Netkiller ISMS 4.1 Release: Enhanced Security Features for Comprehensive Data Protections

We are pleased to announce the release of Netkiller ISMS version 4.1! This upgrade has added and enhanced various features to strengthen information security management and improve user convenience.

A key feature of Netkiller ISMS 4.1 is the option to scan the metadata of all files within the domain, shared drives, and files shared from external sources, including their sharing status, permissions, and link sharing status. This feature represents a significant improvement in speed, over 100 times faster than previous file content audits. It enables users to verify permissions for all files and ensure that access to sensitive information is granted only to authorized users.

Additionally, the design has been improved to provide progress details of full scans, and a feature to download large-scale full scan results has been added to enhance security monitoring.

To understand data sharing status and protect data containing sensitive information, predefined DLP information types (such as IP addresses, MAC addresses, Korean/American passport numbers, etc.), real-time display of external sharing and public status of drive files, and Netkiller ISMS DLP’s GWS log triggers have been introduced.

The Netkiller ISMS 4.1 version includes various enhancements, such as improved drive log and data retrieval speeds, better OCR recognition and processing, and an improved responsive UI for tablets and mobile devices.

New Features

• High-speed Drive Full Scan option:
  • An option has been added to perform a full scan focusing on metadata such as sharing information, excluding the contents of the files. This allows for more than 100 times faster scanning while monitoring important security aspects.

• Shared Drive Permissions scan:
  • ISMS 4.1 has been upgraded with the capability to scan permissions for all shared drives within the domain. This feature allows for the verification of permissions for each shared drive, ensuring that access to sensitive information is granted only to authorized users.

Improvements

• Full Scan
  • Full Scan Download function: Improvements have been made to allow for the downloading of large-scale full scan results, making it easier to analyze data and take necessary actions.
  • Full Scan Progress Visibility: The progress of the full scan is displayed in percentage in a progress bar, providing a clear representation of the scan’s completion status.

• Drive Activity logs search, retrieval speed and event details divisions
  • Improved speed of Drive Activity search and retrieval. 
  • The labeling of drive activities has been improved. Previously, events were simply marked as “Shared,” but now they are more specifically categorized as “Shared externally” or “Shared publicly,” providing clearer insights into data sharing practices.

• OCR
  • Improved Image Processing: The processing of images with white backgrounds and clear fonts/texts has been improved, leading to higher OCR accuracy.
  • Detection of Text alongside Objects: For images that contain text along with other objects, this feature detects the text and improves accuracy.
  • Handwritten Text Recognition: Simple fonts and clear handwritten texts can now be recognized through OCR.
  • Automatic Image Alignment: If an image is not properly aligned, it automatically rotates to the correct orientation to execute OCR.

• Netkiller ISMS DLP 
  • GWS Drive Audit Log Triggers: Netkiller ISMS DLP now detects not only drive activities through Netkiller ISMS but also GWS drive audit log areas, offering audit trigger operations for all file activities in Netkiller ISMS/GWS, thus providing an additional layer of security monitoring.
  • Predefined DLP Policy Types: New predefined Data Loss Prevention (DLP) information types such as IP addresses, MAC addresses, Korean passport numbers, U.S. passport numbers, and U.S. SSNs have been added. This expansion helps in better identifying and protecting sensitive information.

• UI / UX 
  • The UI has been improved for tablets and mobile devices to be more responsive.

Fixes

• Drive Activity Log: 
  • The detection of drive activities for externally owned files has been enhanced.
• Netkiller ISMS DLP 
  • Issues with DLP visibility, DLP trigger operations, and reactivation of revision archiving have been resolved.
• Miscellaneous Fixes
  • Various improvements have been made to enhance the overall functionality and performance of Netkiller ISMS.

Example Impacts of Updating to Netkiller ISMS 4.1

Example of the Effectiveness of the Shared Drive Permission Scan Feature:

A marketing team member accidentally granted write permissions to a shared drive folder containing important customer information to all company employees.

