Secure Mail / Secure DOX

The Echoworx product line is served in hosted and on-site flavors, and focuses on the protection of confidential information via PKI-based encryption technology. Available products in their arsenal provide both for protection of E-mail messages (featuring desktop-to-desktop encryption) and now data-at-rest encryption. Current products include:

- Secure Mail enables end users to send and receive encrypted E-mails directly from their desktop clients. Though the messaging infrastructure is hosted by the vendor, the product is integrated with the end-user's E-mail client such that they can encrypt the message--on their desktop--by clicking a "secure" button in their E-mail client. Echoworx offers their Secure Mail platform to service providers (who in turn offer it to individuals or businesses) or directly to Enterprises.

Microsoft Outlook clients (Express/2000/2002/2003) and Lotus Notes (6.5/7) clients are supported on Windows (2000/XP/Vista) operating systems.

Encrypted messages can be sent both to other Secure Mail subscribers (in or outside of the customer's company) and non-subscribers. Other Secure Mail subscribers can unlock the encrypted message directly from their desktop clients by entering their own Secure Mail password. When sending an encrypted message to a non-subscriber, the platform asks the sender to additionally provide a special question and secret answer that will be used by the recipient to retrieve the message. The message is then sent to the vendor's Digital Message Pickup Center, and a separate message is sent to the recipient informing them that mail is waiting for them. They (the recipient) then connect to the Digital Message Pickup Center and enter the secret answer defined by the sender to collect the actual message.

In the Enterprise version, company administrators can use a Secure Mail Administration Console to manage their users; including tools that allow them to add, suspend, remove, and view user credentials. Additionally, users can be bulk-enrolled in the platform via CSV files (enrolled users automatically receive a Secure Mail welcome E-mail).

Other features of the service include: automatic digital signing of encrypted messages, individually assigned decryption keys (accessible via organization-defined, mtuli-role policies), and reporting (including the ability to view the status of users online. Additionally, both the user interface screens and the Message Pickup Center can be optionally branded by the customer.

- Related to Secure Mail is the Echoworx Secure Mail Gateway, which can reside on-site or within a hosted data center and interoperates with existing content filtering controls (anti-spam, anti-virus, content scans) such that E-mails can be automatically encrypted based on policies and the content detected within them (i.e., the content filters examine the messages, and, based on the detected contents and corporate policies, can automatically route the message to the Secure Mail Gateway for encryption).

- New to the vendor's platform is Secure DOX (Windows XP/Vista), which provides a means to designate specific folders at any storage location (HD, USB key, network shares) as encrypted folders, within which all contents are encrypted. The tool provides individual wizards allowing for the creation and browsing of encrypted folders, as well as rights assignments for the folders--i.e., which users have access to the encrypted data. In a Secure DOX environment, both the originator and consumer of the encrypted documents must be Secure DOX subscribers (and the consumer must have the appropriate rights to the document as granted by the originator). Additionally, the tool integrates with Windows Explorer (including the right-click context menu). The platform shares the same administrative console and capabilities of the Secure Mail platform described above, and can be utilized as a vendor hosted service or an on-site deployment.

Secure Mail and Secure DOX are available now. Contact Echoworx for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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