Lockdown Networks Upgrades Technology, Channel Strategy

Demonstrating its current product line at this week's NetWorld Interop conference in Las Vegas, the company also said it is expanding its indirect sales volume through a number of new partner programs.

Lockdown Networks currently offers a three-pronged strategy for identifying network vulnerabilities and protecting against attacks that might exploit them, said Brett Helsel, president and CEO of Lockdown, Seattle. Version 3.0 will expand this offering with added features which the company is not discussing yet.

Its flagship component, Lockdown VMA (vulnerability management appliance), is a 1U Linux-based appliance that can be quickly connected to scan and identify vulnerabilities across an entire network, pinpointing weaknesses ranging from less-than-secure firewalls to PCs that lack the most recent software patches, Helsel said.

Lockdown VMA can be set to automatically re-scan the network at any assigned interval, be it nightly, weekly or monthly. The appliance also updates itself with the latest virus alerts, software patches and other pertinent security data every 12 hours via the Web from Lockdown's own security database.

Lockdown VMA can audit up to 500 network devices and is scalable through the use of multiple VMA appliances interfacing with another appliance, Lockdown DataSafe. Lockdown DataSafe extends the audit capability to as many as 25,000 network devices by way of multiple VMAs, said Helsel.

The third prong of the strategy, Lockdown Wireless, detects all 802.11 devices connected to a network. About the size of a standard cable TV box, Lockdown Wireless not only detects vulnerabilities on the wireless legs of the networks, but also can deny access to unauthorized wireless clients, Helsel said.

Lockdown is looking for partners to resell its product line and is ramping up incentives and training programs to help VARs sell remediation services atop the solution, said Doug Wheeler, vice president of marketing.