HiSoftware Security Sheriff SP Brings First-of-its-Kind Content-Aware Security Capabilities to Microsoft SharePoint

With SharePoint quickly emerging as the primary Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system for thousands of organizations, HiSoftware Inc. today announced the launch of the first content-aware compliance and security solutions optimized specifically for Microsoft SharePoint® 2010. With a new release of HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff® for SharePoint, now HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff SP, and the debut of HiSoftware Security Sheriff™ SP, HiSoftware is making SharePoint safe for even the most sensitive enterprise data, from Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to Protected Health Information (PHI) to pre-release financials, strategic product information, HR data and more.

The SharePoint Confidence Gap

SharePoint has proven to be one of the market’s fastest-growing ECM systems: AIIM noted in its 2011 “State of the ECM Industry” report that 70 percent of the largest global organizations surveyed are using SharePoint today. AIIM further reported that in those organizations already standardized on SharePoint, more than half consider it to be their primary ECM system.

Yet gaps in SharePoint adoption and business-readiness remain, particularly when it comes to data compliance and the management of private or otherwise sensitive content. In fact, only 20 percent of the respondents to AIIM’s 2011 survey indicated they had sufficient confidence in SharePoint security to store sensitive information. And more than 60 percent of organizations have yet to bring SharePoint in line with their existing compliance policies.

“Security and compliance are emerging as key stumbling blocks for enterprises who want to take full advantage of the content management and collaboration features within SharePoint 2010,” said HiSoftware CEO Kurt Mueffelmann. “As SharePoint grows, the type and composition of data organizations want to store and share expands as well, with big implications for information governance and user adoption. By building on the strength of our content-aware rules engine and allowing organizations to take advantage of new functionality for both policy and user-based classification, as well as encryption, we’re removing those barriers.”

Compliance and Security Solutions Designed for Business

Fully integrated both with and within SharePoint 2010, HiSoftware’s content-aware compliance and security solutions complement the platform’s powerful content publishing and collaboration features by continuously auditing data and documents for compliance requirements such as privacy, information security, accessibility, site quality and brand integrity. Leveraging the hundreds of checkpoints built-in to the company’s proprietary rules engine — including pre-defined checkpoint groups for Section 508/WCAG 1.0 and 2.0, HIPAA, FISMA, MA 201CMR 17 and other regulatory mandates — HiSoftware’s solutions continuously scan all SharePoint content (documents, libraries, lists and sites) as it moves in and out of the environment to identify specific policy violations and classify items via the addition of SharePoint metadata values.

Once classified by the rules engine, these values can then be utilized by Security Sheriff SP to encrypt and/or apply permissions that restrict access to the item, regardless of the permissions applied to the larger SharePoint site, library or list in which the item physically resides. Security Sheriff also tracks the document’s full chain of custody and, when deployed with the HiSoftware Connector for Microsoft Outlook®, can prevent it from leaving SharePoint via email to an unauthorized user. Classification can also aid in e-discovery, search and retrieval, and provide a persistent form of identification for sensitive content as the SharePoint environment grows and evolves.

“HiSoftware is leading the market with the only content-aware compliance and security solutions specifically designed for SharePoint,” added Mueffelmann. “And as the only vendor enabling both policy and user-based classification with encryption at the file level, we cannot only protect organizations from a damaging data breach, but also help control the proliferation of SharePoint sites, lists and libraries – one of the biggest headaches for SharePoint administrators and policy officers.”

General Availability

HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff SP and HiSoftware Security Sheriff SP will be generally available on December 16, 2011. Company representatives will be showcasing the new product at the KMWorld SharePoint Symposium (Booth #20), taking place this week in Washington, DC. To learn more about the new products or to schedule a demo, please contact the HiSoftware solutions team at http://www.hisoftware.com/solutions/related-links/information-request.aspx or 1.888.272.2484.

About HiSoftware
HiSoftware is a leading provider of content-aware compliance and security solutions for the monitoring and enforcement of risk management and privacy guidelines across digital environments. The company’s solutions provide a data governance platform for content management and collaboration processes that support corporate and brand integrity, site quality, accessibility and confidentiality for public websites and portals, as well as intranets and SharePoint sites. HiSoftware’s more than 750 customers include some of the largest US and international government agencies, as well as educational institutions and Global 2000 companies. For more information, visit http://www.hisoftware.com.