Akeydor and Sisonke Announce South African and Sub Saharan Partnership to Exclusively Market CrossTec Products

Nov 19, 2007 09:00 ET

ATHENS, GREECE and BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwire - November 19, 2007) - Akeydor and Sisonke Software Solutions have today announced that they have formed a partnership to bring the CrossTec Activeworx products family to South Africa and to several other markets in the Sub Saharan region.

Activeworx is a Security Information Event (SIEM) and Log Management Software platform enabling Corporations to monitor, capture, visualize, correlate, report and log security events within their network. The platform boosts a number of powerful features and links powerful event management with logging. Activeworx is a software-driven solution and contains different modules, according to a corporation's needs and requirements.

"Sisonke is very eager to include Activeworx in our product portfolio. We believe there is great potential in the South African and Sub Saharan markets and we are excited that Akeydor has chosen us to bring this new product into the region," says Ighsaan Akoojee, Managing Director of Sisonke, located in Cape Town, South Africa.

"We are very pleased to partner with Sisonke. We feel Sisonke has the right market resources and technical skills to bring Activeworx into Africa. We will do our best to help Sisonke develop Activeworx in the region," said Michael Chatzilias, Managing Director of Akeydor.

"The new partnership is announced less than one month after Akeydor opened its doors for business. The short time to market shows how attractive the unique Activeworx products are," says Michael Chatzillias. The Activeworx solutions and other Akeydor product lines are offered at an affordable price point which makes them very attractive to VARs and other organizations that work with networking and security solutions. With the African region covered, Akeydor will focus on establishing partnerships in European and Asian countries, which is part of Akeydor's market area.

About Akeydor:

Akeydor Limited is a Global Business Software House, with partners in selected markets and with expertise in delivering high management performance to corporations and individuals. Akeydor core business is to assist companies reduce their operational costs and increase their efficiency through innovation. The Akeydor product portfolio contains the powerful CrossTec Software product line in Security Information Event Management, Education, Network Management and Help Desk. The company distributes the CrossTec product line in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia and offers free pre- and post-sales technical support for the regions. For more information about Akeydor, please visit us at www.akeydor.com

About Sisonke:

Sisonke Software Solutions started in 2006 with a clear vision to deliver Best-of-Breed software solutions to improve clients IT efficiency and business profitability. Sisonke is a key partner for Akeydor's Activeworx portfolio, Faronics DeepFreeze and also included in our product offering is SurfControl's Web and Email Content Security; NOD32 Anti-virus and Webroot Anti-Spyware. Backed by a team of certified technicians and skilled sales staff we differentiate ourselves from other market players by not only meeting customer satisfaction but exceeding it! We would like to invite interested value added resellers in other African regions to partner with us to market the Activeworx solution. For more information please contact: info@sisonke-solutions.co.za or call +27 21 702 8099.

About CrossTec Corporation:

CrossTec Corporation, founded in 1996 and based in Boca Raton, FL, provides sales and support to corporations, organizations, government agencies and educational institutions. As a service to our customers, CrossTec offers free pre- and post-sale technical support, offering one-on-one, professional assistance from our certified technical engineers. Developing and distributing award-winning software management solutions for IT security, education technology, enterprise network, and help desks, CrossTec's mission is to offer a combination of enterprise tested products and substantial feature set and unparalleled customer service, delivering great value to our customers. Distribution is handled via direct sales and support and a robust network of partners operating domestically and worldwide. For more information on CrossTec Corporation or the CrossTec family of products, please visit us at www.CrossTecCorp.com.

Activeworx Wins Editors Pick!

Check out Activeworx on MonitorTools.com.

Activeworx IDS Policy Manager on Snort.org

Check out the full release of IDS Policy Manager on:

snort.org

bleedingthreats.net

Activeworx Policy Manager v2.2 Released

IDS Policy Manager v2.2 is now available for download. IDS Policy Manager is completely FREE enterprise Snort rule management solution. This release expands on it’s already feature rich functionality by adding support for Snort 2.8 with other new features to help manager your snort policies. For more info see our .org site HERE.

CrossTec Activeworx Article in eWeek

There is a nice feature on Activeworx Enterprise in eWeek today. It's written by Brian Prince - a great writer who really knows his security. You can check it out HERE.

Activeworx Nominated for Best Event Management Solution by SC Magazine

CrossTec Activeworx has been nominated by SC Magazine for the Best Event Management Software. Of course Activeworx Enterprise IS the best Event Management Software product , so please "get out the vote" and help us win this award!

The link to vote is here: SC Mag Award Vote

Vote early. Vote often. Grandparents can vote. Grandchildren can vote. Babies can vote... well you get the idea. Actually SC Mag requires you to be in the industry, and every vote is appreciated.

IDS Policy Manager v2.2 BETA Now Available

IDS Policy Manager v2.2 BETA is now available for download and testing. IDS Policy Manager is completely FREE enterprise Snort rule management solution.

New Feature highlights:

o. Initial Support for Snort v2.8.

o. New enhanced search functionality to search for virtually any rule detail across all your policies.

o. New Raw rule editor to edit the snort rule in it’s original format.

o. New usability enhancements.

