University of Florida Foundation selects DigitalStakeout’s Secured Site program for protecting Donor financial data

ATLANTA – (November 1st, 2005) – DigitalStakeout, a leading provider of vulnerability management services, announced today that the University of Florida Foundation has chosen DigitalStakeout as their vendor of choice for information security solutions and signed a multiyear contract for DigitalStakeout’s Secured Siteâ„? program.

“DigitalStakeout’s Secured Site program is a revolutionary new approach to a total security assurance model,” said Mike Pearson, CEO of DigitalStakeout. “Backed by our core technology, Threat Portal VMS, our comprehensive program enables university alumni foundations to maintain a constant and vigilant view into their current security state in order to protect their most important asset, their donor’s personal and financial data.”

“By integrating application, host and network-based vulnerability management along with manual penetration testing and correlated attack validation, this program establishes a definitive approach to security awareness,” Pearson added.

The University of Florida Foundation’s website and internet presence play a critical roll in fundraising activities. Through online giving or by providing remote access to fund raisers these systems contain confidential and sensitive data that, if compromised, could seriously hamper fund raising activities.

“The presence of the Secured Site logo on our website gives current and future donors the peace of mind that the Foundation is taking all necessary steps to protect their data,” said Charlie Napier, CIO of University of Florida Foundation.

“Our most critical asset is our donor data and protecting that data is our number one concern. Prior to implementing the Secured Site program we were always in reactive mode. Now we can proactively identify and eliminate threats before they become a real problem,” added Napier.

The core technology behind the Secured Site program is DigitalStakeout’s revolutionary Threat Portal VMS. The Threat Portalâ„? Vulnerability Management Service replaces time-intensive manual efforts of finding web application and system vulnerabilities and helps customers achieve a level of security beyond the capabilities of traditional network firewalls and intrusion detection systems. This service continually scans and identifies new potential weaknesses in systems and applications that could allow an attacker to gain access to protected data.

“Threat Portal has become our primary tool with regard to security monitoring across our network and applications. Threat Portal enables us to pinpoint in real-time, where exactly on our network or in our applications new and existing vulnerabilities are present,” said Charlie Napier.

“In evaluating various solutions, the decision to select DigitalStakeout’s Threat Portal VMS was based on four clear criteria: total scanning capability of networks, hosts and applications, scalability, ease-of-use and overall cost efficiency. DigitalStakeout has met and exceeded our demands and given us a reliable, centralized solution for protecting our donors’ data,” said Charlie Napier.

“Over the last few years, there has been a wide-spread deployment of intrusion prevention technologies. But that doesn’t solve the root cause of most security problems and that is the fact that you have a system that is vulnerable, and even though you are deploying technology as stop-gap measures — you are still not identifying and fixing the root cause,” said Mike Pearson. “That belief is the methodology behind DigitalStakeout’s Vulnerability Management Service (Threat Portal VMS).”

About DigitalStakeout

DigitalStakeout is a leading managed security services company offering security audit and vulnerability management solutions to the underserved small to medium sized enterprises. DigitalStakeout’s flagship solution, ThreatPortal VMS, is designed to secure networks, conduct automated security audits, and ensure regulatory compliance. ThreatPortal VMS proactively and automatically identifies security vulnerabilities, correlates those threats to specific assets, and provides a workflow solution to track the vulnerability to closure.

The company’s management team is comprised of industry veterans with backgrounds at leading companies including Internet Security Systems, Inc., NetBank, Inc., and SecureWorks, Inc.

Privately held, DigitalStakeout is headquartered in Atlanta. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.digitalstakeout.com or call Toll Free 1.877.714.1758.

About University of Florida Foundation

Created in 1934 as the University of Florida Endowment Corporation, the UF Foundation expanded in the early 1950s to become the primary fund raising and fund management arm of the University. In 1964, Florida certified the Foundation under its current name.

As of June 30, 2004, the UF Foundation held assets for the University of Florida totaling just over $1 billion. From July 1, 1979 through June 30, 2004, the Foundation has provided $1.09 billion in support of University programs, facilities, scholarships, fellowships, professorships and other University purposes.