11.17.2009 – Waltham, MA – Bit9, Inc., the pioneer and leader in Enterprise Application Whitelisting, today announced it is offering Bit9 Software Audit for the Enterprise (SAFE), a free service that discovers and reports on risk: stemming from the unauthorized, illegal and rogue software in an organization.
The service is offered to Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) who are looking for greater visibility and control over the software being installed within their organizations by end-users.
The lack of endpoint management in organizations can result in unauthorized change and undesirable configurations that put a company at risk and jeopardize compliance. Helping address this gap, the Bit9 SAFE service provides visibility into all software on endpoints, an understanding of the software’s category and risk factor, drift from the baseline, and a way to control the software to meet security and compliance requirements.
The service includes an executive report of results that pinpoints the computers that have drifted furthest from the company’s baseline as well as best practices and recommendations on “fix first” areas to quickly lower risk and improve the business’ overall security posture.
“We recommend that organizations take a software inventory and standardize as much as possible to limit the number of PC builds, software variation and standardize configurations. A more controlled desktop can save an organization a considerable amount of money a year,” said Neil MacDonald, vice president, distinguished analyst and Gartner fellow at Gartner Research. “Understanding what is on your endpoints and whether it is risky or unauthorized is valuable knowledge and a good first step for CISOs and senior IT professionals who need to put controls in place to protect their organizations.”
To identify and classify software, the Bit9 SAFE service relies on the Bit9 Global Software Registry™, the largest repository of Software Reputation information, which includes Bit9 Trust Factor and Threat Level ratings. The service is available to corporations, educational institutions, government organizations, healthcare providers, utilities and any other organization that may want to find and control unauthorized software on endpoints to help ensure compliance. Armed with this information IT professionals can help their organizations reduce risk and lower operational costs by reducing helpdesk calls.
The service identifies and assesses disruptive software including:
“The Bit9 SAFE service is an effective way for CISOs to discover all the software that exists on their endpoints, whether they’re desktops, laptops, point-of-sale machines or kiosks. The service is a quick and easy way to find unauthorized applications and malware, and determine the risks they pose to the business,” said Jim Maloney, president and CEO of Cyber Risk Strategies and former VP and Global Head of Security at Amazon.
A Bit9 SAFE assessment takes less than a day to complete. Bit9 first conducts a real-time software inventory of the Windows endpoints chosen for the assessment. The software on those endpoints is then referenced against the Bit9 Global Software Registry to identify, classify and determine the software’s Trust Factor and Threat Level, which is used to make an informed decision on whether to trust that software in a business setting. CISOs are then able to understand what software exists in their environment and classify it as authorized or unauthorized. They can also identify computers, users, groups, organizations and geographies most at risk to prevent malicious, illegal, and unlicensed software from running.
CISOs and IT professionals who are interested in receiving the report can sign up for the free trial at www.bit9.com/safe.
About Bit9, Inc.
Bit9 is the pioneer and leader in Enterprise Application Whitelisting. The company’s solutions provide total visibility and control over all software on Windows computers, eliminating the risk caused by malicious, illegal and unauthorized software.
Bit9 leverages the Bit9 Global Software Registry™ – the world’s largest database of software intelligence – to identify and classify software, delivering the highest levels of endpoint security, compliance, and manageability. Bit9’s global customers include companies in a wide variety of industries, such as government, financial services, retail, healthcare, e-commerce and education.
Bit9 was awarded a prestigious $2M United States federal research grant in 2003 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology-Advanced Technology Program (NIST ATP) to conduct the research that is now at the core of our application whitelisting solutions. Bit9 is privately held and based in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.bit9.com or call +1 617.393.7400.