For more information and to download IDS Policy Manager, please visit: www.activeworx.org

CrossTec Announces Activeworx Enterprise 4.1 With Advanced Usability of Historical Data

Activeworx Enterprise 4.1 Offers Comprehensive Integration Between Long Term Data Retention and The Urgency Of Real-Time Security Information and Event Management

October 23, 2007, Boca Raton, Florida, For Immediate Release. CrossTec Corporation announced today the release of Activeworx Enterprise 4.1, including the security industry’s most complete combination of historical data logging capabilities and real-time data intelligence available in one modular, scalable, software solution. Activeworx Enterprise 4.1 incorporates full log management capabilities; capturing every network event for fast, secure write-to-media, while leveraging Activeworx Security Center’s complete, award-winning, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools. The powerful integration of these tools enables companies to have both real-time SIEM and real-time forensic capabilities never seen before in the market; Activeworx 4.1 also reinforces an organizations rock solid proof of compliance.

“We are very excited to bring Activeworx 4.1 to the market. This type of easy access to your current and historical data is the type of product security administrators have been dreaming of,” said Jeff Richards, VP of Sales for Activeworx brands. “We live and work in a time where it is both costly and nearly impossible to track real exposure in a security breach situation, without having historical data at a moment’s notice. Organizations must have the tools in their enterprise to maintain the security of their customers, and to avoid both the regulatory and financial ramifications of non-compliance. CrossTec’s security products begin from our core belief that the full utilization of historical and real-time data working in unison is mission critical to maintaining an effective security and compliance posture.”

Sandra Palumbo, Program Manager and Senior Analyst of the Yankee Group agrees, "Today's organizations are looking for cost-effective solutions which can do more, enable higher levels of security and log management capabilities, and enhance organizational understanding of what is happening in the network enterprise.”

“With Activeworx 4.1, IT and Security Administrators gain direct visibility into system, network, and application health, while maintaining the comfort brought by real-time alerting and comprehensive reporting,” said Richards. “CrossTec and our team of engineers are focused on creating high value solutions that simplify log management, enhance incident response, and help ensure regulatory compliance. With Activeworx Enterprise 4.1, we feel we have achieved our goal of forging log management and SIEM into a unified tool in the fight for enterprise and data security.”

CrossTec IDS Policy Manager gets Book Mention

CrossTec's popular Activeworx IDS Policy Manager, in use all over the world with over 100,000 downloads, received a mention in a new book by authors Brian Caswell, Andrew Baker, and Jay Beale, titled Snort - IDS and IPS Toolkit. Although we haven't read the book, you can can catch representations and usage scenarios in the policy management section of the book (chapter 10).

For more information on IDS Policy Manager visit us here - or to take a look at the book itself check it out here.

CrossTec VP of Development to Speak at ISSA South Florida

Jeff Dell, VP of Development for CrossTec Corporation, will be speaking at the 4th annual South Florida ISSA Conference on November 7th. Jeff's topic will be Security Information management vs. Log Management - focusing on the "build" versus "buy" question when solving compliance and security issues.

The conference, held at the Signature Grand in Ft. Lauderdale Florida, will offer breakout session covering 10 burning compliance issues, as well as a highly anticipated key note address from Brenda Oldfield from the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland

CrossTec joins partner Terremark, among other participating security companies as Gold sponsors of the event.

For more information on the event you can visit the South Florida chapter of ISSA at www.sfissa.org.

Richmond Drives Customer Service with New SupportDesk

Richmond Systems, the leading provider of integrated Service Desk solutions, announced today the latest release of Richmond SupportDesk v6.5, a significant new version of its highly popular IT Service Management (ITSM) solution.

ITSM solutions are increasing in prominence, as Eric Wright, Managing Director of Richmond Systems comments; “The Service Desk is becoming increasingly important to organizations that are looking to improve their customer service by providing efficient Service Support and delivering real customer satisfaction.”

SupportDesk v6.5 offers many new features including Change Management and Customer Satisfaction Surveys. New Change Management allows change processes to be properly and efficiently controlled. Change requests can be raised against any assets, incidents or problems and users can approve changes through voting. Comprehensive notification and reporting keeps everyone in the loop and because Change Management is an integral component of Richmond SupportDesk, there are no additional licensing requirements. A new Customer Satisfaction Survey feature provides configurable questionnaires that can be sent to individuals or groups of end-users to gather feedback about their support experience. Service Desk managers now have access to essential information about the quality of service being provided. Thanks to feedback from Richmond’s enthusiastic customer base, there are numerous enhancements throughout the product to improve system usability and administration.

Many other brand new features have been added to the v6.5 release, including an Active Directory™ quick setup, a time zone feature to define the time zone where the SupportDesk server or Service Desk is located, resolution codes that allow easy statistical analysis about how incidents are resolved, and sign-on capabilities including "reserved sign-on" that allows licenses to be allocated by named and un-named users.

Eric Wright continues; “Building on the success of previous Richmond SupportDesk releases, version 6.5 demonstrates our commitment to protecting our customer’s investment in SupportDesk by providing enhanced functionality and ideally places Richmond Systems for the continued growth in uptake of ITIL and Best Practice ITSM.”

