Application Security, Inc. Pledges $1 Million Of Database Security Software To Help Enterprises Battle Data Breaches

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, May 15, 2012 – In an effort to help organizations defend against the ongoing data breach epidemic, Application Security, Inc. (AppSecInc), the leading provider of database security solutions for the enterprise, today announced that it will give away up to one million dollars of database security software. Companies that choose to take advantage of the offer will receive a free one-year license of AppSecInc’s database security scanning and assessment tool. AppDetectivePro helps companies discover and identify all known and unknown databases on their network, scan for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, investigate database access control violations, and provide a wealth of knowledge for remediation.

It is no secret that data breaches continue to escalate. The Open Security Foundation’s DataLossDB website shows that in 2011 there were hundreds of millions of records breached, including over 330 million records coming from just the top 20 reported breaches worldwide.

Perhaps more alarming is the overall financial impact to breached organizations. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2011 Cost of a Data Breach Study, the average cost to organizations that experienced a data breach was $5.5 million. Additionally, the Ponemon report cited the average cost per breached record was $194, and escalated to as high as $334 depending on the industry.

Despite the astounding breach figures from the past year, Verizon’s 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report shows that 97% of breaches were avoidable through simple or intermediate controls. Incidentally, 96% of all compromised records came from databases.

“The numbers don’t lie – we have a very real and very serious data security problem on our hands,” said Thom VanHorn, Vice President of Global Marketing, AppSecInc. “But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Be it hacktivists, cyber criminals or malicious insiders, they all have one thing in common – they tend to prey on basic weaknesses and take the path of least resistance.”

Recognizing that organizations of all sizes continue to struggle in the battle against data breaches, AppSecInc decided to do something about it and provide a free one year license of AppDetectivePro, which retails for $2,000 per database instance.

Companies that take advantage of the free AppDetectivePro license will be able to easily perform:

Automated Database Discovery – The first step of defining your security risk posture is to know where you can be exploited. AppDetectivePro’s discovery will probe the network and identify every database by vendor and release level.

Database-Specific Vulnerability Assessments – With a policy driven scanning engine, AppDetectivePro identifies vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Issues identified include default or weak passwords, missing patches, poor access controls, and a host of other conditions.

Deep Analysis of User and Role Permissions -- AppDetectivePro User Rights Review conducts a scan-based review of user entitlements that automatically determines each user's effective privileges. This automation significantly reduces the time and resources required to effectively implement separation of duties controls.

Customizable Business Relevant Report Generation – AppDetectivePro’s reporting system allows organizations to easily report all database and application intelligence to appropriate stakeholders. Reporting options include: Inventory reports, Vulnerability Details and Summary reports, User Rights reports, Policy reports, and various others.

For further information about participating in the AppDetectivePro Challenge, please visit: http://info.appsecinc.com/appdetectivepromilliondollarfund.html.

VanHorn concluded, “I wouldn’t want to be the next database administrator, IT security or risk pro, CIO or even CEO to suffer a data breach that could have been avoided through simple or intermediate controls. Especially if I had access to a year’s worth of free database security software and didn’t take advantage of it.”

About Application Security, Inc. AppSecInc is a pioneer and leading provider of database security solutions for enterprise of all sizes. By providing easy to deploy and manage, highly scalable software-only solutions – AppDetectivePro for auditors and IT advisors, and DbProtect for the enterprise – AppSecInc helps customers achieve unprecedented levels of data security, while reducing overall risk and helping to ensure continuous regulatory and industry compliance. Used by more than 1,300 active commercial and government customers worldwide, our proven and award-winning enterprise solutions are backed by the world’s most comprehensive database security knowledgebase from the company’s renowned team of threat researchers, TeamSHATTER.

For more information, please visit: www.appsecinc.com and follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/appsecinc | www.twitter.com/teamshatter.

DbProtect and AppDetectivePro are trademarks of Application Security, Inc. All other product names, service marks, and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.