With the shared drive permission scan feature of Netkiller ISMS 4.1, administrators can quickly identify and correct this permission setting error, preventing the risk of sensitive customer information leakage in advance.

Example of the Effectiveness of the Ultra-Fast File Metadata Scan Feature:

An employee who is planning to resign attempts to mass-copy thousands of files, including the company’s trade secrets, to a personal USB drive.

With the ultra-fast file metadata scan feature, the system quickly identifies the potential for this data breach and detects the user’s mass copying attempt, preventing the leakage of important information and protecting the company’s competitive edge.

Example of the Effectiveness of Enhanced Drive Activity Log Events:

If an employee accidentally shares an important file externally, previously it was simply marked as “Shared,” making it difficult to accurately determine whether it was shared inside or outside the domain.

With the improved feature, it’s now labeled more specifically, such as “Shared externally,” allowing administrators to quickly identify the issue and take necessary actions. This enhancement effectively manages inappropriate data sharing and reduces security risks.

Example of the Effectiveness of the Strengthened OCR Feature:

An employee in the accounting department scans a receipt image containing a customer’s name, address, and credit card information.

With the enhanced OCR capability, the system accurately recognizes text within the image and automatically extracts sensitive information, allowing it to be processed in accordance with DLP policies. This strengthens the protection of personal information and ensures compliance with regulations.

Example of the Effectiveness of Expanded DLP Information Types:

An employee in the development team accidentally uploads a GitHub repository file containing the company’s source code to Google Drive and sets it to public.

With the expanded DLP information types, the system can identify data such as source code and block public sharing or send a warning message. This protects the company’s intellectual property and helps it maintain its competitive edge.

Example of the Effectiveness of Expanded Trigger Operation Policies:

A hacker attempts to delete important files stored on Google Drive after hijacking a user account.

Netkiller ISMS supports trigger policies including GWS Drive Audit logs. It detects suspicious activities within the GWS Drive and immediately alerts the administrators. This prevents data loss and minimizes damage through prompt response.

In Closing:

The upgrade to Netkiller ISMS 4.1 significantly strengthens the data security of Google Drive. It effectively enhances corporate information security by proactively preventing and blocking the risk of data breaches in various situations!

If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to kst@netkiller.com.

Sincerely,

The Netkiller ISMS Team

Hello everyone. This is the Netkiller Support Team.

At Netkiller Inc., we have always strived to protect and manage customers’ information. However, due to a human error, we regret to inform you that on Sunday, December 10, 2023, an email containing instructions for Google Workspace administrators’ two-step authentication intended for a specific client was mistakenly sent to some other clients. Netkiller sincerely apologizes to all our clients and promises to take the following measures and make efforts to prevent such incidents in the future.

Incident Summary:

On December 10, 2023, around 2:10 PM KST, a Netkiller customer support representative accidentally CC’ed an email to other customers while providing instructions for a GWS administrator’s 2-step authentication. As a result, one customer’s email contents were partially exposed to Netkiller clients.

Exposed Information:

• Basic contact information specified in the email footer of the client
• Instructions for setting up GWS administrator’s two-step authentication (excluding specific client-related details; the instructions contained general technical guidance)

Measures and Improvements:

Netkiller has taken measures to implement a mandatory internal approval process for mass-sent emails to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

We sincerely apologize once again for causing concern to our valued customers. 

Inquiries and Support:

If you have any questions regarding Netkiller’s security compliance policy, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@netkiller.com.

On August 2nd, Netkiller sponsored and participated in TD Synnex’s 10th annual Google Summit on the Road hosted in Austin, TX, live music capital of the world.

Netkiller pitched and showed off various features of “netkiller ISMS,” our Google Workspace MSSP solution, to over 30 partners of the Texas-based general distributor company TD Synnex.