Richmond Systems is a leading provider of Service Desk and IT Management solutions that enable organizations to deliver fast, effective and high quality service and support. Founded in 1984, Richmond became a leading supplier of remote support solutions and in 1995 introduced Richmond SupportDesk, one of the first Windows™ based help desks. Key benefits of SupportDesk are its ease of use, live reporting and the speed in which it integrates in real time with complementary business applications. Throughout its history Richmond Systems has remained focused on listening to Customers, developing products that exceed expectations and delivering excellent service and support. For further information about our products and solutions, including free trial copies and remote demonstrations, please visit our website www.richmondsys.com or call us on 01428 641616. For information in North America, please visit CrossTec Corporation at www.crosstecsoftware.com or call toll free 800-675-0729.

CrossTec Expands to Eastern and Southern Europe

CrossTec Corporation Announces Global Partnership With Akeydor, Limited
Former Key Danware Manager Founds Company, Will Carry CrossTec Products Exclusively


October 15, 2007, Boca Raton, Florida, For Immediate Release. CrossTec Corporation and Akeydor, Limited announced today that it has formed a global partnership to bring the CrossTec family of products to several worldwide markets including Greece, Italy, and parts of the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Akeydor Limited, located in Athens, Greece, was founded by CEO Michael Chatzilias, who will oversee day to day operations. As a former key manager for Danware Data A/S, Chatzilias has spent his career building successful channels and generating sales in the United States, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America. The ownership group also includes former VP Sales and Marketing and co-founder of Danware, Soren Peter Andersen. Andersen brings years of experience building successful distribution networks, in over 80 countries around the world, to the organization.

“Akeydor is very pleased to partner with CrossTec,” said Chatzilias. “After extensive research, we concluded that CrossTec had the right mix of established technologies and cutting edge products that offered the best value proposition for our partners and customers.”

CrossTec products include: Activeworx Enterprise, the security industry’s most advanced Security Information and Log Management solution; CrossTec SchoolVue, the newest generation of classroom management software; CrossTec Secure, protecting student PC’s from unwanted or malicious changes; CrossTec EMS, a network level asset management system with powerful hardware and software inventory capabilities, software distribution, and application and internet metering; CrossTec Remote Control for remote support, monitoring, and interactive training; and CrossTec ResQRemote for instant, server based remote support.

“We are extremely excited to be working with Akeydor, Limited to bring our products to their customers and partners,” said David Richards, CEO of CrossTec. “Our goal has always been to work with first class partners who not only understand our markets, but also how our products fit into the corporate schema. Akeydor more than fills the bill.”

For more info visit us at www.crossteccorp.com or www.akeydor.com

Monitor your Monitoring Software

One question we are often asked is - can a principal or administrator look in on a SchoolVue PC lab? In effect this would enable them to monitor the monitoring software.

Indeed CrossTec provides just such a solution by combining the CrossTec Remote Control "Control" module with a SchoolVue installation. If you buy CrossTec Remote Control you can install any of the modules available in Remote Control and SchoolVue. Which means that the Client that runs on all the machines is both a SchoolVue Student and a Remote Control Client, and can accept connections from either Tutor, Control or both.

So a common set up is that there are multiple Tutors out there conducting class, an admin or principle can be running the CRC Control module and be monitoring both the Student machines and the Tutor machines without a problem.

Lab Management in a 1 to 1 Environment

According to one study published in eSchoolNews more than 23 percent of schools with over 4,000 students said they are implementing 1-to-1 computing programs in at least one grade. As wireless one-to-one environments in schools become more popular schools must deal with the many challenges of providing students with laptops.

Schools with a one-to-one environment face several challenges, ranging from students with local administrative rights to wireless network administration with many access points and subnets across a large campus. All of this requires some design planning to successfully run lab management software such as CrossTec SchoolVue.

Resolving computer names to IP addresses over subnets and VLANs complicate the building of class lists in real-time, primarily because it is not possible to get a complete list of all student computers from a network browse. Only those that are turned on and connected to the wireless network at that moment will appear in a typical network browse. Furthermore, many teachers are only trained on the usage of the software once or twice before the first day of class. If they were to try and browse either a Gateway or the network and retrieve a list of one thousand computers named by their serial numbers, there is little chance they will be able to build six different class groups every semester.

CrossTec Technical Product Manager Albert Caballero has written a 15 page guide to setting up SchoolVue for use in a 1 to 1 environment. The paper covers: Reliably and quickly connecting to DHCP Clients over subnets and VLANs; Building Class Lists without Tutor/Client interaction;
Staying connected to Clients even if there is a less than optimal wireless infrastructure.

If you are considering such an environment, or have already established one and your current lab management application doesn't work - you will want to download this white paper - Using SchoolVue over One-to-one Wireless and Multi-subnets.

Video: What's New in SchoolVue v9.0

Seven minute video highlights major new features in new CrossTec Schoolvue v9.0

NEW CrossTec SchoolVue v9.0 features many of the features that users have requested. Besides full support for Microsoft Vista, SchoolVue v9.0 includes printer management to help you save money, keyboard logging to better keep students on-task, enhanced wireless support, USB drive blocking and much, much, more.

View this 5-minute CrossTec VodCast to see some of the major new features in action.

http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/SchoolVue9-WMV.html

CrossTec SchoolVue v9 Extends Student PC Lab Management and Control Functionality

New printer, web and USB controls, along with Vista and enhanced wireless support, provide superior student PC management


CrossTec is pleased to announce the release of CrossTec SchoolVue v9. The popular classroom PC management tool now includes Windows Vista support along with tools to limit printing costs; eliminate problems associated with student use of removable media such as USB drives; enhanced wireless networking support and much more.

