Secure Data, a member of the JSE-listed ERP.com Group, and the exclusive southern African distributor for BorderWare security software, today announced that the latter had once again set an industry milestone with the award of a Common Criteria EAL4+ certification for the MXtreme Mail Firewall, the first such award for an e-mail security product.
MXtreme is BorderWare's comprehensive e-mail security appliance designed to protect corporate mail systems from a wide range of security threats. This certification provides organisations with a clear standard for their mission critical e-mail systems.
The MXtreme Mail Firewall provides e-mail security beyond the usual spam and anti-virus controls offered by many vendors and provide them with in-depth defence against a complete range of threats to e-mail. Analysts have already identified the need for such products and predicted rapid expansion in this market. MXtreme's EAL4+ certification places it clearly in the number one position in this rapidly growing sector.
"This award is the third Common Criteria EAL4+ certification gained by BorderWare Technologies, an achievement unbeaten by any other firewall vendor," commented Peter Cox, International Vice-President of BorderWare Technologies.
"MXtreme is not only the first e-mail security product to pass the exacting EAL4 standards, but the only e-mail security product known to have been submitted for this level of certification. Other e-mail security vendors simply have not recognised the importance of building their products on a solid security foundation."
Recognised in 16 countries, including the UK and the US, Common Criteria is an independent international standard that provides assurance to users that the product's security has been rigorously tested. EAL4 certification gives assurance that the solution is not susceptible to holes and vulnerabilities, and that vendor's development and support processes have also been audited. Many government departments, military organisations and an increasing number of commercial organisations require that products installed at the network perimeter hold this level of certification.
"One of the biggest benefits to customers is that Common Criteria EAL4 certification assures them that the product in question has undergone a rigorous independent vulnerability analysis and penetration testing," continued Cox. "Third-party vulnerability tests are the only way to ensure that a security product is well-designed and configured, minimising the chance of system compromise through hidden vulnerabilities. Lower levels of Common Criteria certification, such as EAL2, require only developer vulnerability testing. The danger of relying on the developer to carry out these tests is that errors and assumptions made in design and development are likely to be repeated in testing, thereby increasing the risk of overlooking product weaknesses."
In its recent report on improving the cyber security readiness in the US, the National Cyber Security Partnership recommends that the federal government demand that products undergo certification under the Common Criteria for "vulnerability analysis" as a procurement requisite. Vulnerability analysis specifically tests applications for software defects and other weaknesses such as buffer overflows. Independent vulnerability analysis is currently only applied on products that undergo certification at EAL4 or higher.
Mxtreme
MXtreme Mail Firewall is the benchmark for e-mail security. It installs at the network edge to deliver the most comprehensive perimeter security for an organisation's email infrastructure. MXtreme protects against denial-of-service attacks like MyDoom, buffer overflows, directory harvesting, spam, viruses, and other vulnerabilities that could paralyse e-mail communications. MXtreme also provides the industry's first failsafe clustering architecture for high availability to ensure zero downtime, zero latency and zero message loss.
For further information, please contact Dean Brazier at telephone (011) 257 8600; fax (011) 257 8699; e-mail deanb@sd.co.za.
Share
BorderWare Technologies Inc is the security appliances company. The company's MXtreme Mail Firewall appliance installs at the network edge to deliver the most comprehensive perimeter security for an organisation's e-mail infrastructure. MXtreme protects against denial-of-service attacks like MyDoom, buffer overflows, directory harvesting, spam, viruses, and other vulnerabilities that could paralyse e-mail communications. More than 1 500 systems are deployed in 34 countries at various military, intelligence, defence, national security agencies and corporations. BorderWare has affiliations and partnerships with some of the industry's most prominent companies in Internet infrastructure and security including Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, RSA Security, Research In Motion (RIM), Brightmail, Kaspersky Labs, BlueCat Networks, Network Engines and SSH Communications Security.
Secure Data
SecureData, an ERP.com company, is Africa's premier IT security solution provider. SecureData's solutions incorporate antivirus and content security, network security, intrusion detection software, and network asset management. SecureData's comprehensive "Managed Security Services" include design, audit, implementation, outsourcing and hosting. SecureData distributes, sells and supports category leading IT security products to the public, corporate and SME sectors throughout Africa as well as products and services to the SOHO and consumer markets through partnerships with ISPs. As well as being the sole distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa for and Trend Micro, SecureData is the southern African distributor for USA-based BorderWare, UK-based Centennial and US-based RSA Security. For more information, visit SecureData at www.sd.co.za.
ERP.com
ERP.com is a JSE-listed company focused on the implementation, integration and management of enterprise applications in an e-business environment. For more information, visit ERP.com at www.erpcom.co.za.
Editorial contacts