Spirent Communications Adds Vulnerability Asses...

LAS VEGAS, May 20 /PRNewswire/ --

    - Enhancement Allows for Assessment of Virtually Any Negative Traffic, 
Application Network Layer Testing from Single Unit



    As network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises
seek ways to build, deliver and run more cost-effective networks, Spirent
Communications plc (http://www.spirent.com/) (LSE: SPT), a leader in network,
services and device testing, now offers vulnerability assessment testing
capabilities on Spirent Avalanche(TM) (http://www.spirent.com/go/avalanche).
This capability, also supported on Spirent TestCenter(TM), creates a unique
product which tests the impact of almost any type of negative and attack
traffic on networks and devices and simultaneously conducts comprehensive
line rate layer 2-7 performance testing. By incorporating the strengths of
the industry leading Spirent ThreatEx Attack generation solution into Spirent
Avalanche, test engineers can now add vulnerability assessment to their
testing methodologies.



(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090220/SPIRENTLOGO)

    Instead of purchasing multiple pieces of hardware and associated
licenses, test engineers can invest in a single platform that addresses
several critical issues related to network security and vulnerabilities.
Spirent Avalanche is available in both appliance-based solutions and as part
of Spirent TestCenter's layer 2-7 testing platform.



    With Spirent Avalanche, test engineers supporting the efforts of
equipment manufacturers, service provider and enterprise organization can:


    
    - Launch realistic cyber attacks directly into new and existing
      test plans by quickly and easily creating stateful attacks, 
      transactional attacks or stateless flooding attacks intermixed with any 
      other traffic
    - Determine quickly the effectiveness of deep packet inspection and
      security devices by creating a combination of normalized and malicious
      traffic
    - Prepare networks for unforeseen security breeches by creating and
      modifying attacks to test additional scenarios and custom attack
      variations with the Spirent Avalanche Attack Designer
    - Mitigate and even prevent future attacks on the network by
      identifying potential weak spots and failure points in devices by
      producing real attack traffic and signatures


    The vulnerability assessment testing feature includes a database which is
regularly updated with the latest worms, Trojans, viruses, and other attacks
to ensure that users have a current understanding of all potential threats
and how such traffic can influence normal network activity.



    "Adding the capability to conduct vulnerability assessment testing on our
well-respected Spirent Avalanche platform makes an already powerful tool even
stronger," said Ahmed Murad, General Manager, Multimedia Applications
Solution Group at Spirent Communications. "With its 1/10 GigE capability, it
is possible to launch hundreds of thousands of attacks per second providing
the realism needed to conduct accurate and comprehensive network security
testing."



    Spirent Avalanche allows network engineers and system designers to
generate line rate stateful traffic at up to 10 Gbps allowing trunk ports to
be directly tested or to determine the impact of multiple GigE ports being
aggregated over 10 Gbps. This tool is the industry's most comprehensive layer
4-7 applications testing solution and supports all major protocols, including
HTTP 1.0/1.1, HTTPS, FTP, streaming media, IPv6, voice (SIP), mail
(SMTP/POP3), DNS, SSL, Telnet, 802.1Q VLAN tagging, IPSec, 802.1x, and PPPoE,
CIFS, RTMP, custom protocols, and a number of enterprise applications via the
capture/replay function.



    Spirent Avalanche will be showcased during Interop 2009 at Spirent Booth
#1051. The solution can also be viewed at Spirent Proof of Concept (SPoC)
Labs and Collaboration Centers (http://www.spirent.com/go/spoc) in Beijing,
London and Sunnyvale.



    For more information please visit www.spirent.com/go/avalanche or follow
Spirent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/spirentcomm



About Spirent Communications plc

For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/news/about_spirent.cfm