Version 3.1 automates security updates, including service packs

London, UK, 20 January 2003 - Safety and security for an enterprise network has long been an ongoing struggle between the "black hats" and corporate security officers. Now, as recent events have shown, hacker targets have expanded to include small business and home networks which simply share an Internet connection and a printer. There is no longer any "safe place." Network security is becoming everyone's concern and what is needed now is a tool that is simple, powerful and affordable.

To meet this need, GFI - developer of content security and network security software - today launched GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 3.1, an upgrade to its critically acclaimed version 3.0.

High Security, No Cost
Designed to conduct network security audits, GFI LANguard N.S.S. 3.1 is much simpler to use than the majority of security scanners on the market - and much more affordable. The program, which first appeared as freeware, is still available at no charge for noncommercial use and its purchase price is among the lowest for security scanning software.

Identifies vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
GFI LANguard N.S.S. scans entire networks for vulnerabilities, giving administrators - be they enterprise gurus or the in-house "techie" - a hacker's eye view of their network, identifying chinks in the armor before they can be exploited in a malicious attack to bring down the network or use the computer as an unwitting stooge in a third party attack. GFI LANguard N.S.S. then generates easy-to-use reports that can be used to strengthen the defenses.

Automated defenses
GFI LANguard N.S.S. also helps ensure that the latest security patches are installed by scanning each network machine and identifying missing patches and service packs. Version 3.0 was able to push the updated security patches to remote machines that needed them. Version 3.1 takes this one step further and adds service packs to the items that can be remotely added without user intervention, thus drastically reducing administrative load.

Wealth of data makes defense design easy
The feature-rich GFI LANguard N.S.S. 3.1 can also provide information regarding open shares, open ports, services/applications active on the computer, the status of key registry entries and the presence of weak passwords. It can also detect potential Trojans installed on users' workstations and determine if the operating system (OS) is advertising too much information to the outside world.

Another weapon against cyberterrorism
With this release of LANguard N.S.S., GFI makes a major contribution to the security of networks in government, business and at home. By providing it as freeware to noncommercial users, GFI is providing a public service that makes it that much harder for the cyberterrorists.

Pricing starts at $ 249 for up to 50 IPs the commercial version, and the product remains freeware for noncommercial use. More information and a free copy of the product are available at http://www.gfi.com/lannetscan/.