Security Architecture & Implementation

Architecting, designing, and implementing today’s IT solutions is not solely about the speed with which they get completed. It also is a major exercise in how to make sure they operate correctly and avoid the many security issues that are plaguing organizations. Examples of the ways in which JANUS can help you address these needs are described below in detail.

Cloud Security

Many organizations are currently either moving to, or planning to move various operations to the Cloud. Whether you utilize Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), or Platform as a Service (PaaS), each can be used for part or all of your operations. Hosting can take the form of public, private or hybrid clouds but there are many things you need to consider beyond costs themselves. JANUS can assist you in deciding the most efficient, cost effective and secure way to migrate to the Cloud.

We regularly help our clients determine the risk of moving to various Cloud providers. We also assess Cloud sites, as an independent third party that completely understands the security issues and compliance needs of our customers. Other clients ask us to make our technical skills available to advise them on how to incorporate security measures as they begin moving their functions to Cloud providers.

Whatever your Cloud security and recovery needs might be, JANUS will work with you to meet your timetable and needs.

Internet of Things (IoT)

As more and more technology becomes integrated with the Internet, new security and resilience issues continue to arise. For product developers JANUS has special services dealing with tying products to the Internet in a secure manner, lessening exposure to breaches and focusing on data moving to its intended location, not somewhere else. Designing what your device and/or software do to protect user data and not put data or hardware at risk is far simpler to build into your early stage plans but much more difficult to accomplish later in the design/implementation cycle or after production. If your solution handles Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Personal Health Information (PHI), you have a legal responsibility to protect that data and the consequences for a data spill can be catastrophic from both a financial and reputational loss.

We can assist you as your security experts during the early design and deployment stages; assess new technology as it progresses through the build cycle, and perform final assessments to determine residual security flaws both in the product itself and also in the backend. All of this is designed to help you provide better products that work correctly and that are also secure.

Identity & Access Management (IAM)

A significant percentage of data breaches result from unauthorized access to sensitive data including Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI). In addition, corporate confidential information and proprietary information such as intellectual property, and sales & marketing plans often leave a site without prior consent or knowledge. The continued advancement of identity and access management solutions to role-based security has also led to an increase in complexity. JANUS experts can help you assure that only the right individuals can access sensitive information according to organizational requirements and policies. Technology, including software solutions, increasingly is moving to eliminate manual errors and improve the security over functions. However, solutions must be carefully planned and well implemented, or security exposures may inadvertently arise.

JANUS security professionals will work with you on your IAM needs whether you are focused on Single sign-on (SSO), application implementation, access control, or any of the other many aspects of acquiring and implementing an IAM solution or process.

Network Security and Performance Management

All organizations need to focus on a balance between network performance and security. Too much security at times can slow down performance and hamper rapid business turnaround; too little can result in confusion and/or breaches. JANUS network experts understand how to balance your specific business needs with today’s information security requirements. We help you narrow potential risks to a level that you and your management determines acceptable and appropriate for your environment.

Network performance is a key element in employee and business productivity, and all of us have heard the refrain “the network is slow today.” JANUS helps minimize network performance issues and optimize your environment by examining the performance of your networks; streamlining outdated implementations; assessing or designing improved architectures; and implementing needed updates and changes. These steps often result in better network performance without the need and expense of additional hardware.

Application Security

Applications are designed and written by programmers who often do not know how to code securely, or who consider security an afterthought. This is not necessarily their fault, they are programmers, not security experts. In some cases, older applications were written long before security was a major concern and the result is that these applications may be subject to exploitation. Unfortunately for most organizations, newer applications often suffer from the same coding issues that leave them vulnerable to attack. To complicate matters, users are often forced to rely on the word of the software developer. What developer have you ever met is going to tell you that its code is insecure? JANUS understands application security and can work with you to assess the cyber-hygiene of your applications, their strength and weaknesses, and if they can withstand today’s enormous security pressures from attackers. Using advanced methods, client applications can also be tested to applicable standards such as ISO 27001, NIST 800, HIPAA, PCI, FISMA, NERC, SOX and many others. We look for problem areas including cross-site scripting, session management, various types of injection attacks, distributed denials-of-service potential, and brute force attacks, encryption, and many other types of issues.

Conducting an application security assessment gives you a realistic view of how secure your application is or if it is not. Testing your applications allows you time to think carefully about what type of remediation you might want to implement, rather than being rushed into a quick solution as the result of an incident or loss.

Business Transformation – New and Emerging Technologies

Most IT and Information Security managers are overworked and understaffed these days. Resource constraints or lack of available skills puts constant pressure on IT professionals daily. The cost of hiring and onboarding experts who can assist you with your technology in a variety of ways and perform as your expert staff has become increasingly difficult.

In addition, with the rapid advance of technology, staff skills can be quickly outdated leaving you with less than capable resources.

JANUS fills this gap by providing unbiased security experts who can assist you in a variety of ways. Several examples include:

• Investigating new technology and providing briefings
• Assessing the qualifications and issues of identified technologies to meet your needs
• Developing technology Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• Evaluating vendor proposals
• Implementing new technology
• Advising on emerging industry trends and technologies