Spirent announces enhanced security testing to protect networks from attacks.

Avalanche DDoS Attack Module Helps Test for Distributed Denial of Service Attacks

Spirent Communications, a wholly owned business group of Spirent plc (NYSE:SPM) (LSE:SPT), has announced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) Attack Module for its Avalanche/2200 system. The new software further strengthens Spirent's portfolio of security test systems and provides network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises with the assurance that their networks can survive even the most debilitating attacks.

DDoS attacks occur when many hosts act in a cooperative manner to perform a joint denial of service attack, increasing the potential for overrunning the network dramatically. Spirent's DDoS Attack module helps proactively validate security features by simulating large-scale attacks, allowing users to easily modify the types of attacks and test in various scales.

"We continue to extend the breadth of our L4-7 protocol coverage by supporting testing for malicious traffic such as DDoS Attacks," said Roy Chua, director of product marketing for Spirent Communications. "The Avalanche DDoS Attack Module has been successfully used by government agencies charged with strengthening the national networking infrastructure against cyber-terrorism. These agencies can quickly and easily analyze

the effectiveness of their security solutions against large scale DDoS attacks, accelerating the time to deployment of such solutions."

Spirent's security offerings include WebSuite Firewall, TeraVPN and the Avalanche SSL Module. The Avalanche product family provides comprehensive testing tools for layers 4-7 traffic generation capabilities. The DDoS Attack Module is expected to be available within 30 days. It will provide the following specific benefits to customers:

--Network equipment manufacturers: During the QA cycle, it can be used to test the device's ability to detect, withstand and mitigate an attack;

--Service providers: It validates an infrastructure's ability to survive a DDoS attack while allowing the network to continue servicing customers; and,

--Enterprises: It identifies security weaknesses, and helps ensure that real user traffic will get through while an attack is in progress, assuring business continuity.

"With the rate of malicious online attacks increasing, as well as the lost revenue and damaged reputations companies endure if they fall victim to a DDoS attack, it is critical for businesses to be prepared," said Greg Shipley, CTO of Neohapsis Inc., a security consulting and testing lab. "It's traditionally been difficult to simulate this type of attack without amassing a variety of different components, so we are excited to see Spirent take a more focused approach to addressing this problem."

Avalanche is designed for network equipment manufacturers, service providers and Web site managers that demand absolute realism and control under all conditions. Avalanche challenges any computing infrastructure's ability to stand up to the load and complexity of the real world. Avalanche can generate in excess of 30,000 HTTP requests per second, and supports HTTP/1.0, HTTP/1.1, HTTPS, RTSP/RTP (Apple QuickTime), RealSystem streaming, Microsoft Windows Media 8 and 9 Series, SMTP, POP3 and FTP. Through clustering, Avalanche can scale to the needs of even the world's largest infrastructures. Many leading corporations use Avalanche to ensure that their products and services excel in real-world conditions. Real-world conditions are accurately replicated by simulating error conditions, realistic user behavior, and maintaining over one million open connections from distinct IP addresses. Current customers include AT&T, BEA, Cable & Wireless, Cisco Systems, CNET, Deutsche Bank, eBay, Extreme Networks, F5 Networks, Forbes.com, Foundry Networks, MSNBC, Network Appliance, Nortel Networks, NTT DATA, SBC Communications, and WatchGuard.

Spirent Communications is a provider of integrated performance analysis and service assurance systems for next-generation network technologies. Spirent's solutions accelerate the profitable development and deployment of network equipment and services by emulating real-world conditions in the lab and assuring end-to-end performance of large-scale networks.