17 December 2009
Endace CTO Stuart Wilson joins international board of Open Information Security Foundation
Endace Limited (LSE/AIM: EDA), a world leader in high speed packet capture networking technology, today announced that Endace CTO, Stuart Wilson, will join the board of the newly formed Open Information Security Foundation (OISF), a community-backed initiative to develop the next generation of open source security products.
Support of the OISF has come from private donations as well as sponsorship from several leading international network security companies, including Endace. OISF has also received funding from the United States Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate as part of the Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) program. The Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) program is designed to help US federal, state and local government agencies realize technical, security and economic benefits made available through open source and open technology solutions.
OISF's first objective is to deliver an open-source Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Protection (IDS/IPS) engine before the end of 2009.
OISF Chairman, Matt Jonkman, says having Stuart Wilson on the board of OISF will contribute greatly to the project's momentum. "The members of OISF are totally committed to creating a valuable resource that can be used by everyone to secure and protect their networks. Endace has been working in this area for a number of years, and is very experienced in providing solutions for high-speed networks that enable all traffic on a network to be captured for inspection and analysis. With network speeds increasing exponentially, this experience will be invaluable in the creation of the OISF's next-generation IDS/IPS engine."
Stuart Wilson, Endace's CTO says Endace is 100% behind the OISF's efforts. "Protecting networks is already a major challenge, one which only increases as networks get faster and traffic loads increase" he says. "Network Security is becoming a community problem, the OISF and its backers are to be applauded for taking an open, inclusive approach to solving these problems, and producing an open-source, next-generation threat management solution that organizations will be able to leverage to protect their networks. Endace is committed to contributing to this work to ensure open source security solutions are available for government and commercial organizations."
In addition to joining the OISF's board, Wilson says Endace will continue to support the project through providing hardware resources and input from its engineering and R&D teams.
Network security is a great example of a problem that can be solved better with a collaborative open-source, product development approach, says Wilson. "A global team of experts working on the problem, the strong backing of both the US government and the support of industry leading companies all combine to provide this project with the horsepower it will need to ensure its success. The product will benefit hugely from being subject to peer-review by global experts in their fields, who can continue to improve it based on their experience from a wide-range of deployments in real-world scenarios."
Jonkman agrees. "Security is one area where an open-source approach has consistently demonstrated great success. There's nothing like having the widest possible audience of experienced practitioners able to contribute their expertise to ensure a product is robust and meets the needs of the industry," he says.
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CONTACTS:
Endace Limited, Tim Nichols, Marketing Director
Phone +64 9 926 2884, Mobile +64 22 642 4657, Email: tim.nichols@endace.com
About Endace
We provide high speed network traffic capture and analysis technology to global Telecommunications Providers, Government Agencies and Fortune 5000 enterprises. Our customers trust us to secure, monitor and protect some of the largest, fastest and most complex networks in the world.
Our multi-application platforms enable enterprises to power multiple security, latency measurement, lawful intercept, monitoring and measurement applications through our proven passive, high-speed, 100% traffic capture technology.
Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Endace also has offices in the UK, USA and Singapore. Quoted on AIM, the stock code is LSE: EDA.
About the Open Information Security Foundation
The Open Information Security Foundation (OISF) is a non-profit foundation organized to build a next generation IDS/IPS engine.
The OISF has formed a multi-national group of the leading software developers in the security industry. In addition to developers and a consortium consisting of leading cyber security companies, OISF has engaged the open source security community to identify current and future IDS/IPS needs and desires.
OISF's primary goal is to remain on the leading edge of open source IDS/IPS development, community needs and objectives. This is only attainable if you, the community, get involved. We welcome participation large and small and have built working groups and mailing lists to engage and educate all interested people and organizations.