Web Applications: A Chink in Your Armour?

London, UK (PRWEB) August 10, 2006

Acunetix, a leading web security software company, today announced the release of Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner version 4. This latest version provides a more comprehensive solution for enterprises wanting to detect exploitable website and web application vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection and Cross Site Scripting.

This release comes at a time when hackers are launching more aggressive attacks on web applications. Some hackers have successfully compromised the websites of large companies such as Microsoft and Paypal and even accessed very personal and highly sensitive data of thousands of victims through government websites, says Nick Galea, CEO of Acunetix.

Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner provides protection by automatically auditing the security of websites. The software crawls an entire website, launches several web attacks (SQL Injection, Cross Site Scripting, Google hacking, etc.) and identifies vulnerabilities that need to be fixed, while proposing recommendations.

Web Applications: a hackers backdoor entry to sensitive information

“Increasingly, businesses are becoming aware of the importance of securing websites to prevent hackers from gaining access to sensitive customer data, through poorly designed web applications. These web applications are prone to attack because they are accessible 24×7 and receive/deliver content directly from databases containing the data, reports Galea. Standard network security provides no protection against web application attacks since these are launched on port 80 which has to remain open to allow regular operation of the business, he adds.

Chinks in the Armour

78% of financial services institutions (including banks, insurers and investment professionals) were attacked by hackers in the past year, according to Deloitte’s annual 2006 Global Security Survey. This is in stark contrast with only 26% reported in 2005.

Web Applications: A Chink in Your Armour?