Windows: What is the PK Protect?

PK Protect is a data protection platform that uses encryption and other technologies to ensure the information your organization considers sensitive is secured in a way that supports company policies and procedures.  It works at both the folder and file level, so the protection remains with the data wherever is resides, even when it is shared or copied outside your network.

PK Protect has two important components for endpoint data protection, the PEM Administrator and the PEM Agent.

The PEM Administrator is used to configure policies that define what sensitive information looks like in your environment, and the actions to take when that data is found. PEM Administrator accomplishes this by distributing instructions to PEM agents, running on desktop machines and servers throughout the enterprise. As a result, the PEM Agent automatically executes its instructions to ensure sensitive data is identified and protected as per the policies defined for your organization in the PEM Administrator.

The actions PK Protect can execute are described below:

• Discovery – The ability to automatically identify the presence of information defined as sensitive, inside of files.
• Classification – Marking a file with a designation of its importance or secrecy in a visual way; so that users interacting with the file understand the guidelines by which they should share, concealed or manage the information.
• File Encryption – The process of protecting a file with a cryptographic algorithm to ensure only certain, designated individuals can access the information in its original form. File encryption remains with the file persistently, wherever it resides inside or outside the organization.
• Data at Rest Encryption - A folder or other location configured to automatically encrypts any file that’s placed into it, and keeps the files encrypted as long as they reside in the designated location.  
• Compression – A technique used to reduce the size of a file to maximize storage space or make file sharing and transmission activities faster.