Data Stored on the Desktop is a Major Security Risk says Symbio Technologies

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.——Symbio Technologies (www.symbio-technologies.com), an innovator in stateless computing, grew up with PCs. But now the company's co-founders, Roger Del Russo and Gideon Romm, offer some “heartfelt advice” to today’s government and business people, telling them that “data stored on the desktop creates a major security risk.”

Mr. Del Russo and Mr. Romm are advocates of and innovators in stateless computing –where no operating system or any other valuable information or data is stored on the desktop – for businesses, government, schools and other distributed computing environments. “It’s the 21st century iteration of how corporate computing started some three and a half decades ago, with mainframes attached to terminals, and everyone’s information was centrally stored and managed,” Mr. Del Russo said.

“Using diskless and stateless thin clients and Symbio’s proprietary boot appliance that boots and links them to the server, we've created server-centric computing that works at the speed of today’s lightening-fast servers,” Mr. Romm added. “And the data is secure – really safe – because users perform all work on the secured servers. Their data that appears on their monitor never leaves the server.”

“It’s a very simple and basic premise, said Mr. Del Russo. “By using stateless and diskless thin clients, the operating system, applications and all data remain on the server. It makes sense that just one computer — the server — can be secured more effectively and efficiently than hundreds of individual PCs.”

The Most Data-Secure Desktop Available

“By eliminating data on the desktop, and by developing desktop terminals that make it very, very difficult for users to copy files to CDs or other removable devices, Symbio has created a system that provides the most data-secure desktop currently available,” said Mr. Romm. “And by promoting centralization and consolidation of data from many individual units to a few, highly secured units, Symbio fosters the use of the industry-standard remote access techniques provided by Windows Terminal Services, No Machine, and others.”

“If you need to work at home,” Mr. Del Russo said, “use your desktop or laptop, but for security's sake, leave your data in the office. By accessing the server from home through a secure virtual private network (VPN), users have full access to all information, just as if they were sitting at your securely linked desktops. It’s a win-win situation, with files safe and secure on the office server.”

Symbio’s co-founders warn that computer users should not forget “the data-loss fiasco” when an employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs took home a laptop containing the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of more than 26 million veterans and their spouses. The laptop was stolen, and with it, a hard drive full of unencrypted data.

“If the VA were a Symbio customer,” said Mr. Romm, “its data would have been centrally stored and secured on servers, and the employee could have been granted access to the data through a secure VPN. He would have used his laptop just like he would have used his diskless thin client at work. Data would not have been placed at risk on a mobile platform.”

“Unfortunately,” Mr. Del Russo said, “the VA is not alone in risking and losing data. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute for Scott and Scott, an international law and technology services firm based in Dallas, showed that 85% of organizations surveyed had experienced a data-breach event, with nearly half the reported data thefts attributed to lost or stolen laptops, PDAs and/or USB memory sticks.”

An International Problem … An International Solution

Peter Tierney, managing director of World Technology Corporation, a leader in the export management and international business development, knows “first-hand that security is an international problem” and “believes Symbio has developed an international solution.” His company, based in New York City with offices worldwide, works with Symbio and other U.S. and European hi-tech companies to build and manage their international distribution networks.

“The ability and wherewithal to protect personal data in the workplace is becoming a hot topic in our Asian markets, and the Symbio solution is being viewed as an innovative and very cost-effective alternative,” he said. “In Japan, for example, as of April 2005, businesses with 5,000 or more employees, including foreign companies, must comply with the ‘Japan Personal Information Protection Law,’ which set new rules for handling personal data. Just three weeks after its implementation, the police in Yomiuri arrested a temporary employee who formerly worked for NTT DoCoMo Inc. over a leak of clients' personal data. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of obstructing business by force, with the police alleging that he took data containing the personal information of some 24,600 clients out of the company.”

Mr. Tierney said South Korea has also enacted legislation to protect personal data — the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Data Protection. “Now, with the Symbiont Thin Client Solution, we have a product that complies with these laws right out of the box that we can offer to resellers in Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and throughout Asia.”

‘An Important Safeguarding Step’

Symbio Technologies is quick to point out that its stateless, thin client solution is not a panacea for data security, “but it is an important safeguarding step,” said Mr. Romm, reminding corporate users that “there are many ways for data to be lost or stolen.

“What Symbio is doing,” he said, “is giving – indeed returning — total control of data and user access back to the network administrator, which provides an added layer of security for businesses, government agencies and others who work in a distributed computing environment.”

The desktop solution created by and now available from Symbio Technology promotes the consolidation of all operating systems, applications, and data to a few highly secured servers. And, by the very nature of server-centric computing, the Symbio solution provides secure access to those individual workers who are permitted to work from remote locations.

“Symbio Technologies promotes the elimination of data on the desktop,” said Mr. Del Russo. “In today's world of Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA regulations, it is comforting to know that there is no data on the desktop that can be lost or stolen. We believe we have created the nucleus of what could well be at the core of everyone's next generation network.”

About Symbio Technologies

Symbio Technologies is the leader in server-centric stateless computing. Symbio designs and manufactures hardware, software and services that enable businesses to reduce the time, complexity, and costs associated with deploying and maintaining computer networks. Symbio's flagship thin client solution consists of a network appliance called The Symbiont Boot Appliance, stateless desktop terminals disk-less thin clients, and value-add subscription services. Its solutions connect users to a variety of environments that utilize the most popular protocols and systems in the industry, including Microsoft Windows Terminal Services RDP, Citrix ICA, Linux/Unix X, NX Server NX, TN5250/AS400, IBM3270, and virtually any mainframe protocol. Symbio markets its products worldwide through a growing network of distributors, resellers, value added resellers and integrators in Australia, Canada, Chile, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and the U.K. as well as throughout the U.S.