Measuring the Health of Security

Securify Inc. this week will launch a security service that will be custom-designed to fit the unique needs of each customer.

As part of an effort to broaden its offerings beyond simple consulting services, the Mountain View, Calif., company is rolling out its SecurVantage service, which is designed to give customers a quantifiable picture of their networks overall security "health."

The SecurVantage service begins with an analysis of a companys network security as it relates to its business goals. Securify has developed a method for measuring how well the customers security meets its business objectives.

Once a base-line metric for this comparison is calculated, Securify takes a snapshot of network traffic to define what "good" traffic is so that rogue traffic can be identified and isolated.

The company then provides a process of risk assessment, network compliance monitoring, security policy review and incident reporting. The companys monitoring software integrates with any IP-based network. Most of the service is automated and can be extended to assess the security of partners and customers networks.

Securify this week is also launching its Access Management service, which aims to help enterprise customers select and deploy public-key infrastructure access-control and smart-card systems. The companys consultants will help customers evaluate their access-control needs, choose the proper devices and technologies to satisfy them, and integrate those technologies into their networks.

Another benefit of Securifys network security assessment and monitoring is its ability to catch errors such as poorly configured firewalls or unauthorized uses of network resources. Through this process, the company recently discovered an employee of one of its customers running his own business on his employers network.