Configuresoft Delivers Enterprise Configuration Manager ''Drop & Deploy'' Continuous Compliance Toolkit to Meet Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The Center for Policy & Compliance Provides Vendors and Merchants Automated Configuration Protection to Ensure Continuous Compliance with PCI DSS Requirements

Configuresoft, an innovator in systems management technology and the creator of enterprise compliance management, today announced the Enterprise Configuration Manager/PCI DSS (ECM/PCI DSS) Continuous Compliance Toolkit. The "Drop & Deploy" toolkit is designed by Configuresoft's Center for Policy & Compliance (CP&C) to help vendors and merchants address the six major areas of focus determined by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to secure credit card data. Configuresoft's ECM/PCI DSS Toolkit tackles key requirements that vendors must apply to systems and applications included in or connected to the cardholder data environment. The Toolkit is available at no charge to existing Configuresoft customers and partners.

In December of 2004, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover and JCB formed and ratified the PCI DSS, a unified standard to address growing monetary loses and mounting security needs. The PCI DSS now has additional implications in light of other privacy regulations such as GLBA and California's Senate Bill 1386.

"Since we require our customers to present their credit cards when they rent a car, it is important that we safeguard the sensitive data contained on those cards," said Buck Wheaton, team manager, Server Support of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc., parent company of Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental. "Using ECM will help us meet the PCI DSS compliance requirements through the use of automated rules to regularly track and monitor access to network resources and cardholder data."

Configuresoft's CP&C is comprised of a team of security and policy experts, IT auditors and early contributors to the Federal mandates and industry best practices. While Configuresoft's goal includes helping administrators better understand and evaluate the security of their network, the driving factor behind the CP&C is to help the market gain a better understanding of the tools that can help plan and implement automated strategies that effectively address regulatory and policy compliance issues.

Using Configuresoft's ECM/PCI DSS Continuous Compliance Toolkit, vendors and merchants can conduct audits to validate that they are meeting PCI DSS network security compliance requirements. The six major areas that ECM/PCI DSS focuses on include:

--Building and maintaining a secure network;

--Protecting cardholder data;

--Maintaining a vulnerability management program;

--Implementing strong access control measures;

--Continuously monitoring and maintaining networks; and

--Maintaining information security policies.

"We recognize that all members, merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit cardholder data must protect credit card data in order to meet business security and PCI DSS compliance requirements. Any institution required by law to adhere to the PCI DSS and GLBA compliance requirements will find this task much easier if they can implement and audit a proper compliance strategy and then automate compliance enforcement," said Chris Farrow, director, Configuresoft's Center for Policy & Compliance. "By demonstrating effective IT controls, ECM enables corporations to easily and effectively automate, monitor and document their compliance efforts and continuously defend compliance requirements to recognized auditing standards."

About Enterprise Configuration Manager

ECM centralizes and automates the tasks of monitoring, managing and auditing the hardware and software configurations deployed in large enterprise networks or Web server farms. By standardizing server and client configurations, ECM ensures operational compliance to regulatory, industry and corporate standards throughout a computing infrastructure. Sustained by the industry's most proven scalable architecture, ECM collects detailed critical configuration data from each Windows, UNIX and Linux server and workstation--storing that information in a centralized database for immediate access, analysis and reporting. ECM enforces security policies by automatically resetting configurations to their pre-defined standards when an unauthorized change (or deviation) occurs. These powerful capabilities help IT organizations keep their critical systems properly configured, while ensuring security compliance with regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, GLBA, Sarbanes-Oxley and FISMA.

About Configuresoft

Configuresoft is an innovator in systems management technology, serving eight of the world's 25 largest companies. Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Company offers enterprise configuration, policy compliance and remediation products that span both operations and IT security. At a time in which organizations must maintain a continuous state of audit throughout their infrastructure, Configuresoft ensures these environments conform to any desired or mandated state. To contact Configuresoft, call 719.447.4600, visit us on the Web at www.configuresoft.com or write to [e-mail].