At our booth, we showed a demonstration of netkiller ISMS’s main functions including the Google Drive full scan, the automated detection system using keywords and regular expressions, and our robust unlimited tracking of revision and version history. We received a large positive response with attendees displaying significant interest in our solution. Notably, many of our booth’s visitors took a particular interest in how netkiller ISMS can fill the gap between Google Workspace and enterprise-level security compliance requirements.

TD Synnex reseller attendees could also receive a copy of netkiller ISMS’s white paper and manual and sign up for a free version of netkiller ISMS which lasts until the end of this year.

Check out https://netkiller.com/dlp/ for more information about netkiller ISMS’s different functions.

Drawing from the insights gained at this event and the valuable relationships formed with our partners, we are committed to further enhancing our efforts in providing safer and more tailored security solutions (MSSPs) to support our customers all over the world in delivering cloud security services.

Quick Launch summary

We’re introducing ‘full scan’, a powerful auditing feature for stronger data security. This update allows Netkiller ISMS administrators to check the status of Google Drive file sharing for all domain users to prevent possible data leaks. We are now supporting text recognition in the image and HWP files, so it is possible to detect sensitive information in image and HWP files.

What’s Changing

Auditing your Google Drive (Full Scan)

Administrators can now scan all Google Drive files for your entire domain and inspect the file sharing status.

Text recognition of images file now available

With our latest update, Netkiller ISMS 4, we added OCR(Optical Character Recognition) function to extend our functionality. With this, custom policy can now be also applied on image files based on the extracted texts from images. Before, it was only available to detect custom keyword/regex on text based documents(e.g. Google documents, MS office documents, etc.), but images with keyword/regex in the user policy can be detected.

Netkiller ISMS OCR supports computer typefaces only and shows 60 to 90% recognition rates on average. Actual recognition results can depend on the size and condition of the target image. Please avoid following complications in the image documents to improve accuracy of OCR engine.

• Complex background
• Uneven lighting condition
• Focus Loss
• Incorrect Orientation
• Noise
• Show through of ink
• Annotation
• Yellowed Paper

Text recognition of HWP files now available

Policies can now also be applied on Hancom word processor files(HWP). Currently, Google doesn’t support previewing HWP files. Now, Netkiller ISMS can detect HWP files with keyword/regex.

Testing your keyword/regex

Netkiller ISMS users can now test their detection rules(keyword/regex) before adding. While testing your keyword/regex, expressions which can be detected will show as ‘Match’ and cannot be detected will show as ‘No Match’.

[Improvement]

1. Changed error message to be more visible in the login page.
2. When changing user information, no multiple password verification will be needed for the same login session.
3. (Mobile) Improved icon alignment in Company > IP filtering > Add more zones.
4. (Mobile) Improved item alignment in Company > Domain Setting.

[Bug fix]

1. Fixed an issue where, in the User page, the result is not shown when changing record number per page.
2. Fixed an issue where, ‘Enter the valid Daily Hour’ error message is displayed when editing domain user information.
3. Resolved the infinite loading occurring when deleting users.
4. Minor bux fixes

In a fierce competition for seeking global talents, Netkiller offers Silicon Valley Orientation Program at Netkiller Palo Alto Innovation Studio.

Netkiller is offering Silicon Valley Orientation Program at Netkiller Palo Alto Innovation Studio to win the talent war. The two-week-long orientation program aims to inspire new hires with the Silicon Valley spirit and develop competencies to drive innovation.

The program begins on June 1st, 2022. New Employees stay in the heart of Silicon Valley near the Netkiller US Research Center, participate in professional events and explore tech attractions like Google and Apple campuses.

“We are building a strong employer brand to attract top talent,” said Justin Jung, the CEO of Netkiller. “We will invest aggressively in employee experiences like workshops and skill-building programs for our future workforce.”

In March 2022, Netkiller held the Back to Normal Workshop in Hawaii to reshape the post-COVID work environment. 30% of the global employees from the US, South Korea and Japan gathered in Waikiki, Hawaii to break their daily routines for two weeks. 

