October 11, 2005

AlertSite Offers Data Protection Testing

By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com

October 11, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- After MasterCard, VISA and other major credit card companies created the MasterCard Security Standard initiative earlier this year, online merchants have been forced to update their payment systems to obtain Payment Card Industry compliance.

The MasterCard SDP program enables retailers to defend themselves against any malicious attacks or account data compromises by identifying vulnerabilities in security processes, procedures and Web site configurations.

Responding to this new industry standard, Web performance measurement provider AlertSite (alertsite.com) has recently become a certified and authorized vendor for the MasterCard Site Data Protection program.

The Coconut, Florida-based company completed the vigorous testing required of the program, and is now offering its Security Vulnerability Scan service to ensure that online retailers are complying with the MasterCard Security Standard.

Level one, two and three retailers can take advantage of AlertSite's Security Vulnerability Scan and proactively locate areas of non-compliance.

The service is available in two options: Daily Scanning, which is priced at $49.95 a month per IP address, and Weekly Scanning, which is priced at $19.95 a month per IP address.

Signing for an annual agreement will provide the merchant with quarterly PCI compliant scanning and reporting. And the package includes more features within the security scanning products such as the ability to scan multiple IP addresses.

AlertSite president and CEO Ken Gross says that although the pricing for its Security Vulnerability Scan service may be slightly adjusted in the future, it will remain a competitive industry offering.

"It will be, as all of our products have been, priced so that small and medium merchants can [afford it]," says Gross. "And it will be feature-rich so the large merchants and larger organizations can see the value as well."

Online merchant, should not take becoming PCI compliant lightly; retailers who are found to be non-compliant with the security standards may face fines, restrictions or permanent prohibition from participating in the card acceptance programs.

AlertSite's Security Vulnerability Scan evaluates the security of an online merchant's IT system that stores cardholder account information.

Major credit corporations like Visa, American Express and Discover will deem a merchant who passes AlertSite's testing as PCI Data Security Standard compliant.

AlertSite also offers full customer support, 24 hours a day, to help online merchants get the most out of its services.

"We don't just sell the products," says Gross, "we advise our customers on how to utilize our services - from monitoring to load testing and security - for the customer to ensure they're delivering a quality service to their end user."