Vendors seek certification for app security tools

12.11.2004
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Jaikumar Vijayan schreibt unter anderem für unsere US-Schwesterpublikation CSO Online.

Four security software vendors this week announced an initiative aimed at giving IT managers a consistent way to evaluate Web application security tools from different companies.

As part of the effort, Teros Inc., Imperva Inc., NetContinuum Inc. and F5 Networks Inc. said they have established a proposed set of baseline criteria that products would have to meet to qualify as true application security products.

ICSA Labs, a Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based product testing and certification organization, will administer the new process and do third-party evaluations of application security tools. The initiative was detailed at the Computer Security Institute"s annual conference here.

The certification program is aimed at resolving some of the confusion that exists in the market over what truly constitutes a Web application security tool, said Wes Wasson, vice president of marketing at Santa Clara, Calif.-based NetContinuum. Many of the products that are now being sold offer little more than standard network-level protection, he said.

Growing interest in application-level security has caught the attention of large vendors that "unfortunately, are making marketing claims" that aren"t borne out by their products, said Mark Kraynak, director of product marketing at Foster City, Calif.-based Imperva.

The four originating vendors invited companies such as Cisco Systems Inc., Symantec Corp. and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. to submit their application security tools for evaluation under the certification program.

In an e-mail statement, a Cisco spokeswoman said the company "will evaluate the opportunity to determine participation." Check Point and Symantec also said they were considering the proposal.

Greg Young, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said application-level firewalls "are a fairly new technology, and this should simplify the process of product selection for buyers."

Similar baseline standards already exist for conventional network firewalls and are similarly administered by ICSA, Young said.