2006 Press Releases

Florida State University Improves Campus-wide Network Security with Rapid7's NeXpose

NeXpose Impresses FSU IT Security Team With Its Extensive Risk Auditing and Comprehensive Reporting Capabilities

Boston, MA - July 25, 2006 - Rapid7 today announced that Florida State University (FSU) has installed NeXpose vulnerability management software for conducting security risk audits across all departments on its Tallahassee, FL campus. NeXpose was selected primarily for its remote access capabilities and risk reporting features, which enable wide-ranging vulnerability scans and immediate analysis of current threats, thereby protecting FSU's campus-wide networks.

"With its remote access capabilities, NeXpose allows me to delegate to our other IT administrators and ensure every campus department is covered in our network audits," stated Joe Ferris, network security engineer, FSU IT security team. "I can locate the systems that have the most problems in only a few clicks."

"The reporting capabilities are better than anything we used previously," added Ferris. "Even the report templates provide the information we need. The vulnerabilities discovered by NeXpose are thoroughly explained and remediation steps are outlined for addressing them. We can also generate an executive summary for upper management."

FSU is using the latest upgrade of NeXpose, version 4.1, which includes all the features that Ferris and his team were seeking in a vulnerability management solution.

"If I were going to build this product, this is what I would incorporate," stated Ferris. "NeXpose allows us to sort devices and sites, making it possible to find vulnerabilities in seconds. The main dashboard gives me a full view of the lay of the land so I can see exactly where all the network problems are."

In addition to the software capabilities, FSU is impressed with the NeXpose support team. "Rapid7's support during our product trial was excellent, and since our purchase it has consistently been great," stated Ferris. "If we need help or have a question, we always get a live person."

About NeXpose

The award-winning NeXpose enterprise vulnerability management scans devices, systems, software and Web server applications to locate threats, assess their risk to the environment, devise a remediation plan and implement the ticketing process. With its expert system, NeXpose builds a knowledge base of facts on the environment it explores and models potential targeted attacks to expose all existing threats. NeXpose provides reporting capabilities that ensure compliance with governmental regulations and corporate security configuration policies. NeXpose PCI Compliance services meet the security scanning requirements of the MasterCard Site Data Protection (SDP) Program.

About Florida State University

Florida State University (www.fsu.edu) is a comprehensive, national graduate research university with an impressive breadth of leading graduate, professional and undergraduate programs, and an international reputation in the sciences and humanities. Florida State's 16 schools and colleges offer more than 300 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, professional and specialist degree programs, including medicine and law, covering a vast array of disciplines critical to society today. Many units have programs that consistently rank among the nation’s top 25 public universities. Florida State's arts programs - dance, film, music and theatre - rank among the finest in the world.

Florida State's nearly 40,000 students have the opportunity to work and study alongside an outstanding faculty that includes Nobel Laureates, five members of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, seven members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and two winners of the Pulitzer Prize. Faculty members lead several scholarly fields in citations to published work.

About Rapid7

Rapid7 is the leading provider of unified vulnerability management and penetration testing solutions, delivering actionable intelligence about an organization’s entire IT environment. Rapid7 offers the only integrated threat management solution that enables organizations to implement and maintain best practices and optimize their network security, Web application security and database security strategies.

Recognized as the fastest growing vulnerability management company in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine, Rapid7 helps leading organizations such as Liz Claiborne, the United States Postal Service, Carnegie Mellon University and Red Bull to mitigate risk and maintain compliance for regulations such as PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, SOX and NERC. Rapid7 also manages the Metasploit Project, the leading open-source penetration testing platform with the world’s largest database of public, tested exploits. To obtain a free download of NeXpose or Metasploit, please visit http://www.rapid7.com/resources/free-downloads.jsp.

For more information, visit www.rapid7.com.