Smartworld launches new ‘Smart Penetration & Vulnerability Testing' service for enterprises in the UAE

23 January 2014 - More than 70 per cent of today's cyber attacks are targeting web applications, according to Smartworld, a leading master systems integrator and next generation ICT service provider in the Middle East. The increasing presence of these online threats have continued to attack various industry verticals like banks & financial institutions, energy, oil & gas, retailers, wholesalers, mobile devices and e-commerce enterprises. In fact, industry analysts have also identified mobile applications along with web applications as new frontiers in the war against these cyber attacks. Looking to help address the situation, Smartworld has announced the launch of a new ‘Smart Penetration & Vulnerability' testing service that aims to prepare and protect local businesses and government agencies from these online attacks.

Smartworld's newly launched service provides key features like an automatic JavaScript analyzer that tests Ajax and Web applications; a visual macro recorder for web form and password testing and a multi-threaded lightning fast scanner that crawls and analyses websites including flash content, SOAP and AJAX and also checks the user's site against Google's hacking database. The ‘Smart Penetration & Vulnerability' testing service utilizes an automated scanning engine accompanied by some of the latest tools like HTTP Editor, HTTP Sniffer and HTTP Fuzzer, which allows penetration testers to fine tune web application security checks. In addition to these advanced tools, the automated scanning machine will also be able to automatically fill in web forms and authenticate each web log-in made. The service can also provide users with extensive and detailed reports like;

• CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors
• HIPAA
• ISO 27001
• NIST Special Publication 800-53 – Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems
• OWASP Top 10 2013
• PCI/DSS version 2.0
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• DISA STIG Web Security
• Web Application Security Consortium – Threat Classification.

“Cyber attack incidences have reportedly grew in 2013, prompting companies and organizations to seek key solutions and services that can protect them from these malicious online threats,” said Hamza Achour, Marketing, Alliances & Sales Operations Manager Smartworld. “We believe that a more comprehensive approach is needed to address this concern—utilizing a more proactive threat detection process that can easily identify online malware and reduce the risk of being attacked. Our new ‘Smart Penetration & Vulnerability' testing service has been designed as a complete solution for the efficient and routine testing of your IT system ensuring that your applications are genuinely secure against today's automated cyber attacks.”

The release of this new service proves to be both timely and strategic as a recent report from Cisco shows that 2013 saw a 14 per cent global increase in online attacks. The report further points out that malware targeted for pharmaceutical, chemical, agriculture, mining and electronics industries increased by over 600 per cent. Meanwhile, efforts to hack the security of companies in the energy, oil and gas industries rose by over 400 per cent and hacking attempts toward retailers and wholesalers increased by over 100 per cent.

“Cybercriminals will never stop trying to compromise systems to obtain valuable information such as customer and private user data, corporate trade secrets and payment card information. We want to put a full stop to this problem by leveraging the ‘Smart Penetration & Vulnerability' testing service across today's businesses and bring them one step closer to building a comprehensive security strategy to reduce risk, protect data and safeguard their reputation,” concluded Achour.