free to use!

For more in depth discussions about DriveSentry antivirus or to find out how some of our customers are benefiting from using our products please contact Mike Quinn Director of Product Marketing : marketing@drivesentry.com

DriveSentry are pleased to announce the availability of DriveSentry 3.1.2.32

This release contains numerous improvements and bug fixes.

Change List:
- Added new auto update mechanism.
- New advisor screen.
- Noisy popups. The *.* rules now get created after the logic layer is initialised, so they actually exist now.
- Added AV_Detector which is separate small application and be consumed by installer.
- Changed 'Data' to 'Signatures'-'drive sentry is now...' balloon appears for 5 seconds.
-Icon is only khaki if database is not full.
-Shouldn't be able to place a caret on the 'file scanning' label in the scanner.
-Display khaki icon if we're not running the latest version.
-Download zip file for registered users if no database exists.
-Use new logo on options screen.
-'An unsupported operation was attempted' error after zip download.
-Stopped erroneous 'advisor out of contact' messages.
-Stopping synch no longer locks the GUI.
-Display new logo in options page.
-Tightened up wording of threat level description.
-Threat level option is hidden when auto allow is switched off.
-Fixed capitalization on label.
-Ignore cache when loading web pages. (speed up surfing)'
-Enable scanner' option now only applies to background scanner. Also added scanning options to wizard.
-Threat level moved into auto allow options. Also changed related defaults.
-Balloon should only appear once a day, regardless of how many times user reboots.
-Fix for khaki icon appearing with full database.
-Text on dialog should no longer be cut-off.
-Change 'downloading signatures' rather than just 'downloading'.
-Desktop now uses new licensing library.
-No longer defaults to downloading signatures for new users, as the new download dialog asks the user for this.
-Changed text displayed when desktop and goanywhere are running.
-Auto quarantine pop-up no longer appears when it shouldn't.
-Display autodeny icon when auto-quarantine pop-up switched off.
-Khaki icon switched off when database updated.
-Made the download dialog smaller in height.
-Upgrade dialog now shows the current and latest available product versions.
-The rules checking doesn't start now until DriveSentry is fully initialised.

Please send any feedback or comments to support@drivesentry.com

=> Download DriveSentry Desktop <=

Security Company DriveSentry announce the imminent release of ‘DriveSentry GoAnywhere’- new high level and easy to use encryption with standalone antivirus designed to safeguard data on removable storage devices.

Yet another headline story today confirmed the loss of enormous amounts of un-encrypted confidential data due to the loss of a computer memory stick [4]. Government data loss and data leakages related to lost or stolen computer memory sticks are now commonplace with the latest incident being described as a ‘massive failure’ [4], this case and many other similar incidents present ‘systemic failures’ [5], as organizations fail to recognize the risks surrounding portable data storage.
With over 250 million USB flash drives sold in the last three years [1], electronic data is on the move. But despite the convenience of portable data storage, such devices pose a fundamental security threat to organizations and individuals.
The Identity Theft Resource Centre have reported that so far in 2008, data on the move (laptops, thumb drives, PDA’s etc) accounts for 20.2% of data exposures, leading to data theft [2]. In 2007 nearly half of all cases were related to missing or stolen devices [2]. Despite these statistics, the European Network and Information Security Agency stated that the security of USB sticks is often neglected under organizational policies, with severe lack in security controls [3] due to the complexities of encrypting portable data. So potentially sensitive information is being left unsecured upon such devices, which can easily be lost, stolen or compromised.
Security specialists at DriveSentry have today announced the imminent release of their revolutionary removable device protection. Combining drag and drop portable 256-bit AES encryption and standalone next generation antivirus protection, ‘DriveSentry GoAnywhere’ provides a simple, cost effective, portable security solution for all removable devices including USB memory sticks.
With powerful encryption technology, DriveSentry GoAnywhere provides an effortless approach to securing your identity, your privacy, and your data. Top secret level 256-bit AES technology allows users to encrypt data on both their GoAnywhere device and any Microsoft Windows host system, leaving encrypted files locked, even if the PC or removable device is lost or stolen. DriveSentry GoAnywhere also provides standalone antivirus protection, pre configured to protect all portable data from viruses and malicious infection, no matter what PC the device is connected to.
John Safa, CTO at DriveSentry commented, ‘any removable USB device can be turned in to a secure storage device by installing DriveSentry GoAnywhere. So there will soon be no more excuses’.

