Blue Lance announced the release of LT Auditor+ v6.0 today. The new version’s most exciting feature is its cross-platform NetWare/NT support. As many companies migrate from NetWare to NT, or add NT servers to their NetWare environment, administrators are looking for products that will enable them to audit and secure their cross-platform environments without spending resources duplicating efforts over the various operating systems. LT Auditor+ v6.0 provides this capability.
LT Auditor+ v6.0 contains an NT Events Consolidator that can be configured to schedule the consolidation of NT event log records from various machines within an NT domain to a target NetWare file server on which LT Auditor+ is installed. The LT Auditor+ user interface can then be used to generate cross-platform reports across NetWare and NT networks. This eliminates duplication of efforts for administrators, reduces overall workload and assures them of a more secure network.
In addition to the consolidation of audit logs across NetWare and NT mixed environments, LT Auditor+ v6.0 has been configured so that all NT event logs within an NT domain or workgroup can be consolidated and reported off a single database. This means that LT Auditor+ only needs to be loaded on one NT machine within the domain. Therefore, no agents need to be loaded on any other mission critical machines in the domain, again reducing work for administrators and minimizing any concerns related to loading software on mission critical machines.
LT Auditor+ v6.0 also reports on activity on NT’s NTFS partitions. This allows organizations to monitor the creation of files, writing to existing files or the deletion of files on the workstation. By monitoring NT workstation activity, organizations are supplied with total network security. Before, only server activity could be monitored and this left a hole in security at the workstation. Now, users can track all activity – both network and local – for a complete picture of network security. In addition to providing a total audit trail, this feature also allows users to utilize LT Auditor+ to monitor employee productivity.
Over the last several years, the importance of auditing networks has skyrocketed. As more companies open their networks to the outside world via Internet connections and modems, and as companies increase the number of authorized users to include business partners, customers and vendors, security breaches continue to climb. As a result, information security has become one of the hottest topics around and organizations have found out that protecting sensitive information against breaches by authorized users is just as important as protecting it from external threats.
In an Infosecurity News survey published in May 1997, 40% of respondents indicated they had experienced abuse of access privileges by employees during the last twelve months. Nearly one in ten companies that responded also reported that they had experienced abuse of access privileges by authorized users other than employees, such as a business partner or vendor, over the same time period. Compared with the fact that only 8% of respondents experienced a successful unauthorized system access by an outsider, these statistics prove that it is extremely important to protect networks from internal, as well as external, threats. Audit trails are an important part of the security package when it comes to total network security.
Audit trails provide companies with a way to protect company secrets and intellectual property. Although access privileges are established to ensure that particular files are only available to certain individuals, those files are only safe if a company can prove that access privileges are not abused in any way. Audit trails provide companies with this proof. And, although audit trails in and of themselves will not prevent disaster from striking, they do provide organizations with a trail of who has done what from where and when on the network. This information is very important when a security breach has been discovered and the organization is trying to determine how the breach occurred in order to prevent it from occurring again. Audit trails are the only way to be certain that the security hole has been found so that it can be patched.
While audit trails should be a part of every organization’s total network security program, there are some industries that absolutely should not function without audit trails being kept. These include banking, finance, health, insurance and any other industries that have in their possession very confidential information on members of the public. It could be disastrous if the type of information these industries store on their networks became available to the wrong people. Therefore, audit trails should be mandatory in tracking access to files containing this information because they provide proof that the information is secure. LT Auditor+ provides organizations with a powerful and easy to use auditing tool that should be an important part of an overall security program.
LT Auditor+ v6.0 offers users all of the features they have appreciated in the past such as a built-in scheduler, a portable console, the export of filters across NetWare servers, and the support of third-party report writers. The new cross-platform NetWare/NT support enhances the overall product and provides organizations with an easy to use tool to protect their entire NetWare and NT enterprise environment.
Availability, Pricing and Support
LT Auditor+ v6.0 is now available directly from Blue Lance and through the company’s reseller channel. Both the NetWare and NT modules are included in the same product. The product is priced at U.S. $995 per server, irrespective of the number of users, and U.S. $9.95 per workstation. Registered customers of Blue Lance’s products can receive free unlimited technical support by calling (800) 856-BLUE. Customers interested in LT Auditor+ v6.0 can obtain a fully functional trial copy of the product by downloading it from Blue Lance’s web site at www.bluelance.com.
About Blue Lance
Founded in 1985, Blue Lance, Inc. is a leading provider of network software products that protect corporate information and computer assets. Blue Lance’s product offerings include LT Auditor+, LT Stat, and PrintMeter. These products are used successfully by thousands of auditors, MIS directors, information security officers and network administrators in financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and local, state and federal government organizations. Blue Lance is a privately held company based in Houston, TX.
