SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To combat rising nation-state attacks, WhiteHat Security, an independent subsidiary of NTT Security and a leading application security provider, today announced that it will offer free application scanning services to federal, state and municipal agencies in North America. In light of geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran, and the upcoming presidential election, the WhiteHat Security team is offering its resources, technology and services as part of its civic duty to defend the nation against sophisticated cyberattacks. WhiteHat takes the security of the country’s critical infrastructure seriously and has taken steps to help the public sector defend itself against these evolving threats.
These “cyber invaders” are targeting both the perimeter security as well as the application layer of public sector organizations. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, state-sponsored cyberattacks against applications and websites are of increasing concern, with recent examples including:
- August 2019: China used compromised websites to distribute malware to Uyghur populations via undisclosed exploits for Google, Apple and Windows phones
- October 2019: A state-sponsored hacking campaign kicked more than 2,000 websites offline in Georgia, including government and court sites that housed case materials and personal data
- December 2019: Unknown digital adversaries stole login credentials from government agencies in 22 countries across Asia, Europe and North America
In the current political climate, the resilience of domestic public sector cybersecurity is under increased scrutiny. In targeting the election and voting process, for example, nation-state adversaries try to penetrate any attack surface and technology they can access, including firewalls, endpoint security and network security solutions, as well as applications and websites (and are often successful). All areas are potentially vulnerable.
To mitigate the risk of application security vulnerabilities resulting in a successful attack, WhiteHat is offering the following to government agencies at no charge:
- WhiteHat Sentinel Dynamic, the company’s industry-proven dynamic application security testing (DAST) solution. The cloud-based SaaS platform accurately and rapidly finds vulnerabilities in websites and applications throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC), including in production.
- Sentinel Source Essentials Edition, WhiteHat’s entry-level SAST product, which delivers a fast, automated service that scans application source code, identifies vulnerabilities and provides detailed vulnerability descriptions and remediation advice. The discovered vulnerabilities are prioritized according to severity, thus providing guidance on what should be remediated first.
“WhiteHat Security takes state-sponsored attacks seriously, and we are deeply dedicated to defending our democracy against those who hack our technology, our critical systems, our privacy and our freedom,” said Craig Hinkley, CEO, WhiteHat Security. “As a successful Silicon Valley company, we want to do our part, and we have the capabilities to help the public sector increase its defenses in response to escalating nation-state attacks. After recently becoming a U.S. citizen myself, this issue hits particularly close to home, and we at WhiteHat want to help prevent Iran or any other nation state from hacking our democracy.”
Hinkley continued, “My team is ready to fight alongside our government agencies. Public sector bodies that take proactive steps to identify and address vulnerabilities in their applications will be significantly safer from state-sponsored efforts to disrupt the services they deliver to the American population, and this initiative will make this more achievable than ever. We look forward to aiding these organizations in 2020 and beyond.”
For more information on protecting your organization against state-sponsored attacks and/or to take advantage of this offer, please contact WhiteHat Security’s cyberattack hotline at 800-648-5113 or email us at nationstatesec@whitehatsec.com.
About WhiteHat Security
WhiteHat Security is the leading advisor for application security with the most comprehensive platform powered by artificial and human intelligence. Trusted for nearly two decades by mid-sized to Fortune 500 organizations, WhiteHat Security empowers secure DevOps by continuously assessing the risk of software assets throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC). The company is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Security and is based in San Jose, California, with regional offices across the U.S. and Europe. For more information, visit www.whitehatsec.com.
