November 14, 2005 - Philadelphia, Penn. - Safend, a leading endpoint security firm, has put professional hackers to work to test the durability of their latest solution, Safend Protector. Safend Protector controls data access from the physical ports of all enterprise endpoints, such as USB, FireWire, WiFi, Bluetooth, Infrared (IrDA), and CD/DVDs. Renowned former hacker, lecturer, and author Kevin Mitnick recently put Protector through rigorous security testing and found attempting to bypass its security controls to be a significant challenge.

“Safend has done a great job with their anti-tampering countermeasures,” says Mitnick. “To circumvent Safend Protector, it would take an experienced Windows expert who has local administrator rights and a significant amount of time to dedicate to the task.”

Safend Protector operates at the kernel level, allowing IT managers to set granular policies regarding peripheral device connectivity. Included with Protector is Safend Auditor, an analysis tool that provides a list of all devices that are or have been connected to a network within the last six months, spotlighting endpoint vulnerabilities. Organizations then customize security policies to fit their needs. Safend Protector’s anti-tampering features make modifying or removing the software extremely challenging for end-users; a claim upheld by Mitnick’s analysis.

“Many of our customers are driven by regulatory compliance, and therefore must be assured that their security policies are strictly enforced,” says Safend CEO, Gil Sever. “That’s why we developed a product that will put control back into the hands of IT managers and make it virtually impossible for end users to work around our security. Safend Protector is an immediate solution to an evolving problem.”

Mitnick agrees. “What I like most about this product, outside of its well designed graphical user interface, is that it significantly raises the bar and clearly does its job, controlling access to devices that could be used to pilfer valuable, proprietary business information."

ABOUT SAFEND

Safend is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with US offices in Philadelphia, PA, and is funded by Walden Israel and Intel Capital. Safend provides the world’s most comprehensive end-point security solutions for the enterprise with its USB Port Protector and Safend Protector, which are available exclusively through authorized resellers worldwide. For more information on Safend visit www.safend.com.