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ELEMENTAL ANNOUNCES CORPORATE LAUNCH; DEBUTS WITH PRODUCT THAT FILLS THE UNMET NEED IN ENTERPRISE COMPLIANCE
Company Launches at InfoSec World 2005; CTO Dan Farmer, Featured Industry Analyst and Financial Services CISO to be Featured in Panel Session on April 5 at 12:30 pm
ORLANDO Fla. - April 4, 2005 - Elemental Security, Inc.T, a company pioneering new technology in enterprise information security, today announced its formal corporate launch, and introduced the next generation of security compliance management products - its Elemental Compliance SystemT.
With today's launch, Elemental delivers the world's only product that unifies policy management, host configuration and network access control in one seamlessly integrated offering. For the first time, enterprises can easily express cross-platform security policies that affect individual computers and their behavior on the network, gather meaningful up-to-date information to compare to established metrics, and selectively enforce policies across a diverse, dynamic environment. Security compliance has become a top priority for enterprises due to pressures from increasing frequency and severity of security breaches, and from regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
"Enterprises struggle with security configuration policy compliance because there is limited visibility into a computing environment that is undergoing constant change, and limited control over computing resources," said Mark Nicolett, research Vice President, Gartner, Inc. "Security compliance products should provide a policy-based approach to security configuration management, and should integrate with network access control functions. This will allow enterprises to protect resources on individual computers and enforce network access controls."
Today at the InfoSec World Conference and Exposition 2005 in Orlando, Fla., the company also introduced the Elemental Compliance System (see separate announcement released by Elemental today titled "Elemental Introduces New Security Compliance Management Products for Satisfying Compliance Requirements and Measurably Improving Security"). These new products are being publicly demonstrated for the first time this week in Elemental's Booth No. 713 on the show floor.
Elemental also announced today that it has joined the Network Admission Control (NAC) program, a Cisco-led initiative to help prevent attacks by using network infrastructure to enforce security policy compliance on devices attempting to access the network. To see all Elemental launch announcements released today, go to www.elementalsecurity.com/news.
InfoSec's April 5 panel, titled "The Emerging Confluence of Security and Compliance," joins featured Gartner analyst Nicolett with Elemental CTO Dan Farmer and Paul De Graaff, CISO, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the largest financial services post-trade infrastructure in the world. The session, moderated by Doug Dineley, executive editor, Test Center, InfoWorld, will be held in the Yucatan 1 Conference Room at 12:30 pm.
As the panel of security experts will present, the process of complying and measuring an enterprise's adherence with security policies is a critical step an organization needs to take to achieving a reasonable level of security. The group will discuss combining centralized policy management, host configuration, and network access control to give enterprises greater visibility and control over their security compliance.
With today's launch, Elemental helps organizations realize cost and time savings by reducing their number of security incidents. The solution reduces exposure to risks by providing visibility and understanding of enterprises' computing environments through continuous monitoring. The Elemental Compliance System also identifies and contains unauthorized machines on the network, and enforces required policies to ensure compliance. In addition, the solution reduces the cost of network and policy administration by dynamically grouping machines based on their attributes; and reduces the cost, frequency and effort involved in internal and external audit exercises.
Elemental's products address enterprise problems such as ensuring that policies are being adhered to by all machines in dynamic computing environments; providing for a unified, up-to-date view of all systems in the network and how they are performing against internal security standards and external regulatory requirements; and enforcing access controls and quarantines on systems not meeting guidelines set up by security and IT administrators.
Elemental co-founder and CTO Farmer is recognized worldwide as one of the leading computer and network security experts, and author of some of the world's most widely used security tools, including SATAN, COPS, TCT and Titan. The company also employs computer language expert Guido van Rossum, author of the very popular programming language Python. Elemental is led by CEO Peter Watkins, former COO of Network Associates.
"We are pleased to announce the formal launch of Elemental, and to address customers' security compliance management needs," said Watkins. "With a strong team that includes world-class expertise in security, policy and languages - and the endorsement of some of the most respected VC firms in the technology industry - we are excited to meet the compliance and security requirements of businesses in a variety of industries."
In addition to being led by industry experts, the Elemental team has attracted more than $10 million in financial backing from three of the premier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley - Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield and Sequoia Capital.
"Bessemer had set out to find a company that addressed the biggest demand driver today in enterprise security - technology that enables policy compliance across large, heterogeneous networks," said David Cowan, general partner of Bessemer Venture Partners and the first investor in the company. "Dan Farmer's vision, as well as his track record of delivering blockbuster security tools, convinced us that Elemental is the best of breed. Obviously, Peter Watkins and the Mayfield and Sequoia firms agreed."
About Elemental
Elemental Security is a pioneer in the Security Compliance Management market. Elemental's products address enterprises' need to centrally manage the security compliance of all computers in their environments. Elemental provides unified visibility and control to manage dynamic computing environments, enabling enterprises to satisfy compliance requirements and measurably improve their security. Founded in December 2002, Elemental is a privately held company backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield, Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, Calif., and has offices throughout the U.S. Go to http://www.elementalsecurity.com for more information.
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Elemental and the Elemental Compliance System are trademarks of Elemental Security, Inc.