Unveils Increased Customization and Automation for Testing of Defenses; Enhanced Encryption, Authentication and Expanded Platform Support
BOSTON - December 18, 2006 - Core Security Technologies, provider of CORE IMPACT, the first-to-market penetration testing product for assessing specific information security risks, today announced CORE IMPACT 6.2, an enhanced edition of the company's flagship software product designed to help companies easily and efficiently test their network security policies. CORE IMPACT 6.2 includes enhancements that enable organizations to more effectively test their security defenses against increasingly prevalent client-side attacks that rely on social engineering, such as spear phishing and e-mails with malicious content. The new version also features enhanced encryption and authentication capabilities to help testers more easily meet secure communication requirements during penetration tests, as well as expanded target platform support for testing networks with AIX™ systems.
"The threat landscape constantly shifts. Currently, the endpoint is the most prevalent target. Existing vulnerability management solutions sometimes find it difficult to keep pace with the mix of technical and nontechnical attack vectors," said Charles Kolodgy, research director, Secure Content and Threat Management program at IDC. "To deal with this situation, customers should consider a solution that offers penetration testing to simulate attackers' technical methods along with an analysis of nontechnical or social engineering threats, as well. This will improve enterprises' ability to assess their real security risks."
According to the latest SANS Top 20 update for 2006, the increase in client-side vulnerabilities continues to gain momentum. The report also points to an increase in the number and severity of user-initiated threats such as phishing and spear phishing, and recommends that organizations undertake "safe phishing" as one of the best methods for averting these types of attacks. CORE IMPACT 6.2 introduces new functionality to make it easier for organizations to accurately assess their vulnerability to client-side attacks and to customize, perform and repeat safe phishing attacks to measure the effectiveness of their security defenses as well as their user security awareness initiatives.
"Businesses are recognizing the severity of client-side attacks and are demanding solutions that help them accurately evaluate their potential exposure," said Paul Paget, CEO of Core Security. "With this release of CORE IMPACT, we continue to respond directly to customer requests for safe, secure technology that enables them to assess the risks they face and determine the effectiveness of their existing security investments and end user education programs."
E-mail Customization and Automation for Client-Side Exploits That Require Social Engineering - CORE IMPACT 6.2 features new, easy-to-use templates that allow security professionals to efficiently and effectively tailor client-side attacks to reflect the latest social engineering attack trends. Because both content and appearance of communications play a key role in establishing trust to solicit recipient action in attacks such as spear phishing and e-mails containing malicious attachments, Core Security has enhanced CORE IMPACT so that e-mails sent as part of a client-side penetration test can now be easily customized via new HTML templates. Penetration testers can also now save and reuse e-mail templates across different tests, as well as take advantage of several different existing templates already built into the product. In addition, testers can now automatically send e-mail to a group of targets, with content personalized with particular information about each specific recipient.
Strong Authentication and Encryption for In-memory Agent - With CORE IMPACT 6.2, Core Security continues to add important capabilities to its unique patent-pending agent technology by providing additional safety mechanisms to improve the security of the penetration testing process. With this release, IMPACT's in-memory agent can now utilize strong authentication and encrypted communications without requiring the installation of any additional software on the compromised computer. This provides additional security while minimizing impact to the tested network. Additional new agent capabilities in CORE IMPACT 6.2 include the ability to run a complete system shell from the in-memory agent, and the option of configuring the agent to survive system restarts in the cases where the penetration test spans multiple days of work.
Increased Target Platform Support - Expanding its current available support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X and OpenBSD, CORE IMPACT 6.2 now supports testing networks with AIX systems. Extending the industry's most comprehensive penetration testing platform required enhancements in information gathering, the agent, logging and reporting, user interface and exploit support libraries, including payload generation. Exploits for all supported platforms are updated on a regular basis corresponding to regular IMPACT updates.
CORE IMPACT 6.2 also features additional new enhancements throughout the product, including:
Enhanced Information Gathering - IMPACT's unique Rapid Penetration Test (RPT) now leverages IMPACT's fast port scanning engine to perform network discovery utilizing a variety of TCP ports, improving the chances of successful host detection in situations where network filtering is in place. In addition, a new UDP service identification capability ensures proper identification of active UDP services during the Information Gathering phase.
Improved Product Configuration - Global network settings in CORE IMPACT are now consolidated into a single section within the Options dialog. Proxy and proxy authentication settings for downloading exploit and module updates can now be configured globally, and can optionally be inherited from Internet Explorer's settings.
Support for Internet Explorer 7 - IMPACT 6.2 now supports running on systems with IE 7.
CORE IMPACT 6.2 is available immediately at no additional charge for all existing IMPACT customers with a valid current license.
About Core Security Technologies
Core Security Technologies develops strategic solutions that help security-conscious organizations worldwide develop and maintain a proactive process for securing their networks. The company's flagship product, CORE IMPACT, is the first automated penetration testing product for assessing specific information security threats to an organization. Penetration testing evaluates overall network security and identifies what resources are exposed. It enables organizations to determine if current security investments are detecting and preventing attacks. Core augments its leading technology solution with world-class security consulting services, including penetration testing, software security auditing and related training. Based in Boston, MA and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Core Security Technologies can be reached at 617-399-6980 or on the Web at http://www.coresecurity.com .
Contacts:
Dave Bowker or Tim Whitman
Schwartz Communications
781 684-0770
coresecurity@schwartz-pr.com