CrossTec SchoolVue v9 now includes a robust Print Management feature. Educators can allow or disable printing, pause printing, limit the number pages individual students are allowed to print, and more. CrossTec SchoolVue has also added flexible control of removable media such as USB, DVD and CD drives. Device Control will help protect schools from Malware or unauthorized programs being introduced to networks.

Wireless support in CrossTec SchoolVue v9 has been enhanced to offer improved performance over wireless access points. A new class list creation tool has also been added along with a Student Locator.

Other new product features include Keyboard Monitoring, Instant Messenger Monitoring, Search Engine Protection and a new student information bar which provides students with feedback on the current lesson, time remaining, current websites and applications that are available and quick access to request help from the teacher.

Many of CrossTec SchoolVue’s popular features have also been enhanced. SchoolVue’s White List capability has been improved by enabling teachers to select specific pages within an allowed web site which can be restricted. Several new test question types have been added to the Test Center along with improved test results feedback. The SchoolVue annotation tools can now be used with other programs And Windows Vista is fully supported!

Find out more about SchoolVue v9: http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/new-csv-v9.html

PDF of new features: http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/images/New%20Features%20in%20SchoolVue%20v9.0.pdf

PDF of all features in SchoolVue v9: http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/images/CSV%209%200%20features.pdf

SANS and Regulatory Compliance

by Nancy Richards

According to the SANS Institute, congress and state governments are expected to pass more legislation governing the protection of customer information in the foreseeable future. “This is a great challenge for business since more legislation inherently means more electronic data retention and harsher penalties for non-compliance” according to Activeworx Technical Manager, Albert Caballero CISSP, GSEC, BA MIS Security. How can a business quickly adapt to ever changing compliance rules? Does this mean that a corporation has to continually buy new software and hardware in order to comply with these new regulations?

Activeworx Security Center (ASC), CrossTec Corporation’s Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool, provides the software solution for these ever growing problems by providing real-time security event analysis, reporting, and correlation. ASC’s robust, built-in reporting engine and multi-vendor support enables administrators to leverage current technologies and is FLEXIBLE enough to support any new technologies as they are implemented. Comprehensive reports for investigative or compliance purposes can be quickly generated with ASC. These rich, graphical reports are CUSTOMIZABLE to meet current and future compliance needs, and detailed enough to provide a picture of the overall security posture of the organization. This is all in one software solution, not an expansive device.

Another question that needs to be addressed is how does an administrator guess what information will be relevant at a later time or which electronic data must be archived for compliance? There’s no need to try to predict the future. With ASC Enterprise (ASCe), CrossTec Corporation is introducing complete Log Management capabilities for every event that occurs on your network and/or systems. Caballero continues to explain that “although SIEM and Log Management are tightly related, their purposes are completely opposed. Whereas SIEM allows an analyst to discard tons of unnecessary events to pick out the few that are important, the goal of a good Log Management solution is to log every single event from every single device or system on the network and store them to disk for regulatory compliance and future analysis”. Thus, with ASCe, information that may be needed in the future is ACCESSIBLE.

ASCe will be released this Summer and it will support the logging of over 20,000 – 30,000 Events Per Second (EPS), boast 20 to 1 compression of all logs, MD5 check summing and password protection of log data, daily rotation of log files for archives and backups, easy search capabilities on archived audit data. ASCe fully integrates with the ASC SIEM component, so events that occurred in the past can be imported and analyzed today. Thus, ASCe meets compliance regulations and saves administrators time, money and headaches!

Activeworx wins Info Security Products Guide "Global Excellence in Event Management" Award

Popular Security Event & Log Management Solution Gains the Highest Trust of Customers Worldwide

Info Security Products Guide, a Silicon Valley Communications publication and the world’s leading publication on security-related products and technologies has named Activeworx Security Center, the winner of the 2007 “Global Excellence in Event Management Customer Trust Award”. This customer trust honor is the greatest endorsement to the fact that Activeworx is ahead of the curve when it comes to the best-of-the-best products that can provide the highest security in Security Information and Event Management. More than 18,000 end-users and prospective customers worldwide were invited to vote for the products that they trust the most when it comes to protecting their digital resources.

For a complete list of winners: http://www.infosecurityproductsguide.com/products/index.html

Schools: Eliminate Porn & Proxy Servers - One White List at a Time

Schools today have numerous tools at their disposal to help protect children from the perils of the Internet. Acceptable Use Policies, web filters, URL monitors and even private intranets are all intended to block the bad, while enabling our children to find the best on the web. Nevertheless, as hard as schools try to protect kids, students intentionally, or unintentionally, continue to find inappropriate or time wasting material. To circumvent the protection measures mandated by the government, some students have turned to Anonymous Proxy servers, which allow them to surf any web site without detection. One new weapon in the battle is White Listing, which blocks all web sites except those that teachers want students to access. White Listing is showing success at the classroom level by not only protecting students from inappropriate web use, but it is also increasing available time on task and saving schools valuable bandwidth.

Read the White Paper:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/resources/whitepaper-white-lists-proxy-servers.pdf

Activeworx for Service Desks - Does your Desk Monitor Security?

According to a recent survey, nearly 40 percent of service desk managers reported an increase in security-related helpdesk calls. Many service desks are now responsible for monitoring security events and traffic. IT operation teams, including network administrators, security, and service desk groups, are working more closely together. These teams are quickly finding out that using security information and event tracking software such as Activeworx Security Center can help multiple IT functions.

