Security

Microsoft and EMC's RSA on Thursday announced an expanded technology partnership around digital rights management in the enterprise.

There are two parts to the announcement, said Douglas Leland, general manager of the Identity and Security Business Group at Microsoft. One, Microsoft will build RSA's Data Loss Prevention (DLP) prevention classification into the Microsoft IT platform and future information protection products.

The other part of the announcement, said Leland, is that RSA will in turn integrate Microsoft's Active Directory Right Management System (RMS) into its DLP product. "This makes RSA's DLP solution identity-aware."

Microsoft and EMC said their solution is different from other DLP solutions on the market because it is thoroughly integrated within the platform, not layered on. For example, Microsoft will start by adding RSA's DLP 6.5 to Windows Server 2008. Other Microsoft products to be included in the program are Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint.

For the user, the process is transparent, happening entirely on the back end. "(This technology will) assist the user in such a way that they don't have to make a choice in what information they have to protect," said Christopher Young, senior vice president of products at RSA. Whenever sensitive documents are traded via Exchange or SharePoint, the ability to read only, print, or not print will be controlled automatically by the policies set by the CIO or other security officers.