Westar Energy Deploys PGP Encryption

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- PGP Corporation, a global leader in enterprise data protection, today announced that Westar Energy, Inc. (NYSE: WR), the largest electric energy provider in Kansas, has implemented a PGP® solution consisting of PGP® Whole Disk Encryption and PGP Universal™ Server to help the company and its 2,200 employees safeguard valuable information stored on laptop computers. Widely deployed at thousands of businesses, government entities, and academic institutions worldwide, PGP Whole Disk Encryption has become a trusted solution for safeguarding confidential and proprietary data throughout an organization.

Westar Energy supplies electric service to approximately 673,000 customers in Kansas. The company has about 6,100 megawatts of electric generation capacity and operates and coordinates approximately 33,000 miles of electric distribution and transmission lines. Soon after the state of Kansas enacted legislation requiring customer notification in case of data breaches, Westar Energy sought a solution to protect its sensitive information, dealing with the most likely sources of a potential breach: the company’s laptop computers.

Ned Fleming, manager of IT security at Westar Energy, said, “Westar’s upper management had heard about data breaches at the VA, TJX, and the FBI due to lost laptops and quickly realized that such a negative event could dramatically impact our bottom line. The decision to implement the PGP solution was easy because we wanted to be responsible citizens and demonstrate that we value the data people entrust to us. PGP solutions are bulletproof, easy to install and maintain, and are built using widely understood and accepted standards.”

PGP Corp.