Read More about ASC for Service Desks:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/activeworx/ASC4Service.pdf

New Richmond SupportDesk 6.6 Adds Features & Enhancements

New Version Features Change Management and Customer Satisfaction Surveys CrossTec Corporation is pleased to announce the release of Richmond SupportDesk v 6.6. The release is a significant new version of its popular IT Service Management (ITSM) solution which adds many new features including Change Management, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Active DirectoryT Quick Setup, and additional resolution codes. A Time Zone feature has also been added which defines the time zone where the SupportDesk server or Service Desk is located.

For a list of new and enhanced features click:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/supportdesk/supportdesk65.html

For more information on Richmond SupportDesk click:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/supportdesk/index.html

CrossTec provides Multiple Educational IT Management Solutions

Since 1996 CrossTec has partnered with thousands of K-12, Junior Colleges, Universities and trade schools to provide educational technology management solutions that help teachers teach and learners learn.

While best known for its Lab Management solution, SchoolVue, CrossTec also provides educational institutions with software for supporting and fixing PC across campus (CrossTec Remote Control), for distributing software and managing IT assets (EMS) for managing school help desks (SupportDesk) and for managing security information and Logs (Activeworx)

Click here for a Power Point that talks about CrossTec software solutions for educational institutions. http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/resources/whitepaper-white-lists-proxy-servers.pdf

CrossTec integrates Third Brigade host intrusion prevention system (HIPS) with Activeworx

CrossTec integrates Third Brigade host intrusion prevention system (HIPS) with
Activeworx security information and event management (SIEM) solution

Boca Raton, FL, -- March 19, 2007 – CrossTec Corporation (www.crosstecsecurity.com) has announced a technology partnership with Third Brigade a security software company that specializes in host intrusion prevention systems. Third Brigade’s HIPS product has been integrated with CrossTec Activeworx Security Center, a high value, low cost SIEM software solution that excels at normalizing, correlating, and reporting on multi-vendor security information.

“For CrossTec customers, Third Brigade provides powerful host-level protection, and detailed security information that fuels the CrossTec SIEM,” remarked Jeff Richards, VP of CrossTec’s Security Division. “For Third Brigade customers, the CrossTec SIEM provides the ability to consolidate and correlate large volumes of host security log data with other security and event information. By combining the two solutions, organizations will be more secure, and have a better view of their entire security posture.

Customers that want to leverage investments in both CrossTec SIEM and Third Brigade HIPS, can do so now without having to incur costs and effort related to custom integration or support.” “We’re thrilled that CrossTec has recognized the tremendous synergy between SIEM and HIPS,” said Brian O’Higgins, CTO of Third Brigade. “Our host intrusion prevention system provides critical protection for endpoints, and is a rich and valuable source of detailed, host-level security event information. Third Brigade provides the response/remediation mechanism that is a key ‘leadership’ feature for vendors in the SIEM market, according to analysts.”

“Integration was a snap,” added Richards. “Our engineers were impressed with the ease at which they were able to normalize the Third Brigade log data. Third Brigade’s open product architecture, and detailed, integration-specific documentation, allowed us to complete the integration quickly and simply.”

Activeworx Security Center collects, normalizes and analyzes data from virtually any security device from any vendor. At the heart of Activeworx is the powerful Activeworx Event Framework (AEF) which recognizes event data from various vendor devices such as Firewalls, IDS, IPS, Syslog, SNMP, Vulnerability Assessment, Antivirus, Routers, Switches, VPN’s, Windows Event Logs, and more. Activeworx Security Center also provides powerful n-tiered backend functionality such as flexible collection engines utilizing standards based parsing algorithms and memory based correlation engine to identify hidden threats. Activeworx supplies detailed security alerts, vital reports for investigations and regulatory compliance and deep forensics tools.


About Third Brigade

Third Brigade (www.thirdbrigade.com) specializes in providing host intrusion defense systems to organizations that need to detect and prevent attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in mission critical systems. Third Brigade Deep Security allows businesses to apply comprehensive security profiles to hosts that protect against known and zero-day attacks using deep packet inspection.

CrossTec Announces New Activeworx Audit Logger to be Released in Q2

CrossTec Announces New Activeworx Audit Logger to be Released in Q2

Security Log Storage Software Solution Boasts High-Speed Searches, Advanced Compression and Integration with SIEM for better reporting

InfoSec – Orlando, FL (March 19, 2007) -- CrossTec Corporation announced today that it will release a new audit logging tool in Q2 of 2007. The audit logging software solution will help simplify security log collection, storage and analysis. The audit logger will tightly integrate with CrossTec’s security information and event management (SIEM) software solution Activeworx Security Center. The audit logging solution will boast compression in excess of 25:1, incredible search speeds, and the ability to log huge amounts of security events.

Requirements for data retention of historical logs from compliance regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley, PCI, FISMA, HIPAA and GLBA dictate a cost effective means to collect and store audit-relevant security log data from a wide range of sources. Given the variety of log formats and the ever-growing volume of logs generated, organizations need a log storage solution that can support the timely collection of large log volumes.

