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JANUS
Associates, Inc. is the oldest independent
Information Technology consultancy in the
United States and has been serving the needs
of clients for over 20 years. This success
is based on its ability to provide both
quality services and enabling technologies
in the field of information risk management,
security, recovery and forensics. This history
is the longest of any company in the country
and testifies to a JANUS commitment to support
clients over the long term. This degree
of longevity and stability is the result
of a highly respected work ethic, a quality
often missing in the consulting world today.
CONSULTING
EXPERTISE
Two
information security experts, committed
to information security, EDP audits, disaster
recovery and other types of controls, formed
JANUS in 1988. Coming from long-term careers
with IBM, JANUS’ founders were quickly
recognized as experts in MVS mainframe security
assessments and contingency planning for
disaster recovery. As a special note of
distinction, one of the founders conducted
security evaluations for NASA before and
after the Challenger accident.
As
information systems evolved into distributed
networks so, too, did JANUS’ professional
services expand to include all of today’s
leading operating systems, protocols, and
platforms.
ENTERPRISE-WIDE RISK MANAGEMENT
& SECURITY
In 1989 JANUS took on its
first major enterprise-wide security engagement
by conducting a comprehensive, multi-facility
review and assessment for the Aetna Insurance
Company. Follow-on Aetna projects included
a security database design/implementation,
application design, security strategy development
and business process re-engineering.
Significant
projects followed with firms like GTE Directories
where JANUS provided system administration
capabilities in managing the write-off of
outdated, lost and stolen software/hardware,
as well as in conducting business impact
analyses and providing disaster recovery
assistance. Southern New England Telephone
requested JANUS to undertake physical as
well as information security tasks for the
entire corporation.
Recent
JANUS clients have been as diverse as the
Social Security Administration, Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal
Reserve Board, Charles Schwab and Company,
the Federal Aviation Administration, VISA
International, Santee Cooper (utilities),
Oxy/Permian (an Occidental Petroleum company),
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
where JANUS continues to provide leadership
in significant enterprise-wide endeavors.
SETTING
THE STANDARD
In
1992/93 JANUS, as part of an ongoing series
of assignments in support of NASA's International
Space Station, established the criteria
by which the software development facility
security program would be measured (overseen
by Lockheed). Periodic security vulnerability
assessments were conducted using these standards
and the criteria were then moved to all
prime contractors in support of the Space
Station effort. In addition, JANUS conducted
security awareness and training seminars
for contractor employees, prepared technical
RFP documentation, and completed both business
resumption and disaster recovery plans for
Lockheed.
VETERAN STAFF
In its early days, JANUS
adopted the philosophy of placing more of
its senior level staff in consulting assignments
than most other organizations were doing
– a strategy that clients have found
to be of great benefit, and a practice that
continues today.
Staffed
with veterans from such well-known organizations
as IBM, the Travelers, Raytheon and the
State University of New York, the varied
backgrounds of JANUS staff members have
resulted in a combination of educational,
business and technical experience unique
to both industry and government today.
With
its depth of knowledge, JANUS staff is often
called upon to speak, publish, and teach
on both the management and technical levels.
THE TECHNICAL PROFESSIONALS
Because of its commitment
to using veterans in the field, clients
and associates alike soon regarded JANUS
as experts in penetration testing, information
systems controls, risk management, and contingency
planning. JANUS confronts complex technical
issues for its clients; thereby helping
them eliminate the need for additional skilled,
full-time staff. Not only do JANUS staff
members possess the technical expertise
themselves, but they also believe in, and
are thus able to achieve, knowledge transfer
to clients, thereby increasing their skills
as well.
This
fact was recognized in 1993/94 when IBM
engaged JANUS to develop comprehensive curricula
for information and network security, business
recovery, and information auditing.
JANUS
developed twenty-five security awareness
and training classes for IBM. These classes,
to be marketed to IBM's own customer set,
were to be taught by either IBM or JANUS
instructors. A primary requirement was for
comprehensive, high quality supporting material
to accompany each curriculum so that more
than one instructor could teach the modules.
