Ixia Launches Network And Cloud Security Test Tool

PRESS RELEASE

San Francisco, CA, February 09, 2011 – Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading, global provider of converged IP network test solutions, today unveiled IxLoad-Attack, its network vulnerability test tool. The first public demonstration will be at the RSA Conference 2011 in San Francisco, February 14-17. With the industry’s most comprehensive database of more than 6,000 unique attacks, IxLoad-Attack recreates malicious traffic that exploits published vulnerabilities and generates Internet-scale distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in a controlled environment.

IxLoad-Attack measures the performance of network security appliances validating that they effectively and accurately block attacks while delivering high end-user quality of experience for mission-critical applications. Security perimeter devices such as firewall, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), anti-virus, anti-spam and URL filters, and VPN gateways need constant update and configuration to provide up-to-date protection; IxLoad-Attack includes an update service that keeps pace with current threats. IxLoad-Attack delivers the security testing depth and scale needed to satisfy both device validation and continuous protection of cloud infrastructures as well as enterprise, government, and service provider networks. IxLoad-Attack is the only product that provides malicious traffic over both encrypted (IPsec and SSL) and non-encrypted links.

The Need for Vulnerability Testing

To protect against the increasing type, number, and virulence of security threats, network equipment manufacturers must constantly ensure that their devices provide the level of protection and performance needed by enterprises and service providers. Recent DDoS attacks, in conjunction with other malicious exploits launched against government and service provider networks, have caused major security breaches and resulted in substantial damage. In addition, the growing prevalence of cloud services creates multiple internal/external boundaries that must be protected. Only with continuous vulnerability testing can NEMs, service providers, and enterprises be certain that their security mechanisms are keeping pace with the threat environment while ensuring network performance.

Key Facts:

* IxLoad-Attack is a complete security test solution, which includes over 6,000 known vulnerabilities and is backed by frequent attack updates. IxLoad-Attack’s DDoS feature uses the significant processing power and scalability of the Ixia platform to provide line-rate denial of service attacks with dozens of types of DDoS attacks, including SYN, ICMP, and ARP floods. * Ixia’s IxLoad-IPsec can be used to encrypt all types of traffic for performance testing of VPN gateway devices; encryption of attacks provides complete testing of security devices that include integrated VPN capabilities. * IxLoad-Attack tests the security of 3G/LTE wireless core networks with GTE-encapsulation. * IxLoad-Attack runs in parallel with all other IxLoad functions. Customized, real-world network traffic provides the “good” reference traffic that security devices must forward without affecting customer quality of experience (QoE).

Supporting Quotes:

* “The SonicWALL SuperMassive E10000 Series of Next-Generation Firewalls offers previously unprecedented levels of massively multi-core architecture and granular application intelligence and control functionality. With this level of scale and performance, we require city-scale vulnerability and multiplay traffic to test them,” said John Gmuender, vice president of engineering and CTO at SonicWALL. “Ixias IxLoad-Attack product is currently the only commercial test platform that can accurately test our devices with the scale and scope that our products demand.”

* “Security concerns are at the forefront of IT managers’ minds as they seek to balance security and access. They face a continuous stream of updates from security equipment vendors to fend off the latest attacks, requiring constant configuration changes,” said Jeff Wilson, Analyst at Infonetics. “This highly dynamic security environment drives the need for continuous testing with solutions like Ixia’s.”

* “Virtualized data centers, cloud computing, and network infrastructures, while providing an economic means of satisfying Internet and intranet requirements, vastly increase security enforcement complexity,” said Vic Alston, Senior Vice President of Product Development at Ixia. “Ixia’s security test solution is the perfect tool for verifying not only the effectiveness and accuracy of security solutions, but also measuring key network performance while under attack.”

Resources:

* For more information on IxLoad-Attack, see the Security Solution page on Ixia’s web site.

Key terms:

Security, testing, network security, UTM, DDoS, malware, vulnerabilities, IPsec, SSL, encryption

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About Ixia

Ixia is a leading provider of converged IP performance test systems and service verification platforms for wireless and wired infrastructures and services. Ixia’s test systems are used by network and telephony equipment manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, service providers, governments and enterprises to validate the performance and reliability of complex networks, devices and applications. Ixia’s multiplay test systems address the growing need to test voice, video and data services and network capability under real-world conditions.