Activeworx, which includes over 250 compliance reports out-of-the-box will now be able to search and report on massive amounts of historical data stored in ActiveLogger. For added integrity, the audit logger’s data is verifiedusing MD5 checksums

Initial testing of the product, which will compete directly with similar offerings from Arcsight, RippleTech, SenSage and LogLogic, show benchmarks exceeding over 50,000 events per second (EPS) using 32 or 64 bit Windows machines. “One of the major benefits of the Activeworx Audit Logger is its speed of recording and searching data”, says Activeworx Chief Developer Jeff Dell. “Because of the tight integration with Activeworx Security Center, users may need to store just a fraction of their data into ASC and the rest in the logger.,” continued Dell, “This means users won’t have to sift through all the hay just to find the needle.”

Product Highlights :

- Comprehensive audit logging - with optimized search and analysis capabilities for your entire infrastructure.

- Meet regulatory compliance - with forensically sound collection and retention of all security events on your network for years, including automatic log rotation and integrity checksums.

- Fully integrated SIEM - simply send any archived audit logs into the ASC Event Framework for deeper forensic analysis of a specific incident, even if that incident occurred years ago.

- Distributed and scalable - Easily create log aggregation points at as many locations as necessary to minimize bandwidth consumption, increase security, and optimize performance.

- ASC's Audit Logger is a true enterprise solution that is not tied down to one appliance or a relational database. You can log tens of thousands of events at as many locations as necessary without exponentially increasing cost or resources.

- IT administrators and helpdesk management will gain direct visibility into system, network and application health while improving network and system troubleshooting activities.

The Activeworx Audit Logger is scheduled for release in May of 2007 and will list for under $50,000.

About CrossTec Corporation:

Since 1999, CrossTec’s Activeworx brand security tools (www.crosstecsecurity.com) have been downloaded more then 100,000 times. The flagship product, Activeworx Security Center (ASC), is a cost-effective security information and event management (SIEM) software solution that provides real-time security device log monitoring with correlated alerts, management and compliance reports, log data storage, and tools for advanced, in-depth forensic analysis. CrossTec’s mission is to protect organizations by reducing the time it takes to analyze massive amounts of event log data from multiple devices and vendors to produce real-time alerts and vital reports that pinpoint network security breaches.

www.crosstecsecurity.com

See Richmond SupportDesk in this 16 minute webinar

View this 16-minute on-demand webinar of Richmond SupportDesk

http://www.crossteccorp.com/supportdesk/RSD_Webinar_480/RSD_Webinar_480.html

Learn more about the powerful features in Richmond SupportDesk

Richmond SupportDesk from CrossTec is a powerful and highly scalable IT service management solution that is based on the latest industry standard best practices. Built on nearly two decades of service management experience, SupportDesk integrates a broad set of feature-rich modules to deliver a high quality support solution for internal ITSM, external managed services and customer support. SupportDesk is designed to increase help desk technician productivity, serve customers faster and more effectively as well as lower the overall cost of providing support.

Got Snort®? Short Video Shows off Activeworx SMC

http://www.crossteccorp.com/activeworx/ActiveworxSMC.html

5-minute video shows how Activeworx SMC can help you manage multiple Snort® sensors

Activeworx SMC integrates tightly with the Snort® IDS event database to provide high valued information from your existing Snort® IDS installations, without modifying the original database schema. Whether it’s a new Snort® installation or one that has been in place for years, there has never been a more effective, less intrusive, and less expensive centralized management console for Snort.

For more info on Activeworx SMC: http://www.crosstecsecurity.com/Products/ActiveworxSMC/tabid/82/Default.aspx

SIEM Failover and Hot Back-up Solution

CrossTec SIEM Continuity Solution

SIEM Failover and Hot Back-up Solution

In the security world when disaster strikes, whether in the form of a hurricane, a blackout, or far more likely, a virus attack or software or user error, your ability to respond to the crisis can make the difference between a bright future and the end of your business. At the very least, you are likely to incur significant costs in lost business and, perhaps more importantly, lost confidence by your customers, investors, and other stakeholders. Business continuity is not just about mitigating loss; it is about maintaining security.

Effective Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is not only seeing and understanding to the state of your security posture when all is running smoothly, it is also about reacting, regrouping, and regaining control of your network in a hostile environment as well. The ability to step seamlessly from your security command center to a hot back up is crucial.

Layered Protection and Disaster Recovery

To achieve this you need the flexibility to layer your SIEM solution to provide protection against the full range of types of failures. The CrossTec SIEM Continuity solution provides the ability to quickly bring on-line duplicate components running simultaneously (either on or off site) with your operational installation, thereby providing continuous access to your Activeworx Security Center. This guarantees that you will not lose your vision of your network in a fail situation, and more importantly, you will not lose your all important data.

Cost Flexibility

It is important that the expense in money and time of purchasing, installing and managing any business continuity solution be commensurate with the potential cost of failure. Most hardware based SIEM solutions require a tremendous investment even for initial implementation and implementation consultation. In order for solutions like these to provide for hot failover or disaster recovery, more hardware must be added to your network at a significant cost.

The CrossTec SIEM Continuity solution allows you to collect security events simultaneously in a production location as well as a failover location, all using your own infrastructure. This business continuity solution delivers significant and affordable benefits that enable reduced cost and broader protection against the wide variety of potential loss situations that companies face everyday.

