Absolute Secure Endpoint Protects Sensitive Oil and Gas Exploration Data on Hundreds of Laptops Used Worldwide
Tullow Oil is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company operating in 22 countries worldwide. The company has a strong presence in Africa, where it is opening up new basins and helping to establish new oil-producing countries such as Ghana and Uganda and a growing presence in Asia. Tullow Oil is headquartered in London and has a worldwide workforce of over 900. The company’s shares are listed on the London, Irish, and Ghana Stock Exchanges, and the business is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Safeguard Commercially Sensitive Data
One of the most critical assets for Tullow Oil is its information—especially geological information and data about new oil finds and areas of potential discovery. But, invariably, the location of existing and new oil reserves is often in some of the world’s most remote and inhospitable regions where there is a high risk of theft or crime. Tullow Oil staff, who travel extensively to these regions, need access to this data wherever they happen to be.
The company has a number of data protection measures in place, including data encryption. Still, it also wanted to put in place a means of securing and protecting devices, especially when they are used abroad. Since they started using Absolute Secure Endpoint, Tullow Oil has been able to protect important business data.
Absolute is now a key part of our data security measures because almost every time we've had a laptop stolen or mislaid, it allows us to prevent anyone from accessing the data. For a business like Tullow Oil, this capability is very important.
How They Did It
Manage and Wipe Stolen Devices, No Matter Where They Are
In one instance, a laptop was stolen from a car in Ghana. Almost immediately after the user reported the stolen laptop to headquarters in London, Seeney, and her team were able to use Absolute Secure Endpoint to delete the data from the computer. Via the cloud-based Absolute Console from her office in London, Seeney was able to launch the data delete capability, which instantly wiped the laptop’s hard drive in Ghana as soon as this device connected to the Web.
Protect Data on Mislaid Devices
Absolute Secure Endpoint has also proved to be equally valuable in less threatening situations. In situations when laptops have been mislaid, Absolute Secure Endpoint has been used to remotely lock the device rather than performing a data delete. This means that when the laptop is found again, it can be unlocked by an administrator. All the user’s data and settings are preserved, and they avoid the trouble and delay required to get the laptop image rebuilt.
Keeping Sensitive Data Safe on Hundreds of Devices Around the World
Tullow Oil is now looking at how Absolute can protect other mobile devices. “For Tullow Oil, saving money has not really been the main issue,” said Seeney. “It is the security of knowing that wherever our laptops might be in the world, we have a solution like Absolute Secure Endpoint to protect the data on them.”
For the Tullow Oil team, Absolute Secure Endpoint:
- Ensures commercially sensitive data is protected anywhere in the world
- Protects data on innocently mislaid laptops without wiping the device
- Controls and limits the use of laptops to specific regions anywhere in the world
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