Justin claims that the change of scenery boosted employee creativity and produced a more positive and pleasant service for customers.

“Creating a positive employee experience is key to innovation,” Justin added. “We try our best to encourage employees to expand their horizons.” 

By designing unique employee experiences, he hopes to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in the company and attract ambitious individuals searching for new challenges.

Netkiller Palo Alto Innovation Studio is open for all global employees providing opportunities to attend seminars and conferences at the world’s leading universities such as Stanford University.

Countless lives are sacrificed everyday in Ukraine. Netkiller Co., Ltd. has donated 5 million KRW to the Ukrainian-designated fund designated by Doctors Without Borders. Netkiller also extended its existing contracts and doubled its current employment with its Ukraine-based partners. In addition, the company has provided emergency funding to a former Ukrainian employee who had previously worked for Netkiller.

Everyone at Netkiller believes in the importance of helping those who suffer from the effects of war. In addition to the current 50% discount and free offerings of Netkiller products for non-profit organizations, we hope we can help people immediately by providing a direct fund during these difficult times.

A single data breach costs the average company around $4.24 million. This high number is enough to drive any SMB into the ground, so it’s critical that you prioritize data loss prevention and secure your information.

Luckily, this is easier than ever before with data protection best practices and expert-level tools. Read on to learn some ways that you can improve your company’s data loss prevention policy today.

Understand Data Loss Prevention

Companies work with untold amounts of data daily. This information may be transmitted via email, file transfers, and other company messaging tools and applications. Data loss prevention (DLP) is an umbrella term that refers to methods of stopping unauthorized users from accessing and stealing this data.

These strategies are necessary because data loss means financial loss. Losing employee or consumer data also tarnishes your reputation, decreases employee satisfaction rates, and drives clients towards competitors. It can also leave you susceptible to lawsuits when identifying or financial data is compromised.

But how can you implement a solid data loss prevention strategy? There are four essential components to keeping your information protected and secure.

Evaluate, Identify, and Categorize Data

The first step is to evaluate the ways that your organization currently uses data. Look into what data is being used and who is accessing it regularly. You need to work around the needs of authorized users when implementing tools on Google Workspace. 

For instance, if your customer service representatives are accessing client accounts and orders, you need to ensure that your protection software doesn’t stop this. Installing a firewall on their system may keep them out and stop efficient customer service. You need a workaround, whether that’s a different tool or simply an authorized-user authentication system.

Identifying the data that each department and employee use is a simple process. IT experts and managers can simply look at the network and see which tools and applications get the most traffic. You can also talk to employees about the systems that they most rely on for their daily operations.

Data then should be framed in terms of categories. Examples of categories might include ‘financial data’ or ‘client identity information.’ Once you have solid categories, you can make different rules that outline the handling of different data types.

Trace Data Transmission Routes

The next thing that you need to do is learn how data is transmitted throughout your business. Understanding the regular movements of information lets you know what trends are normal. You can then look for blips and alterations in usual trends to identify when something is wrong.

Look into the categories that you have established. This will show you how different types of data are used so that you know where information should be stored and moved to. This will give you some context for the ways that you can prevent unauthorized access.

It can also help you discover what data needs to be moved to a different source. You want different categories of data stored together for easy access and easier protection. Make sure that you migrate data between public, private, and hybrid cloud platforms to get everything in the right place.

Prevent Unauthorized Data Access

The next step to a solid DLP strategy is the actual prevention of unauthorized access. The first way that you can do this is by installing multi-factor authentication and professional firewall features. This is a way to proactively prevent breaches and stop hackers and malware from penetrating your network.

In addition to all-around network protection, consider encrypting different data categories or locations separately. This way, it will be challenging for malware to permeate the ’employee information’ category (for example) even if infiltrates the broader network. It’s essentially an extra layer of security for your most sensitive data.

