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GTB Inspector v.12

Every now and then, I see an old workhorse — and “old” could mean last year in this business — dressed up in fancy new clothes. When I see that old horse looking better than its newer contemporaries I really get enthusiastic. That’s the case with the latest release of the Inspector from GTB. It may be in its 12th release, but this baby, as they say, sure can cook.

The GTB Inspector v.12, which I had the privilege of reviewing as a late beta, claims a 100 percent catch rate for data leakage from the enterprise, and it delivers. One caveat, of course, is that a perfect catch rate depends on having a blacklist of things to look for. That list could be words, numbers, phrases or protocols.

However, when I thought about having a blacklist of, for example, key personal identifiable information sitting in clear text on a gateway in IT, it gave me the shivers. This is not where you want to put the most sensitive data in the organization. Not to worry, it turns out. When you fingerprint that information, all that the device saves is an MD5 hash of the data. Nothing else is on the Inspector.

The GTB Inspector has several ways of identifying sensitive data leaving your enterprise. Some are far more accurate than others, but all are extremely competent. In addition to the fingerprinting, for example, the device can spot data — such as credit card numbers — and calculate whether the number is a genuine credit card or just a number that looks like one.

The Inspector also can block certain types of protocols, such as FTP or peer-to-peer. It can catch email content, whether the user is using a standard email program, such as MS Exchange, or a web mail program, such as Yahoo, Google (Gmail), etc. It comes with a wealth of pre-written rules for various types of data — such as the credit card calculator or the social security number identifier. You can, however, write your own, and all rules can be refined as you use the product to reduce false positives for non-fingerprinted data.

The amount of information available in the reports is prodigious as well. There are full details of sender and receivers (including blind carbon copies), the type of content, and the rule or policy that has been violated. Time and date, of course, are there, too, along with full email headers.

The device is able to decrypt SSL on the fly and inspect the contents of data leaving through an SSL tunnel or VPN. The security event logs provide all of the data you ever will need, and you can drill down to the specifics of an alert.

The product is easy to set up and configure and is well documented. Because the GTB Inspector is an appliance, virtually all of the basics are done for you. It took Mike Stephenson, our lab manager, about 15 minutes to get the Inspector up and running and ready for me to start poking around.

I took about an hour and a half virtual tour with the folks from GTB — support for this product is first rate — and by the end of that time, I could set up, install, configure and tune the product myself. They pointed out that they had offered me nothing that isn’t in the manuals and they were right.

However, if getting some support help to implement your new Inspector is your cup of tea, GTB will accommodate you with remote installation, set-up and configuration at no cost. If you want a GTB engineer on site, you can have that too, but, predictably, there is a cost involved.

At $30,000, plus $49.95 per computer over 200 computers, the product may seem pricey. However, compared to other products of its type with less capability, the Inspector is a bargain. Consider the consequences of extremely sensitive data being removed from your network. The potential costs of that sort of breach are sobering.

Administration, once the appliance is configured and deployed is straightforward. The logs and notifications can be sent to anyone you wish which may include a security team, the CISO, security analysts, IT staff, or whomever. You can chose to send a notice to the offender and his or her boss if you wish. Actions include blocking, quarantining and simply notifying. You can build your
own policies or use existing ones with or without refinement.

The GTB Inspector v.12 is a hot device. Protecting your organization from data leaked from your enterprise is easy to do and easy to manage. The accuracy and logging will likely stand up in any related legal action as “best evidence.” If you have sensitive information on your enterprise, you need this device — if for no other reason than that you’ll sleep much better knowing your data
is protected.

We give this product our SC LabApproved  rating, the highest recognition we offer.
— Peter Stephenson, with Mike Stephenson


Product: GTB Inspector v.12
Company: GTB
Availability: Q2 2007
Price: $30,000, plus $49.95 per networked computer above 200 computers.
What it does: Inspection of outgoing information to pinpoint and prevent data leakage from the enterprise by content and protocol.
What we liked: This product provides real granularity and reliability in catching data leakage. When using fingerprinted data, the catch rate is 100 percent, and no comparison data is saved.
What we didn't like: Nothing. This is a first rate product with some real innovations.
Product title
GTB Inspector v.12
Product info
Name: GTB Inspector v.12 Description: Price: $30,000, plus $49.95 per networked computer above 200 computers

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