Watchfire Named Worldwide Market Share Leader in Web Application Security Assessment by Leading Market Research Firm

WALTHAM, MA, January 23, 2006 – On the heels of a successful launch of AppScan® 6.0 and a very successful 2005, Watchfire, the leading provider of Online Risk Management software and services to help ensure the security and compliance of websites, is pleased to announce that leading IT market research and advisory firm, IDC, has named the company the worldwide market share leader in the application vulnerability assessment software category according to the most recent Worldwide Security and Vulnerability Management (SVM) software report by IDC.

In this report, IDC projects worldwide revenue for the SVM software market to reach $3.10 billion in 2009. With a 26.7 percent worldwide market share, Watchfire tops the application vulnerability assessment software sub-category. Watchfire was also in the top 10 overall worldwide vulnerability assessment software revenue rankings by vendor. Web application vulnerability assessment is projected to be the fastest growing segment within the Network, Host and Application Vulnerability market with compound annual growth rate of 25 percent through 2009.

Being named as the worldwide market leader in the application vulnerability assessment software category continues the trend of recent industry achievements for Watchfire and its security products:

· Finalist in two categories for the 2006 SC Magazine Awards

· Finalist in Software Test and Performance Testers Choice Awards

· Computer Reseller News “Recommended” Rating

· Addition of 127 security customers in 2005

· Signed 14 new global resellers, solution providers and technology partners including SiegeWorks, Fujitsu Korea, Red Cliff, Mercury, F5 and Microsoft

“IDC’s report confirms that Watchfire is the worldwide security leader in application security assessment software,” said Peter McKay, president and CEO, Watchfire. “This research also validates what we are seeing in the market. Many companies are recognizing the significance of securing their critical business applications as well as their network and host infrastructure. Watchfire’s web application security solutions deliver unmatched and innovative capabilities, and we will continue to deliver leadership in the important and growing web application security market.”

Watchfire provides security testing throughout the application development lifecycle, easing unit testing and security assurance early in the development stage. Specific Watchfire web application security solutions in this market segment include:

AppScan: the industry’s leading web application security testing suite, and the only one to provide comprehensive remediation tasks at every level of the application. AppScan® scans web applications within the infrastructure, tests for security issues and provides actionable reports and fix recommendations.
AppScan Enterprise: the industry’s first enterprise class web application security platform incorporates sophisticated security algorithms from the AppScan technology and combines them with the enterprise scanning, reporting, dashboarding and trending capabilities in a web-based environment.

“Online breaches continue to re-enforce the serious security threats associated with web application vulnerabilities,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director for Security Products at IDC. “Due to the significant growth of this market segment, IDC broke out application security assessment software into a sub-category for the first time. Our research has clearly revealed that software security vulnerability scanning products are growing in demand. Watchfire is the market share leader in the web application security software category. For strong risk mitigation associated with web applications, enterprises need to invest in automated solutions that can identify and address web application weaknesses, audit for regulatory compliance and offer intelligent prioritization of what critical solutions need to be fixed.”

About Watchfire

Watchfire provides software and services to manage online risk. More than 500 enterprise organizations and government agencies, including AXA Financial, SunTrust, Boots PLC, Veterans Affairs and Dell rely on Watchfire to monitor, manage, improve and secure all aspects of the online business including security, privacy, quality, accessibility, corporate standards and regulatory compliance. Watchfire’s alliance and technology partners include IBM Global Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, TRUSTe, Microsoft, Interwoven, EMC Documentum and Mercury. Watchfire is headquartered in Waltham, MA. For more information, please visit www.watchfire.com.

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