You also need to constantly monitor security patches and keep current on addressing vulnerabilities. Run ethical hacking simulations to find these vulnerabilities and then get to work on filling those gaps in. Knowing and preventing specific ways that your system can be breached ensures that you don’t have any unknown holes that cybercriminals can exploit.

The previous DLP step of tracking data transmission routes is also important when preventing unauthorized access. Witnessing regular use trends keeps you in the know of what should be happening on your system. Changes in trends mean it’s time to talk to your IT providers and troubleshoot issues ASAP.

Backups for Important Data

Finally, backing up your data is essential for a good DLP policy. Backups are essentially when you update all information on your network to a second secure location. You can access anything saved during a backup at any time even after a breach takes place.

Let’s say that the worst happens and your information is lost or stolen. This is possible regardless of how good a DLP system you have. Data loss prevention drastically lowers the chances of a breach, but sometimes you just have bad luck.

Having a backup of your data mitigates a bit of the risk. While it still will have been stolen, you will continue to have the ability to access your data. This is especially important for company information that you need for your day-to-day operations.

However, having a backup can also help with employee or client personal/financial data loss. Without this information, it will be difficult to inform people that their data was compromised. It’s essential that you’re open with victims of a breach so that they can troubleshoot the problem sooner.

Train Employees Appropriately

Did you know that around 88% of all data breaches are a direct result of human error? Stanford University researchers worked with cybersecurity experts to find that employee mistakes can cause a lot of problems.

The study also found that employees are aware of the issues that they may have caused. Over half of the workforce is fairly sure that they may have made a mistake that could have caused a breach.

Luckily, human error is a pretty easy problem to mitigate. Employee training and education are a core facet of any good DLP strategy.

Training them in how to use the tools that they regularly use is critical. You don’t want user error that results from inappropriate knowledge. Make sure that you run through how to use the tools, demonstrate their functionality, and send them user handbooks that they can refer back to.

Phishing Training

Phishing is one of the biggest issues that companies face. This happens when cybercriminals send out malicious emails that contain viruses. When an employee clicks these emails, a bug is installed on the machine and moves throughout the entire network to steal data.

People tend to click phishing emails because they perceive them to be legitimate. 41% of clickers believe that these emails actually came from a company higher-up and 40% think that they came from a well-known brand. This information comes from the same Stanford study that discusses the role of human error.

Teaching employees what to look for in their emails is important. You need to show them how to identify legitimate emails vs those that are intended to scam them. Let them know how your company and IT team will work to ensure that they know which emails are real and which ones may be malicious.

45% of employees also stated that they fell for phishing scams because they were distracted at work. Simple monitoring of employee behavior could have stopped this issue. Make sure that you are always on top of what your workers are doing and how they may be struggling.

Install the Right Security Tools

Ultimately, having the right security tools is the most important part of data loss prevention. This means hiring experts that understand cloud security solutions and how to implement them onto a network. Top managed service providers like NetKiller offer enterprise-grade security technologies to companies of all sizes and types.

Having the right tools for your specific cloud or on-premise network is essential so that you can perform all steps of data loss prevention. It also helps you to be compliant with regulations within your industry. We’re delighted to meet your company’s specific needs within your market.

Data security providers will also help you migrate all data to a secure cloud computing system. Specifically, Google Workspace DLP solutions will offer security to your entire domain. This necessitates migration to this particular cloud system. They will put up barriers on the cloud system to keep unauthorized users out. Since these experts also have professional-level knowledge and perform routine updates, it’s essential that you invest in managed outsourced security services.

Get Started

While data loss prevention might sound like a challenge, it’s essential for the safety of your business and employees. It’s also much simpler when you have the appropriate technology to classify and protect your data. Now that you know about data security and how you can stay protected, it’s time to get started.

We’re committed to providing you with Cloud solutions and other managed data services. Contact Netkiller with any remaining questions that you have about data loss prevention and to get started with our expert tools.