Panzura OS Updated With Security Options for Cloud Storage

Panzura, Inc. announced its Secure Erase and Enterprise Antivirus Connector technologies in version 5.4.1.0 of its PZOS OS for its Global cloud Storage System.

These features increase security options beyond Panzura’s FIPS 140-2 Level 3 encryption, which was announced in February 2013.

Secure Erase – Securely Removing Data from the Cloud
Most of the time, security is concerned only with being certain that the data written to the cloud and retrieved is secure. But sometimes, data in the cloud either was written there accidentally or its value has expired and it needs to go away permanently. With Secure Erase, administrators can request that all traces of specified files or folders be removed from cloud storage managed by Panzura. This includes removing data held in snapshots and from all Panzura controllers managing the customer’s cloud storage.

Following recommendations put forth by NIST in Draft Publication 800-88 for purging data, this is a complete data erasure method available short of physically destroying the storage media itself. Once completed, the feature provides a report showing the exact steps used to remove the data from the cloud.

Enterprise Antivirus Connector for Virus Scanning of Cloud Data
Protection from viruses and other malware is also a component of data protection. This allows enterprise virus scanners to scan cloud data managed by PZOS without any extra hardware or software. Implemented per the current definition for the Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP), this feature allows a direct plug-in to popular virus scanning applications such as McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8 and later. Infected files are quarantined by the Cloud Storage Controller and subsequently hidden from users. Once scanned, a file is not re-scanned unnecessarily, minimizing overhead frequently associated with virus scanning.

“Everywhere you turn these days, another story appears about confidential information getting into the open where it doesn’t belong. Whether it is credit card numbers or a company’s business-critical files, protecting sensitive data is growing in importance every day, especially for data in the cloud,” said Randy Chou, president and CEO, Panzura. “Secure Erase and the Enterprise Antivirus Connector give Panzura users important new capabilities for securing data in the cloud.“

Because all the cloud data stored by the Panzura Cloud Storage Controllers is globally deduplicated, the virus scanning operation only has to make a single pass to ensure data is virus free. This capability reduces the impact of virus scanning while minimizing the amount of cloud storage actually required. Even though cloud storage is accessed from multiple Cloud Controller locations, a single virus scan is sufficient to protect data.

This new release of PZOS is available at no charge to Panzura customers with current support subscriptions.