THE BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS
In addition to its technical
skills, JANUS staff has the business experience
to understand not only the relative value
of information, but also its impact to the
organization. The firm's extensive experience
within a broad spectrum of settings provides
clients an objective, balanced perspective.
Through this approach, JANUS assists clients
in achieving a proper balance between cost
and security needs.
JANUS is exceptional in having the ability
to apply a blend of both technical and business
expertise. This combination of knowledge,
added to its international and domestic
experience, gives JANUS a leading edge in
providing thorough, well balanced solutions
that are appropriate to an organization's
situation or business need.
In
1994 Microsoft recognized the significance
of JANUS’ blended experience, a important
factor contributing to its decision to engage
JANUS to conduct Microsoft’s first
corporate-wide Business Impact Analysis.
This, then, became a prelude to the remainder
of Microsoft’s business recovery efforts.
TELECOM/TELEPHONY
In 1995 JANUS added telephony
services as a consulting specialty.
Asea
Brown Boveri, a nuclear facility, utilized
this capability when JANUS undertook its
continuity plan for corporate telecommunications.
Being able to communicate during a nuclear
disaster is one of the most critical needs
for the nuclear industry. Given the importance
of its telecommunications, it is significant
that ABB entrusted JANUS with the task,
rather than using a much larger telecommunications
firm.
SOFTWARE
JANUS moved into the software
market when it discovered a commercial demand
for a technology tool that it had developed
for its own use. This tool had allowed JANUS
consultants to rapidly perform detailed
and thoroughly documented information security
reviews. It was subsequently marketed as
I.C.U...MVS.
I.C.U...MVS
has been utilized by Big Four accounting
firms in their mainframe audits, as well
as by such prestigious organizations as
AT&T, the Canadian Department of Defense,
and the U.S. Government.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
With a secure laboratory
at its headquarters facility, JANUS commits
technical resources on a permanent basis
to research new detection tools and the
improvement of testing methodologies.
JANUS
also recognizes the need for improved e-commerce
security tools to better enable organizations
to deal with this new economic order.
COMPUTER
FORENSICS
With
an already established reputation for its
high ethics, its credentialed experts, and
its broad knowledge in the field of information
security, it was not surprising when the
legal community began calling upon JANUS
to assist in the electronic discovery of
evidence - a field now popularly referred
to as computer forensics.
By
the end of 1998, JANUS had combined its
work with security investigations/fraud
examinations with its electronic discovery/breach
response and prevention services to form
a separate computer forensics offering.
JANUS
furthered its commitment to the field in
1999 when it organized and underwrote the
first Law Enforcement “Bridge”
Project in New York City – a community
service project directed at bringing business
leaders and law enforcement agencies together
in the fight against electronic crime.
E-COMMERCE
As
Internet usage exploded in both business
and industry, JANUS responded to the need
for e-commerce services. It added to its
staff professionals who had been involved
in some of the first Internet security incidences
reported to the FBI. JANUS currently provides
web-based consulting involving web-design;
secure web connectivity to back-office systems;
virtual private network design and implementation;
PKI enabling technologies; firewall/router/switch
design, implementation, testing, and design
services; and the design and implementation
of anonymous site structures and setups.
Recognizing
the sophistication and “out-of-the-box”
thinking of JANUS consultants, a select
branch of the government chose JANUS over
six other vendors to architect and implement
secure connectivity to the Internet in 1999.
The challenge was to ensure the agency’s
entire operation could meet their needs
for e-commerce, but also warrant that their
internal data remain locked-away from unauthorized
insiders, hackers or otherwise.
GROWTH AND COMMITMENT
JANUS now operates in four
cities including Baltimore, Washington,
DC and Boston as well as at its corporate
headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
JANUS
employees share in its ownership and, as
a result, are totally committed to increasing
the Company’s stature as a force in
the information security market.
JANUS
staff can analyze situations very quickly
(having seen many similar problems previously),
and can also synthesize and develop results
so that they are meaningful and clear. Thus,
clients receive a more in-depth analysis
and ultimately, recommendations focused
on each problem found, not on generalities.
And, due to the capabilities (and low turn-over)
of the consulting staff, JANUS can implement
solutions and maintain relevant processes
on an on-going basis.
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