For more information click: www.crosstecsecurity.com

5 Min Video Looks at Classroom & Lab Management

CrossTec Corporation has released an informative five minute Vodcast (Video Podcast) for those interested in software for managing technology in networked classrooms. The short video, recorded and edited by CrossTec’s Doug Taylor, talks about the challenges of managing networked labs, wireless carts and media center computers. The video highlights some of the features in CrossTec SchoolVue ( www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/ ) which address student time-on-task, multi-tasking teacher activities and creating a more interactive learning environment for students in computer lab environments.

Low Bandwidth:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/SchoolVue%20_Video/SchoolVue%20_Video.html

High Bandwidth: http://www.crossteccorp.com/schoolvue/SchoolVue_WMV/SchoolVue_WMV.html

Video Copy:

CrossTec SchoolVue is software designed for computer labs, networked classrooms, media centers and wireless carts. By helping keep students on-task, creating a more interactive learning environment and multi-tasking teacher activities SchoolVue ensures that the instructor is in full control of classroom technology at all times.

Using CrossTec SchoolVue, an Instructor can monitor students as they work, broadcast real-time videos and screens to students; record and playback screen sessions; block the use of applications and web sites; text or audio chat with students; create electronic tests; remote control student PCs and much more.

One of the major benefits of CrossTec SchoolVue is its ability to increase student time-on-task. With SchoolVue teachers can monitor and control student computer activity. With SchoolVue, teachers know exactly what every student is working on. Using SchoolVue teachers can monitor the desktops of their entire class – one at a time or on a single screen. Using SchoolVue’s thumbnail view you can see resizable bitmap images of your entire class. For a closer look – just mouse over any student Thumbnail for an enlarged view. To focus student attention, you can also lock their keyboard and mouse during lectures, screen demonstration or videos.

SchoolVue also enables teachers to allow or deny the use of selected applications and websites on student computers by creating administrative policies unique to their educational curriculum and particular class. This way, you can rest assured that your students aren’t wasting class time on games, email, Instant messages or inappropriate websites.

Another benefit of SchoolVue is Enhanced Classroom Interaction & Feedback.
SchoolVue’s Broadcast feature enables an Instructor to display their screen, or a student’s screen, to specific students or to the entire classroom – providing detailed real-time instruction and examples. You can also record these demonstrations for later playback – even by students at home. If a student needs assistance, simply take control of their computer with your own keyboard and mouse - just as if you were seated next to them.

SchoolVue’s Test Center utility is a valuable student response system which offers a very powerful tool for creating a multitude of tests, quizzes and survey questions so you can have immediate feedback to see if students comprehended a lesson. CrossTec SchoolVue incorporates a full Test Designer allowing a Teacher to set customized tests including text, pictures, audio and video questions. Once the timed test has been completed - results are automatically collated, marked and made available to the Teacher.

While SchoolVue is excellent at keeping students on-task – that doesn’t mean you have their full attention. But with SchoolVue’s ‘Show Leader’ feature, a teacher can engage students by enabling them to hand off control of a demonstration screen at any student at any time. SchoolVue also includes an Interactive White Board feature and a useful Co-Browse option where an Instructor can launch a web page on student PCs, show them particular items and leave them to work on the web site themselves.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have another five to ten minutes of teaching time per class? With SchoolVue you can easily Multi-Task your efforts to focus more time on students and learning. SchoolVue enables teachers to start computers at the beginning of the day, launch applications, reboot systems, log-off users and even shut down PCs at the end of the day. Teachers can also distribute assignments and coursework onto student desktops and collect them at the end of the class for grading. Plus, you can launch and control multi-media files on student computers and even send hot linkable messages such as long urls to students. SchoolVue also enables you to create interactive lesson plans with links to multi-media files, URLs and pre-recorded or live demonstrations screen sessions.

Teachers will immediately be more productive in a SchoolVue computer lab. But for added flexibility instructors can copy the SchoolVue Tutor module to a portable USB drive so they can work on lesson plans, create tests and recording and grade class work by launching the pre-configured SchoolVue Tutor from non-lab computers.

CrossTec SchoolVue is easy to download and install and even easier to use. SchoolVue’s minimal system resource usage and network friendly design means Tech Coordinators will have no problem getting your lab up and running quickly. And SchoolVue works great in wireless environments and with OpenGL graphics. If you have any questions during installation or use - CrossTec’s highly trained and experienced support professionals are available for fast personalized help -- and multiple training options are also available from CrossTec.

Keep student’s on-task, Multi-task your efforts and create a more interactive classroom computer lab environment today with CrossTec SchoolVue.

Activeworx Podcast from RSA

BankInfoSecurity.com and the Information Security Media Group recently attended the 2007 RSA Conference held in San Francisco in February and conducted several interviews. RSA is a premier information security conference with 400 of the top vendors in the infosec industry exhibiting including CrossTec.

One of the interviews they conducted was with Don Vander Wall, Senior Account Manager with CrossTec's Security Division. In the the following audio Podcast Don discusses the advantages of the Activeworx Security Center software solution over hardware based security information event management tools. Don also discussed how Activeworx applies to the banking and finance industry.

To hear the Activeworx Podcast: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/podcasts/rsa2007/rsa2007_crosstec.mp3

For the entire selection of interviews: http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/podcasts.php?podcastID=13

PodCast: Highlights of Activeworx Security Center

Seven Minute Video Shows Activeworx Features

CrossTec has released a short podcast video highlighting some of the many features in Activeworx Security Center. The video, which was written and recorded by Albert Caballero, voiced by Rick Shultz and edited by Doug Taylor covers Activeworx features such as forensics, correlation and reporting.

