Compression giant PKWare moves into secure data sharing

Compression specialist PKWare launches a new product this week that will enable the secure exchange of information between firms without raising time-consuming and costly implementation and interoperability problems.

PartnerLink is a version of the company’s SecureZip file encryption and digital-signing product. It provides a platform for secure data transfer between an enterprise and its business partners or customers, irrespective of their existing IT security infrastructures.

Organisations purchasing SecureZip with the PartnerLink option will be able to provide partners with a free SecureLink version of the tool over the web.

Once implemented, all parties will be able to use the encryption capabilities, which work across all major platforms, including Windows, Unix, Linux and mainframe systems, according to the firm’s vice-president of international operations, Todd McLees.

“It has been theoretically possible to send something [from one] desktop or server [to another] in a very secure way, but it always meant the sender and receiver had to purchase the same software,” McLees said. “We’ve paid attention to what our customers have been saying [and removed] these compatibility issues.”

If data transfers need extra security, organisation can apply passwords, digital signatures and certificate-based encryption to the same file, according to McLees.

Pricing depends on the customer’s computing platforms, and starts at around £25,000 for a Windows server system.