Box Security in Spotlight

Posted by skyhighnetworks on June 10th, 2014

After suffering a 46% decline in quarterly profit in Q4 after a wide-reaching breach in which millions of customer credit cards were stolen, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigned from the company Monday. Following the incident, investors are increasingly focused on cyber security, “What we’ve seen is that cyber attacks can have a real impact on the bottom line,” says analyst Jason Niedermeier.

As the online file sharing and collaboration service Box prepares for its IPO, all eyes are on Box security programs. Box offers an online service that allows individuals and companies to store and exchange data over the Internet. Rather than storing data in its own datacenters, employees at a company using Box login to a website. Their files are stored in Box’s datacenters which reduces IT expenses.

Such an arrangement in which data and applications are run and accessed over the Internet is know as the “cloud” and security is being questioned. The NSA relevations brought to light by Edward Snowden revealed a widespread surveillance program that sought to undermine the security of Internet transactions so that they could be eavesdropped on by the NSA, but the weaknesses introduced could also be used by other third parties if discovered.

For companies like Box, security is now a major selling point for corporate clients. Osterman Research, a technology analyst firm, estimates that 90% of file sharing revenue will come from corporate clients and not consumers. While experts agree that Box security controls are among the best in the industry, it will be important for the company to continue bolstering its security credentials in light of the Target incident.

In addition to robust security, additional Box security controls are provided by an ecosystem of third party providers that include data loss prevention, audit trails of user activity, and malware detection. With these controls, Box is well positioned compared with rivals Dropbox and Google Drive.


Author:
Skyhigh Networks, the Cloud Security company, enables companies to embrace Cloud Services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers in financial services, healthcare, high technology, media, manufacturing, and legal verticals, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Skyhigh Networks is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information on Box Security, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/product/box-security/ or follow us on Twitter@skyhighnetworks.