Allison Transmission Deploys Courion's Compliance Manager for File Shares to Automate File Share Access Control Policies

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Aug. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Courion Corporation, the leading provider of Access Risk Management solutions that help organizations cost effectively deal with identity and access compliance and security risk, today announced that Allison Transmission has selected Courion's Compliance Manager for File Shares to mitigate security risks, prevent data breaches and demonstrate compliance by automating user access control policies to sensitive information stored in unstructured data repositories such as file shares. With Courion's Access Assurance Suite™ solution already in production, Allison Transmission has seamlessly deployed Compliance Manager for File Shares across 400 shared folders throughout the corporate network.

Allison Transmission, a global provider of commercial duty automatic transmissions and hybrid propulsion systems, had been controlling user access to more than 400 file shares housing important corporate data through antiquated processes.  Because these old processes were so labor intensive, Allison Transmission pursued a solution that would automate the process to create and review access control lists.

Compliance Manager for File Shares allows Allison Transmission to mitigate risk and demonstrate compliance by defining, assessing, enforcing and verifying automated user access controls to sensitive information stored in file shares. Using this solution, Allison Transmission's IT staff can perform user access reviews on files that have been identified as containing sensitive data and match them with the business managers who own them. Courion's Access Assurance Suite solution can then help business managers attest that employee access to sensitive information in file shares is in accordance with defined corporate security policies and industry regulations and automatically remediate user access when it is not.

"The way we were managing user access to more than 400 file shares was a daunting task. We were looking for an automated solution that would help us stream line our processes and significantly reduce the time it takes for our IT staff and business managers to perform user access reviews," said Jenny Sissom, IS&S security manager at Allison Transmission. "Courion's Compliance Manager for File Shares not only allows us to accomplish these goals, but also helps us to assess and mitigate risk by enforcing governance policies and reviewing user access to file shares on a regular basis."

Introduced in July 2010, Courion's Compliance Manager for File Shares enables organizations to control user access to and protect sensitive data in unstructured data repositories, such as file shares, including Excel spreadsheets, presentations, .pdf files, and audio, video and CAD files. Making use of its RiskAppraiser™ technology, the solution provides a comprehensive view of an organization's file share assets, ranked by the level of risk each represents. The risk associated with a file share, folder or file is determined by an analysis of the likelihood it could be compromised and the impact that action would cause. Through advanced risk scoring, the solution manages the deployment of controls commensurate with risk in order to help define, assess, enforce and verify proper access to unstructured data sources.

"Organizations are facing increased accessibility to even more sensitive data today, and file shares have a huge hand in this. Allison Transmission understands how critical it is to maintain awareness of where file shares reside on the corporate network, which employees or contractors have access to these files, and whether or not that access is appropriate," said Chris Sullivan, vice president of customer solutions at Courion. "Through its deployment of Compliance Manager for File Shares, Allison Transmission's IT professionals and business managers are able to derive the business intelligence they need to enhance their risk and compliance management strategies while protecting their organizations from unauthorized access to critical corporate data and resources."

Courion's unique risk-based approach to identity, access and compliance management ensures that only the right people have the right access to the right resources and are doing the right things. Access Assurance unifies Access Governance, Access Compliance and Access Provisioning in the most complex, heterogeneous environments. This comprehensive approach increases operational efficiency and transparency, strengthens security, and improves compliance, while delivering the industry's fastest time to value and lowest total cost of ownership.

About Allison Transmission

Allison Transmission is the world's largest manufacturer of fully-automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. military vehicles and hybrid-propulsion systems for transit buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (primarily school and transit), motor homes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (primarily energy and mining) and military vehicles (wheeled and tracked). Founded in 1915, the Allison business is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. and employs approximately 2,750 people. Regional headquarters with dedicated support staff are located in China, The Netherlands, Brazil, India and Japan. With a global presence in 80 countries, Allison has over 1,550 distributor and dealer locations. More information about Allison is available at www.allisontransmission.com.

About Courion

Courion's award-winning Access Assurance Suite solutions are used by nearly 500 organizations and over 14 million users worldwide to quickly and easily solve their most complex identity and access management (password management, provisioning, and role management), risk and compliance challenges. Courion's business-driven approach results in unparalleled customer success by ensuring users' access rights and activities are compliant with policy while supporting both security and business objectives.  For more information, please visit our website at www.courion.com, our blog at blog.courion.com/, or on Twitter at twitter.com/Courion.

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Courion is a registered trademark of Courion Corporation. Access Assurance Suite is a trademark of Courion Corporation. All rights reserved. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Courion