About DriveSentry Inc.
DriveSentry is a pioneer in next generation security 2.0 antivirus software for hard drives that protect digital assets and personal data. The company was founded in 2005 with a mission to provide zero-day protection against new and emerging security threats. DriveSentry was recently commended for its innovative approach to IT security, after receiving a medal in the Information Security and Data Management Project Award category at the 2007 BCS IT Industry Awards. DriveSentry has received the accolade of Checkmark Certification, the world's fastest growing certification system for information security products and services. Checkmark Certification is awarded following an independent assessment of the performance of security software carried out by the West Coast Labs Technology Forum, a group of senior IT security professionals from major corporate organizations around the world.
DriveSentry is a privately held company with offices in Mountain View, California and Nottingham, England. Further information can be found at www.drivesentry.com.

Security Expert John Safa, CTO of DriveSentry is available for comment on this story.

1. Unworth, Joseph. “Forecast: USB Flash Drives, Worldwide, 2001-2011”, Boston: Gartner/Dataquest, October 2007.
2. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) Identity Theft News: 2008 Data Breach count is 69% greater than 2007http://www.identitytheftdaily.com/index.php/20080716371/Latest/Identity-Theft-News-2008-Data-Breach-count-is-69-greater-than-2007.html
3. All 84,000 prisoner details lost on unencrypted memory stick - IT PRO fit for business. Asavin Wattanajantra, 22 Aug 2008 http://www.itpro.co.uk/605661/all-84-000-prisoner-details-lost-on-unencrypted-memory-stick
4. ‘Massive failure’ over data loss – BBC NEWS - Friday, 22 August 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7575989.stm Information commissioner to act against HMRC, MoD (2008) http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39439030,00.htm

Robert Vamosi from CNET reports for Defense in Depth on the demise of the traditional antivirus solution in favour of a new breed of whitelisting technology offered by vendors such as DriveSentry Inc.

Click below to read the full article
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-9994679-57.html

Security specialists DriveSentry announce U3 support for the popular standalone GoAnywhere antivirus product.

DriveSentry have released U3 support for their popular portable, GoAnywhere, antivirus product. Consumers are now able to protect their personal data on the move without having to rely on host based security software to provide the protection.

SanDisk and U3 have published DriveSentry GoAnywhere on the popular site www.software.U3.com based on strong, portable, antivirus, security, ease of use, reliability and customer confidence in support for future evolution of the mobile security product set. "With the high correlation between data security and mobile storage, DriveSentry continues to provide end users with the security tools and technology they require to efficiently and effectively protect their personal data from malware," said John Safa, Chief Technology Officer, DriveSentry. "As individuals increasingly access data from mobile locations, they must ask themselves if the data they are carrying with them is truly protected by standard security platforms that are all too often tethered to host system environments."

On U3.com visitors can now download the free trial version of DriveSentry GoAnywhere which retails at just $10. Unlike other antivirus software the charge is a one off payment and NOT an annual subscription. "This simple pricing policy for such an intuitive and powerful antivirus tool is perfect for the U3 site," said Mike Maurice, Sales Director, DriveSentry. He continued "users are instantly impressed by the level of security provided by the U3 GoAnywhere product, GoAnywhere is a truely mobile application allowing users to move data from system to system, safe in the knowledge that the data will not be corrupted by viruses or malware”

DriveSentry GoAnywhere provides independent, standalone protection for U3 enabled, USB drives. It does this by monitoring all access to the drive. On every read or write attempt it connects to the DriveSentry Advisor server to verify the identity of the program attempting to access the device The online Advisor server holds the identity of over a million whitelisted good programs, blacklisted bad programs and community-based Advisor files. On the rare occasion when a file or application can not be identified, the user is warned. As the DriveSentry user base continues to rapidly increase, a greater range of program statistics are collected and made available to the Community through the online Advisor facility, therefore considerably reducing the number unknown programs. If GoAnywhere cannot contact Advisor for any reason the user is warned on any attempt to access data on the USB flash drive.

About DriveSentry
DriveSentry is a pioneer in next generation security 2.0 antivirus software for hard drives that protect digital assets and personal data. The company was founded in 2005 with a mission to provide zero-day protection against new and emerging security threats. DriveSentry was recently commended for its innovative approach to IT security, after receiving a medal in the Information Security and Data Management Project Award category at the 2007 BCS IT Industry Awards. DriveSentry has received the accolade of Checkmark Certification, the world's fastest growing certification system for information security products and services. Checkmark Certification is awarded following an independent assessment of the performance of security software carried out by the West Coast Labs Technology Forum, a group of senior IT security professionals from major corporate organizations around the world.
DriveSentry is a privately held company with offices in Mountain View, California and Nottingham, England. Further information can be found at www.drivesentry.com.

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product introductions, applications, markets and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. There are some risks associated with these forward-looking statements if they are to be inaccurate. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.

CONTACT:Mike Quinn, DriveSentry +1 650 969 3209 mquinn@drivesentry.com