IBM Launches New Security Solutions, Extends Secure by Design Initiative

ORLANDO, Fla., June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today is introducing new software and services that help organizations build security into the initial design of their applications, rather than bolt it on as an afterthought when it becomes more costly to fix.  As businesses and governments continue to develop and design products and services that are increasingly interconnected, IBM is working with clients to manage risk and help ensure their infrastructures are secure by design.

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Today's announcements include several new offerings that can help organizations lower cost and reduce risk:

• Access Management: Software that can help organizations provide users with secure access to their servers, applications and environments, across new service delivery platforms, including cloud computing;
• Security Testing: Software that enables businesses to automatically test source code and identify potential security and compliance risks during the earliest stages of software development;  
• Source Code Assessment Services: Services that help clients assess their application security, identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for resolution;
• Secure Engineering Framework: A proven blueprint for building and deploying secure software.

"Each day, we are seeing the emergence and adoption of new technologies and business models," said Al Zollar, general manager, IBM Tivoli Software.  "It is the organizations that learn how to effectively manage security risk that will be the ones that become successful in this environment.  By introducing these new software and service offerings, IBM is helping to ensure that security is woven into the very fabric of an organization's infrastructure."

IBM Security Solutions - Helping Customers Become Secure by Design

Facing a rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated threat environment, and the adoption of new computing paradigms such as cloud computing, organizations are searching for new ways to handle increased risk and complexity.  Businesses and governments around the world are making investments in new technologies and business models that make them more efficient, agile and competitive. However, these new technologies are also introducing new risks that are compromising critical infrastructures, privacy and identity, requiring organizations to rethink how they deal with compliance, risk management and data protection.

Central to IBM's approach to addressing clients' security challenges is a shift in focus from securing assets to securing critical services. IBM Security Solutions, Secure By Design initiative is helping clients build security into the fabric of the services they deliver, making security intrinsic to their business processes, product development and daily operations, while addressing emerging compliance constructs.

New Software to Secure Access and Execute Security Policies

As customers drive new Web-based services and portal initiatives, they must balance the growing need for exposing data with the ability to provide secure access to these critical resources on a need to know basis. Today, IBM is introducing new updates for the Tivoli Access Manager family to help organizations provide centralized authentication, policy management and access control services across several new service delivery platforms, such as cloud computing and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as well as complex portal and Web application environments. These new updates can also help protect access to critical data across an organization. As delivery models continue to shift and cause more complexity, these new enhancements can help organizations securely manage access to business-critical applications and data while giving users fast, convenient access to the information they need.

New Software to Identify Security Vulnerabilities at the Source Code Level

Building on the momentum of its recent acquisition of security vendor Ounce Labs, IBM is further strengthening its security portfolio today by introducing AppScan Source Edition, a new addition to its Web application security and compliance portfolio. This new version of AppScan provides a comprehensive solution for organizations concerned about correcting security vulnerabilities in applications before they go live, when they are less costly to fix.  

Last year, 49 percent of all vulnerabilities were related to Web applications, and alarmingly, 67 percent of these vulnerabilities had no patch available.(1) To address these attacks, businesses should take a more holistic approach to designing critical applications and services with security woven in at the earliest stages of development. The traditional "bolt-on" approach of adding on security after systems are developed or implemented is no longer effective.

The AppScan family combines the static code analysis testing expertise from Ounce Labs with Rational's existing dynamic testing capabilities to allow organizations to adopt security analysis across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design, through coding and into production. Designed to deliver faster analysis and better triage of results with greater accuracy, AppScan Source Edition offers clients expanded support for several development languages, the ability to manage more than one million findings and integrations that enable enterprise & regulatory compliance reporting and better collaboration. The AppScan product family is the only portfolio that offers both static and dynamic analysis testing in one solution.

New Source Code Assessment Services  

For organizations that lack in-house application security expertise or prefer to outsource testing security assessments, IBM today is also launching Application Source Code Security Assessment.  These new services are designed to help clients understand and improve their regulatory compliance and reduce risk by providing a baseline assessment of the source code of applications to encourage building security into the SDLC. Through this new service, IBM consultants test applications for clients, identify security vulnerabilities and provide recommendations for prioritization and detailed remediation steps to resolve the vulnerabilities. As a result, organizations can gain a rapid understanding of the security of these tested applications. For ongoing source code testing, clients can complement this service with AppScan Source Edition for regular automated testing.

Best Practices for Designing Secure Software Products

To help clients, IT companies, academics, etc. implement a secure, end-to-end approach to product delivery, IBM has recently published "Security in Development: The IBM Secure Engineering Framework." The framework provides best practices around security that are increasingly a requirement for developing products and applications that run in the world's digital infrastructure. Attention to security is required across both the global supply chain and the development processes to deliver products that have appropriate security characteristics and resistance to vulnerabilities. The goal of this framework is to enable greater collaboration with others in the industry, standards bodies and governments around the world to refine how organizations approach security.

IBM's approach to security helps customers manage risk from end-to-end, across all five security focus areas: data and information; application and process; people and identity; network, server and end point; and physical infrastructure.

About IBM

For more information on IBM's security solutions, visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/security/.

To access the INNOVATE 2010 online press kit, visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/innovate2010.

(1) "2009 Trend and Risk Report" IBM X-Force (2009).

SOURCE IBM