IBM ISS GX6116 Intrusion Prevention System Achieves NSS Labs Gold Award and Certification

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2009) - NSS Labs, a world leader in independent product analysis and certification, today announced it has awarded IBM ISS GX6116 Proventia® Network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) appliance the highly coveted "Gold" Award, the first of its kind of five years.

NSS Labs put the product through over 1,500 individual evaluations in its real-world test lab that cover a wide range of scenarios to evaluate its security effectiveness and performance as well as its management and usability capabilities. The IBM Proventia GX6116 Solution passed the NSS Labs Network Intrusion Prevention System certification test and achieved 8Gbps of throughput on the real-world traffic mix. In order to achieve Gold, a product must consistently block more than 95% of the exploits in the Security Update Monitor (SUM) program; a recurring monthly test of security effectiveness. IBM has committed its security products to monthly testing with NSS Labs and invites other vendors to join in and commit to raising the level of security excellence.

"Not only did the GX6116 pass our rigorous certification requirements, but it also demonstrated an average security effectiveness of 98.6% over a 3 month period," said Rick Moy, President of NSS Labs. "Each monthly test added fresh exploits to ensure the product was capable of stopping current attacks, a key requirement of security professionals."

The strength of the Proventia Network IPS products is the preemptive protection backed by the world leading X-Force® research and development team. The proactive, behavioral research and multilayered security technologies developed by the X-Force include the proprietary Protocol Analysis Module and patented Virtual Patch™ preemptive protection. This unique combination of detection and blocking techniques continue to keep IBM ISS clients ahead of the evolving security threats.

"IBM is committed to providing the highest level of security to our clients and to investing in our X-Force security teams for proactive threat detection," said Brian Truskowski, general manager of IBM Internet Security Systems. "We continue raising the bar in security products through public testing with the industry's most rigorous test lab. NSS Labs' thorough certification gives clients confidence that their investments in IBM security products will continue to deliver best-in-class protection."

NSS Labs' transparent, scientifically repeatable certification process ensures the highest levels of independence, diligence and integrity. NIPS products are tested to verify their stability and performance, determine the accuracy of security coverage, and ensure each device will not block legitimate traffic.

The full report and other IBM product reports can be found at http://nsslabs.com/IBM.

About NSS Labs

NSS Labs was founded in 1991, and is a global leader in independent security and performance testing and certification. NSS Labs performs the most comprehensive, high-performance security validation in the industry. Proven methodologies reflect real-world traffic and usage conditions, and help information security professionals understand how products will work in their environments. NSS is a participating organization in the PCI Security Standards Council and a member of AMTSO. For more information, visit: www.nsslabs.com.

Contact Information: Contact: Rick Moy rmoy@nsslabs.com 760-274-5943