IBM is today showing off new software which it claims will help firms reduce
the costs associated with detecting security problems in their applications, and
ease ongoing application compliance.
The firm said that its new
Rational
AppScan Developer Edition was designed to be used at the very earliest
stages of software development, adding that this would save businesses from
costly reactive measures or embarrassing security breaches.
For example, IBM said that it would help firms comply with industry staples
such as the
Payment
Card Industry Data Security Standard, and warned that repairing individual
software defects can cost as much as £10,000.
"Today, only about 10 per cent of organisations are adopting pre-emptive
application security measures. We predict that this will reach 80 per cent by
2010," said Scott Hebner, vice president of marketing at IBM Rational Software.
"As an industry, we are responsible for ensuring that security and compliance
measures are built in, not bolted on after the software code has already been
written.
"With the majority of security threats originating from web applications, it
is imperative that businesses take action to lower their risks."
IBM claimed that AppScan Developer Edition allows for static code analysis,
which checks source code for potential security vulnerabilities, dynamic black
box testing to identify vulnerabilities in the compiled code, run-time analysis,
patent-pending string analysis and composite analysis.
AppScan Developer Edition is available now on a fixed-term licence of
approximately £13,000 per seat.
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