Tivoli last week launched its privacy initiative with an offering that simplifies the definition and enforcement of privacy policies for handling customer data gathered on the Internet.
The new Tivoli SecureWay Privacy Manager is the first tool to link security technology with business policies, according to Dennis Szerszen, director of security strategies at Hurwitz Group. "There's a lot of products that let you administer from a policy perspective. This is the first tool that administers policy and gives you a list of rules that let you adhere to the privacy laws out there now," Szerszen said.
Most organisations addressing the privacy issue develop their own programs to manage access to such data, said Carl Kessler, vice president and general manager of Tivoli SecureWay.
"But that requires strong security skills, which are hard to find," Kessler said.
The tool, built on Tivoli's Policy Director, provides an authentication engine that controls who gets access to data and applications. "Privacy Manager takes simply defined rules, described using words such as 'personally identifiable information,' and transforms [them] into simple configuration profiles on the screen. Then the engine executes it," Kessler said.
The tool, intended to execute policies on the Web or e-commerce application servers, does not provide security, but it does ensure that only the appropriate people in an organisation can access individual customer data.
The software, which runs on Windows NT as well as Solaris, AIX and HP-UX, is due next quarter. Pricing has not yet been set. Tivoli can be reached at www.tivoli.com.
