Guardian Digital, the premier open source security company, offers the first secure, open source Internet infrastructure system. Based on Guardian Digital's operating system platform, EnGarde, the company provides enterprises with the software and services necessary for secure computing on the Internet. By leveraging the merits of the collaborative open source design model, coupled with the company's security and Internet expertise, Guardian Digital solutions maintain the highest degree of security and reliability. Founded in 1999, Guardian Digital is headquartered in Allendale, New Jersey.

The Computer Emergency Response Team, an organization responsible for much of the software-vulnerability information released on the Internet, reports nearly 7300 security incidents in 2007 alone. In fact, fear of hacker attacks and security breaches will lead to more than a 300 percent jump in corporate and government IT spending over the next four years, making this market worth $32 billion by 2009, according to IDC.

As Linux has gained acceptance in the enterprise, it is clear by these statistics that the need for secure Linux applications will increase drastically as well. Two years ago the market for open source security software, hardware that runs open source programs, and services to support such programs was non-existent. However, today Gartner Group research concludes that this market accounts for 0.5% to 1% of commercial spending in the computer-security market. Clearly an emerging market, but do open source solutions provide for a more or less secure alternative than other operating systems?

For some time it has been thought that Linux was innately more secure than other operating systems. However, as Goldman Sachs wrote in January 2003 white paper, "Fear the Penguin," "Linux is not necessarily any more or less secure than any other operating system straight out of the box. In general, customers are still faced with the same basic security issues, namely configuration issues, patch and version control, and monitoring how many and which network services are running." However, where Linux sets itself apart in security is the open-source nature of the platform. It results in many developers reviewing the code base to look for potential flaws and submit patches where appropriate. This institutionalized peer review is much more dependable than traditional proprietary development teams and has resulted in high reliability thus far.

As the market grows and more companies choose to embrace open source, the strength of open source security solutions will increase. With each new user there is another pair of eyes that could help find and eliminate security vulnerabilities. Enterprises are increasingly becoming aware that the distributed open source development model has a greater potential to protect the security of their online assets than those developed by a single company

What's needed to make Internet solutions built from open source capable of addressing business-critical security requirements is software that is engineered to be secure, cost- effective, and continually improved to proactively defend against cyber attacks.

Guardian Digital's Solution

What makes Guardian Digital so crucial to the success of open source security? While the information/code is available for all open source solutions, the time and expertise needed to manage those applications is tremendous. Guardian Digital solves that problem by developing, maintaining and constantly upgrading its open source Internet infrastructure solutions offered to its customers. In addition, the management offered by the system drastically reduces the security risks, time, expense and complexity of using open source applications in a hostile environment such as the Internet. And, with Guardian Digital's services and support offerings, companies can deploy Linux systems with a higher level of security than most proprietary systems at a fraction of the cost.

EnGarde is the core technology of Guardian Digital's offerings. This enterprise class Linux operating system is engineered from the ground up to enable corporations to quickly and cost-effectively build a complete and secure Internet presence while preventing Internet threats. The system can also be easily incorporated into existing environments. Guardian Digital's suite of secure products operates on top of this core platform. Products include comprehensive solutions addressing workgroup, email and e- business requirements. (For more information on Guardian Digital's products, view the Guardian Digital Product Overview.)

The definitive source for open source security, Guardian Digital is also the primary sponsor of LinuxSecurity.com, the Internet's central source of news, insights, security advisories and other information regarding Linux and Open Source security issues.

Media Contact:   Guardian Digital Corporate Communications
                               pr@guardiandigital.com
                               201-934-9230