To See the Video Please Visit:
http://www.crossteccorp.com/activeworx/activeworx-video.html

New Activeworx SMC Effectively Manages and Monitors Snort® events

New Activeworx SMC Effectively Manages and Monitors Snort® events

SMC provides cost effective IDS tools to focus on identifying and responding to threats.

BOCA RATON, Fla. (January 30, 2007) -- CrossTec Corporation (http://www.crosstecsecurity.com/) has released Activeworx SMC -- a low cost, user friendly, solution for managing and monitoring Snort® IDS events and keeping Snort policies and rules up-to-date on sensors. With a combination of easy to understand graphs, charts, and event diagrams, and the ability to look at packet headers and payload data, Activeworx SMC provides vital tools necessary for an IDS administrator to focus on what’s important: quickly identifying and responding to interesting events.
Snort® IDS has become the most widely deployed intrusion detection technology worldwide. While most of the management tools available are limited, expensive, or difficult to use, Activeworx has introduced the new Snort Management Center (SMC), based on the full-blown security information and event management (SIEM) solution, Activeworx Security Center (ASC). Activeworx SMC is priced from $395 per sensor.
According to Jeff Richards, Vice President of CrossTec’s Security Division, “Activeworx SMC offers an affordable solution that provides unprecedented features for managing Snort® IDS events, such as customizable dashboards, detailed IDS reporting, interactive graphs, and event relationship diagrams.” Activeworx SMC also boasts complete IDS policy management including Snort policy updates, and it gives you the ability to push new Snort policies to sensors from a central location plus numerous ways to view, analyze, and manage snort events.
Activeworx SMC integrates tightly with the Snort® IDS event database to provide high valued information from existing Snort® IDS installations, without modifying the original database schema. Activeworx SMC includes Activeworx IDS Policy Manager V2, which has been the de facto standard for managing Snort policies on Windows since its initial release in 2000. According to Richards, “Whether it’s a new Snort installation, or one that has been in place for years, there has never been a more effective, less intrusive, and less expensive centralized management console for Snort.”
The integration of IDS Policy Manager into a Snort Event Management solution not only provides the ability to view, correlate, and report on Snort events, but it adds seamless IDS rule management and deployment. Administrators now have the ability to quickly view, disable or set suppression for a single rule on a single sensor, or to deploy a rule change to all Snort sensors, while viewing information about an event that is currently triggering, all within the same console view. IDS Policy Manager adds easy updates and deployment of Snort rules to the familiar Activeworx event management interface for more proactive management of all Snort® IDS installations.

For more information: http://www.crosstecsecurity.com/Products/ActiveworxSMC/tabid/82/Default.aspx

CrossTec Offers Free Asset Management Software with Purchase of CrossTec Remote Control

CrossTec Promotion Provides Free Asset Management Software with Purchase of CrossTec Remote Control

Limited time offer provides CrossTec Remote Control customers with free EMS Standard module

Boca Raton, FL (January 24, 2007) CrossTec Corporation http://www.crossteccorp.com/ announced a limited time special offer for network administrators and help desks. Customers who purchase CrossTec Remote Control TM will receive CrossTec EMS TM (Enterprise Management System) Standard at no additional charge. EMS Standard is an asset management solution that enables organizations to better manage network PC hardware and software inventory by providing in-depth reports and vital alerts.

According to Doug Taylor, CrossTec’s Vice President of Marketing, “EMS makes your job easier by instantly locating PCs which need to be upgraded, or which may have non-approved devices and software installed.” A wealth of information is provided by EMS reports for individual PCs, departments, or for an entire organization. EMS alerts users about recently installed or removed hardware which helps reduce theft. EMS Standard also reports on which applications are not being used on installed systems which will save money on license fees.

For more information: www.crossteccorp.com/ems/

Running the SANS Top 5 Essential Log Reports with Activeworx Security Center

Many security organizations around the world are working hard to develop standards for
reporting with recommendations on what types of report can be most useful and for
whom. In the following section we will take the Top 5 Essential Log Reports as
recommended by the SANS Institute www.sans.org and see how ASC can effectively address these best practices with built-in and customizable reports.

Top 5 Essential Log Reports as recommended by SANS Institute:

1) Attempts to Gain Access through Existing Accounts
2) Failed File or Resource Access Attempts
3) Unauthorized Changes to Users, Groups and Services
4) Systems Most Vulnerable to Attack
5) Suspicious or Unauthorized Network Traffic Patterns

Creating valuable information from millions of system events can be an extremely
difficult and time consuming task. Particularly when these events are being generated on
disparate devices such as firewalls, IPS/IDS appliances or different server operating
systems the challenges are two fold. Firstly collecting all the data and then generating
valuable reports or analysis based on potentially millions of different events. As we shall
see in the following exercises the key to running these reports is, know what you are
looking for.

Activeworx Security Center (ASC) is designed to help you build intelligence and increase
the visibility of your network based on a large amount of seemingly unrelated security
events. This is most obvious and valuable when running reports either for compliance or
internal security analysis.

http://www.crossteccorp.com/whitepapers/resources/SANSTop5ReportsandASC1.pdf