Tripwire Broadens Infrastructure Coverage with Tripwire Enterprise; Expanded Support for Unix, Linux, Solaris and Windows Provides a Single Point of Control for Auditing Changes across Critical IT Infrastructure.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Tripwire(R), Inc. today announced the availability of Tripwire Enterprise 5.1, the leading change auditing solution that proves system and process integrity and helps enterprises demonstrate compliance. With expanded server platform support and additional network devices, Tripwire Enterprise 5.1 expands Tripwire Enterprise's infrastructure coverage to address all leading servers, desktops and network devices and provides IT managers a single point of control for auditing changes across distributed IT infrastructure.

A key priority for most IT organizations is producing independent and auditable proof that all changes are authorized and implemented as intended. Tripwire provides a holistic view of the actual changes made to IT infrastructure reconciled with expected results defined by change approval and release management processes. As IT-related governance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley continue to increase, Tripwire is providing IT managers the necessary evidence to satisfy audit and compliance requirements.

"A compliance solution must go further and document ALL relevant configuration changes on ALL relevant systems -- including those made without management tools, that were not scheduled or that were done to quickly address some other problem," said Jasmine Noel of Ptak & Noel Associates. "That independence of who, when, and how makes the auditing system robust enough to ensure compliance."

According to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), effective change management is critical to the attainment of business goals. Preventive, detective and corrective controls must be implemented in response to the identified risks of IT change. Without these controls it is difficult for management to meet the requirements of regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

"Today's complex, heterogeneous IT infrastructures and highly regulated climate continue to drive the need for strong IT process controls," said Jim B. Johnson, CEO of Tripwire. "Tripwire Enterprise 5.1 delivers single point control for auditing changes across distributed infrastructures, enabling organizations to build confidence in change management and security processes, demonstrate compliance, and ultimately increase network availability."

Tripwire Enterprise

Tripwire Enterprise 5.1 broadens Tripwire Enterprise's infrastructure coverage to address all leading servers, desktops, including AIX, HP-UX, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, additional versions of Solaris and Windows, as well as most leading network devices. Additional compliance reporting capabilities, enhanced reference node comparisons and a documented Web Services API to enable integration with other change and configuration management (C/CM) software have also been added.

Tripwire Enterprise change auditing has three critical functions within the C/CM process:

--Detect Change: Tripwire Enterprise creates a verifiable audit trail by building a change history containing specific change details, including what changes were made, who made the changes, and when changes were discovered. Changes on each system are detected relative to a designated baseline specifically selected by authorized personnel. As an independent detective control segregated from the persons or technologies making changes, Tripwire Enterprise detects changes regardless of who made the change or how the change was made.

--Reconcile Change: Tripwire Enterprise exposes unauthorized and unintended changes by discovering changes that occur outside of defined maintenance windows and exposing unauthorized individuals making changes through its detailed change reporting. To automate change reconciliation, Tripwire Enterprise uses information from other C/CM tools, such as change ticketing, software distribution and patch management tools, to automatically recognize and validate authorized and intended changes by comparing the current configuration of a system with an approved change ticket, a pre-production version, or a reference system. When undesired change is detected, Tripwire Enterprise can automatically open incident tickets or trigger recovery.

--Report Change: Tripwire Enterprise reporting includes a library of reports and online dashboards that can be easily tailored to provide change process metrics, change activity, change history and node status. Reports can be scheduled, archived, and distributed in a variety of formats, including HTML, PDF or XML. Tripwire Enterprise's reporting capabilities enable an independent accounting of change across the infrastructure and provide proof of systems and process integrity.

About Tripwire Solutions

A comprehensive change auditing solution requires three critical pieces: process, people and technology. Correspondingly, Tripwire Solutions include both software and professional services offerings. Its software offerings include Tripwire Enterprise and Tripwire for Servers, which is a proven change monitoring and analysis solution for servers running in small to mid-size organizations. Tripwire Professional Services offers a complete set of services to help organizations define change control processes, integrate Tripwire software with existing C/CM systems, as well as Tripwire software implementation and tuning.

About Tripwire, Inc.

Tripwire is the leading provider of change auditing software and services. Tripwire solutions enable enterprises to prove that their IT change management controls are effective and their infrastructure is safe. Tripwire software provides proof of regulatory compliance, instills accountability for change, ensures the security of business-critical systems, and increases the overall availability of IT services. Tripwire is headquartered in Portland, Ore., with offices in the UK and Japan. For more information visit: http://www.tripwire.com/.