Security managers and executives at other companies around the globe are thinking more like Schwartz, who is now the senior vice president of operations for Waltham, Mass.-based system security vendor Guardent, every day. And with security on everyone’s mind, vendors are lining up with new tools for keeping invaders at bay. From intrusion detection tools to XML-based security options, the choices increase--and become more sophisticated--each year. Boston-based consultancy Yankee Group predicts the market for network and computer security to reach more than $10 billion by 2003, up from $2.3 billion in 1998.

For a global company like Nationwide, the most important aspect of security is finding a way to lock down its network perimeter. The company’s complicated and far-reaching array of wide area networks, extranets and servers--not to mention its 50,000 employees--helped create an environment vulnerable to visits from unauthorized users, viruses and malicious attacks.

"We used to assume we were like a castle where you could draw a big moat around [the network] and only lower the drawbridge when you wanted the good guys to come in," Schwartz says. But today’s reality--which includes Internet businesses and extranet B2B relationships--forced Nationwide to provide access to systems that were previously hidden behind walls.

To deal with potential new chinks in the network armor, last year Schwartz chose LogiKeep Intelligence Alert, a tool that warns companies about security threats before they become dire. The service, from Dublin, Ohio-based LogiKeep (which was recently purchased by another vendor, Parsippany, N.J.-based Vigilinx), scours a variety of websites to identify potential threats, such as viruses and software security holes, as quickly as possible. It then disseminates that information to its customers so that they can take immediate action. To customize the service, LogiKeep requires that clients fill out templates that describe the operating systems, hardware, applications, firewalls and other technology employed in the company’s networks.

Before implementing the LogiKeep product, Nationwide "might not have known something was wrong until somebody started complaining," Schwartz notes. "Now the company can eliminate a lot of problems before they happen because the information is provided in a timely manner and has been adequately analyzed and thought through."

Nationwide’s adoption of LogiKeep is just the kind of proactive thinking more companies should pursue, says Matthew Kovar, director of security solutions and services for e-networks and broadband access at The Yankee Group. Tools like those from LogiKeep and competitors Para-Protect Services in Centreville, Va., and iDefense in Fairfax, Va., are at the forefront of the proactive security trend, he says.