Microsoft and EMCs RSA Security Division Team Up to Help Customers Secure Sensitive Data

Microsoft and EMC's RSA Security Division Team Up to Help Customers Secure Sensitive Data

Companies Expand Their Strategic Alliance to Advance a New Approach to Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention

HOPKINTON, Mass. and REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 4 -- Building on a long-standing, multi-faceted alliance, EMC and Microsoft Corp. today announced they have expanded their technology partnership to help companies better protect sensitive information and share it in a more secure manner. The companies will be working together with a built-in "systems" approach that helps protect information throughout the infrastructure based on content, context and identity.

The partnership will take advantage of resources and technology from Microsoft and RSA, The Security Division of EMC. Microsoft will build the RSA(R) Data Loss Prevention (DLP) classification technology into the Microsoft platform and future information protection products. The resulting collaboration is designed to enable organizations to centrally define information security policy, automatically identify and classify sensitive data virtually anywhere in the infrastructure, and use a range of controls to protect data at the endpoints, network, and data center. Additionally, in the near term RSA's DLP Suite 6.5 will be engineered to integrate tightly with Microsoft Active Directory Rights Management Services (RMS) within Windows Server 2008.

Enterprises face growing risks of data leaks and an increase in compliance and corporate governance requirements. Companies recognize the importance of allowing employees, partners, customers and vendors to use business information within and across company boundaries. But this creates security challenges, as information moves across the infrastructure and is transformed throughout its lifecycle. Current information protection solutions are complex and costly. They require separate tools and lack visibility into the sensitivity of the data, the context of identity and centralized policy management.

"Companies continue to struggle to protect sensitive data across the enterprise," said Christopher Young, senior vice president of products at RSA, The Security Division of EMC. "Point solutions require that multiple policies and technologies be stitched together and independently managed, which is costly and complex. By building technology such as RSA DLP classification into the infrastructure, Microsoft and RSA are providing a new approach that balances the need to help ensure protection with accessibility."

RSA and Microsoft's new approach helps address customer needs through an end-to-end solution with fewer point tools to buy, deploy and manage. By building DLP classification technology into Microsoft products, the infrastructure becomes content-aware. The solution is designed to allow customers to centrally manage and apply their information security policies, based on user identity, to wherever information lives or is used.

Microsoft is an RSA DLP Suite customer, using the solution to enhance the security of data about payment, customers and intellectual property in thousands of its own file shares and Microsoft Office SharePoint sites. The company chose to work with EMC's RSA Security division based on the accuracy and scalability of the RSA DLP classification technology, and the wide array of its out-of-the-box policies.

"Our expanded partnership with EMC's RSA Security Division is centered on dramatically lowering the cost and complexity of information protection while allowing customers to take full advantage of perhaps their greatest asset: their information. The approach is about built-in solutions, versus bolted-on," said Douglas Leland, general manager of the Identity and Security Business Group at Microsoft. "This collaboration is also a key example of the Microsoft commitment to helping customers secure their environments, boost productivity and reduce IT costs through solutions that incorporate both identity and security technologies."

The first deliverable from the expanded partnership is a tight integration between RSA's DLP Suite and Microsoft rights management technology. Scheduled to ship later this month, version 6.5 of RSA's DLP Suite will include support for Microsoft Active Directory RMS, part of Windows Server 2008. The integration will allow customers to automatically apply RMS-based information access and usage policies, based on the sensitivity of information. In addition, the RSA solution's integration with Active Directory will help enable customers to efficiently implement data loss prevention controls tied to employee identity or group membership.

"Embedding information classification and protection capabilities throughout the infrastructure is an ideal way for an organization to prevent sensitive information leaks," says Gartner analyst Eric Ouellet. "The automatic application of rights management policies based on content awareness, context, and who is involved is a strong merger of two existing approaches for protecting an organization's sensitive information that together equal much more than the sum of their parts."

EMC offers a complete range of information security strategy, design and implementation services to help customers protect critical information, manage risk and integrate these solutions into their environments.

More information about RMS is available at www.microsoft.com/ida. Information about RSA DLP Suite is available at www.rsa.com/dlp.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

About RSA

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of security solutions for business acceleration, helping the world's leading organizations succeed by solving their most complex and sensitive security challenges. RSA's information-centric approach to security guards the integrity and confidentiality of information throughout its lifecycle - no matter where it moves, who accesses it or how it is used.

RSA offers industry-leading solutions in identity assurance & access control, data loss prevention, encryption & key management, compliance & security information management and fraud protection. These solutions bring trust to millions of user identities, the transactions that they perform, and the data that is generated. For more information, please visit www.RSA.com and www.EMC.com.

RSA is a registered trademark of RSA Security Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trade names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Forward Looking Statement

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (iv) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (v) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.'s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (vi) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vii) the relative and varying rates of product price and component cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (viii) component and product quality and availability; (ix) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (x) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xi) war or acts of terrorism; (xii) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xiii) fluctuating currency exchange rates; (xiv) the impact of any expense reduction initiatives; and (xv) other one-time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.