Using X-FORT to improve confidential data protection

Most companies focus on product sales but neglect to resolve the compatibility of their product with other applications and the client's environment in the installation process. Only FineArt Technology Co., Ltd. has a customer service center and is willing to actively resolve customers' problems. Granstar International Co., Ltd. thus purchased several dozen X-FORT and installed them in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China to improve the group's data protection ability.

The value of digital data grows with each passing day in the new economy era. Digital data has become an important foundation for a company's long-term development, and is also the target of corporate espionage and hacker groups. As such, the effective protection of business secrets has become the most troubling issue to enterprises. Granstar has made great accomplishments as an agent for electronic components. In addition to the establishment of various data access mechanisms, Granstar chose to use X-FORT, the Enterprise Electronic Data Surveillance System of FineArt Technology to strengthen its information security management. The software prevents employees from installing unlicensed applications, and enables the Company to maintain close cooperation with developers and customers in a growingly competitive business environment.

Chu Po-Hsien of Granstar said: “Granstar has accumulated a considerable amount of transaction data and customer information over the years. These data are extremely important digital assets to the Company, and are also an important basis for the Company to maintain its competitiveness. We have always attached great importance to data protection, and have established an extremely strict access system since we began operations. After implementing FineArt Technology's Enterprise Electronic Data Surveillance System X-FORT, our data protection mechanism has become even more complete, allowing Granstar to focus business promotion without needing to worry that data leakage incidents will affect the Company's reputation and competitiveness.”

X-FORT was selected for its ability to improve data protection

Granstar International Co., Ltd. was founded in 1978, and has imported electronic components from overseas to satisfy the needs of Taiwan's industrial development. Granstar formally became an agent for Murata's electronic components in 1991, and allowed Taiwanese enterprises to acquire high quality and high precision electronic components, so that they can produce products with high added value. Starting in 2013, Granstar formally became the agent for Melexis, a European semiconductor brand, providing electronic components and solutions for the automobile electronics, home security, and smart home industries, so as to satisfy customers' needs when engaging in innovation or industry transformation.

As the Company's business continued to grow, Granstar never overlooked the importance of protecting business secrets. Besides recruiting specialized talent for the IT department to immediately resolve employee's work related issues, the Company also purchased various information security equipment and established a policy for using IT equipment. The Company hopes to thereby prevent the leakage of important data from going unnoticed. For example, the Company prohibits employees from installing applications by themselves like other medium and large companies; employees are only allowed to use Skype for messaging. The use of e-mail and USB ports are also limited. Employees must first submit an application and gain approve from their supervisor before the IT department allows them to attach files to their e-mail or write data onto a flash drive.

Chu Po-Hsien pointed out that even though the previously mentioned data protection measures are already quite complete, and that employees are very cooperative with the Company policy without any data leakage incidents occurring, there are still areas that require further improvement and strengthening. First, under the prevalence of Webmail services, the original information security mechanisms are unable to prevent employees from using Webmail to send files. Second, the IT department cannot immediately detect files being sent by employees via Skype. “With information security incidents frequently being reported, we began searching for a solution to strengthen our data protection at the beginning of 2017 to prevent hacker groups from hacking and using employee's accounts to steal confidential data. FineArt Technology's Enterprise Electronic Data Surveillance System X-FORT with its rapid technical support, complete product functions, and reasonable price naturally became Granstar's best choice” said Chu Po-Hsien.

FineArt Technology can rapidly resolve issues with the product it independently developed

Due to the increasing number of data leakage incidents around the world, there are quite a few brands in the market that provide data monitoring and protection services. Even though products made by different companies list similar functions, corporate users will find a considerable difference in the functions after actual installation and testing. And the difference in speed of technical support services is even more substantial. During the POC stage, Granstar found that most companies focus on product sales but neglect to resolve the compatibility of their product with other applications and the client's environment in the installation process. Only FineArt Technology Co., Ltd. has a customer service center and is willing to actively resolve customers' problems. Hence, Granstar installed X-FORT in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.

"During the POC stage at the beginning of 2017, it may have been due to the launching of a new version of Skype, but the data monitoring software of different brands all began to unexpectedly quit, so we began asking the developer for a solution" said Chu Po-Hsien: "After a reaching out several times, we found that most developers tried to evade the problem and blamed Skype for being the cause. In comparison, FineArt Technology's service center not only took our problem seriously, but also actively helped us resolve the problem of the software unexpectedly quitting. Hence, we decided to purchase X-FORT to ensure that we would be able to enjoy their complete technical support during future use."

Deployment throughout the entire group to effectively monitor the access of classified data

With the assistance of FineArt Technology's technical team, Granstar successfully deployed X-FORT in the entire group in the first quarter of 2017, and successfully prohibited computers on the client end from using Webmail and Skype to send files. The IT department was also able to effectively monitor the access of confidential data. Furthermore, the IT department also benefited from X-FORT's powerful monitoring functions and, after the project was completed, discovered that employees were using applications that did not require installation. This discovery allowed the IT department to lower the possibility of hacking and also protected Granstar's corporate image.

Chu Po-Hsien said that even though the employees’ intention for using the applications was simply for greater convenience at work and there were no concerns of data leakage, with new information security incidents constantly being reported, if a hacker group embeds a Trojan horse in the application, it may give them the chance to hack the Company's information security system. We are glad that the problem was discovered in time, and it proves that we made the right decision choosing FineArt Technology's Enterprise Electronic Data Surveillance System X-FORT.