PITTSBURGH, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- An industry expert on data encryption will share his insights on preventing data security breaches, an increasingly important topic, at a seminar for data storage professionals to be held here in Pittsburgh this week.

Patrick McGregor, President and Chief Executive Officer at BitArmor Systems(TM) ( http://www.bitarmor.com/ ), will speak on "Enterprise Data Security" at the Storage Networking Industry Association's (SNIA) fifth annual Summer Security Summit, hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. He will address the growing importance of data encryption to retail companies and other firms, along with the lessons companies of all sizes must learn to help keep data secure from unauthorized access.

McGregor will tell conference attendees that data theft has increasingly become an organized effort; data breaches, he notes, can cost companies more than $100 per record, meaning the unauthorized access of just one spreadsheet could easily result in millions of dollars in remediation charges to a firm. The remediation is, many cases, mandated by an increasing number of state and Federal consumer protection regulations.

McGregor will posit that software that enables enterprise-wide data encryption is emerging as an absolute must for firms. But he will note that the largest challenge comes in designing encryption software that operates in an invisible manner to end users, in such a way that they can continue to do their jobs without having to perform additional steps or memorize passwords.

"Traditional 'point' defenses are not working," said McGregor. "With storage capacity doubling every year, companies must take steps to ensure the safety of the data at every step in its lifecycle. In the retail sector, the payment card industry's rules clearly state that powerful encryption is a key enabler in preventing hackers from accessing credit card numbers and other personal information."

Introduced last year, the BitArmor Security Suite is a next-generation data security software solution that enables enterprises of all sizes to protect and encrypt their sensitive data at every stage of the data lifecycle, including while the data is in flight and stored on any media. By delivering advanced data security and management capabilities, BitArmor helps companies greatly reduce security management costs, comply with data security legislation, and provide risk mitigation for sensitive data.

SNIA's Summer Security Summit will be held at Carnegie Mellon University's Collaborative Innovation Center.

About BitArmor Systems

BitArmor Systems ( http://www.bitarmor.com/ ) offers a next-generation data security and data lifecycle management solution that can efficiently protect and encrypt any data in flight over any network and stored on any media. With BitArmor technologies, enterprises of all sizes can comprehensively protect sensitive data, manage the entire data lifecycle, and greatly reduce security management costs.

CONTACT: Melissa Rich of BitArmor Systems, +1-412-682-2200, ext. 319,
mrich@bitarmor.com ; or Steve Friedberg of MMI Communications for BitArmor
Systems, +1-610-518-7474, steve@mmicommunications.net

Web site: http://www.bitarmor.com/