IPIP Blog

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — MetricStream Inc., a leading provider of enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management solutions today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms*.

We believe our presence in the Leaders quadrant by Gartner further affirms our ability to continually meet the evolving governance, risk and compliance needs of customers across the globe, says Shellye Archambeau, CEO at MetricStream. We are constantly innovating to serve our customers through richer platform, application, content and personnel capabilities, and helping them improve risk-based decision-making, and drive business performance.

MetricStream GRC Platform has been widely adopted by many Global 1000 corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises, to automate and streamline specific functions such as Enterprise and Operational Risk Management, Audit Management, Corporate, Financial, IT and Regulatory Compliance. The platform and applications unify diverse risk, control and assurance process across the enterprise in an integrated GRC system to additionally support programs such as Policy Management, Quality Management, Supplier Risks and Performance, IT Risks and Compliance (IT-GRC), and Environment, Health and Safety (EHS).

According to the report, Instead of acquiring separate solutions for finance, IT and other business units, many enterprises are choosing to use a single EGRC platform and, when necessary, integrating the many point and functional solutions to satisfy specific GRC needs. Reporting and managing through a single platform give executives, auditors and managers a holistic view of the enterprises risk and compliance postures, as well as views sorted by requirement, entity and geography.

MetricStream has made significant investments and has years of experience in providing GRC solutions to customers in sectors such as banking amp; financial services, energy amp; utilities, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, food amp; beverage, retail and manufacturing. The companys highly specialized solutions ship with regulation and industry specific information schemas, workflows, content, reporting templates and functionalities that address best practices and nuances in specific operating environments.

These capabilities, along with MetricStreams domain expertise, ensure that the companys GRC solution implementations are consistently successful and able to address vital business issues such as Operational Risk, Loss Tracking and Regulatory Relationship Management for banks, Corporate Integrity Agreements (CIA) programs for life sciences companies, NAIC Model Audit Rule or OIG Medicaid and Medicare compliance for healthcare providers, and NERC reliability assessments and FERC compliance for utilities.

The need for quicker and more accurate risk-based decision making has significantly increased in the last few years. Large enterprises have become very wary of GRC solutions that are siloed, have rigid data-models, and require extensive customization from a programming perspective. They are typically looking for a multi-functional GRC platform from a company that can be a partner in their GRC strategy. Because of these reasons, we are seeing significant adoption of the MetricStream solution in large companies, says Gaurav Kapoor, Chief Operating Officer at MetricStream. Small and medium enterprises are also rapidly realizing value from MetricStreams successful cloud-based OnDemand GRC offerings that are quick to adopt, and deliver rich out-of-the box functionality with embedded content such as risk libraries, control hierarchies and regulatory intelligence.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise GRC Platforms presents a global view of Gartners assessment of the main software vendors that should be considered by organizations seeking a technology solution to support the oversight and operation of enterprise-wide risk management and compliance programs, with the overall objective being improvements in corporate governance and the ability to achieve business objectives. MetricStream was one of 18 companies that were analyzed in the report.

*Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms, French Caldwell, Tom Scholtz, John Hagerty, July 13, 2011.

PR Source: http://www.metricstream.com/pressNews/pr_309_Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-EGRC-Platforms-2011.html

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as Pfizer, Philips, NASDAQ, UBS, SanDisk, Subway, Fairchild Semiconductor, Constellation Energy and Cummins in diverse industries such as Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Automotive, Food, High Tech Manufacturing, Energy and Financial Services to manage their quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as by over a million compliance professionals worldwide via the www.ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartners analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the Leaders quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Media contact:
Email: pr@metricstream.com
Phone: 650-620-2955

SOURCE MetricStream

Back to top

RELATED LINKS

http://www.metricstream.com

• Add comment
• Email
• Print
• Aa
• Tweet

Metasploit Pro 4.0 Helps Defenders Prevent Data Breaches Through Greater Enterprise Integration, Cloud Deployment and Automation

Published: July 26, 2011 10:02 AM

By The Associated Press

BOSTON – –(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jul. 26, 2011–
Rapid7, the leading provider of security risk intelligence solutions, today announced the launch of Metasploit® Pro 4.0: a penetration testing solution that enables defenders to respond to the changing threat landscape by identifying and understanding security holes in their enterprise infrastructure. This new version is designed to better meet enterprise needs by offering integrations with other elements of security risk intelligence ecosystems, a range of deployment models and a number of features for automated penetration testing. By reducing the cost and complexity of security testing, Metasploit Pro 4.0 enables enterprises to conduct broader and more frequent security audits to prevent data breaches.

“Organizations looking to reduce data breach risks need smarter and more efficient security risk intelligence. One way to get this is through frequent, broad-scale penetration testing,” said HD Moore, Rapid7′s chief security officer and Metasploit chief architect. “The new features of Metasploit Pro 4.0 make this a practical reality for defenders by automating penetration testing workflow steps, better integrating with vulnerability management solutions and introducing new interfaces for SIEM systems.”

Metasploit Pro 4.0 provides security professionals with a better view of their threat landscape by integrating with more than a dozen vulnerability management and Web application scanners, and by providing data to security information and event management (SIEM) systems through a documented interface. This enables defenders to identify vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach and prioritize their remediation more effectively. Security teams increase their productivity by spending less time fixing unimportant vulnerabilities and have an effective way to verify that remediation was successful. Rapid7′s own vulnerability management solution, NeXpose® uniquely offers even greater integration with Metasploit Pro through documented, supported APIs that enable Metasploit Pro users to schedule new vulnerability scans and leverage data from decentralized locations running NeXpose scans.

“Metasploit Pro is the tool of choice for our penetration testing team and something that has helped mature our information security program. We leverage Metasploit Pro heavily in order to be precise and strategic in what we go after, which has given us invaluable visibility into our tangible risk exposures,” said Dave Kennedy, chief information security officer of Diebold, a Rapid7 Metasploit Pro and NeXpose customer. “There are so many aspects that we love about Metasploit Pro, from the knowledge-sharing collaboration capabilities to the ability to reproduce vulnerabilities and exposures. We’re really looking forward to seeing even greater collaboration and automation features in the new version, as well as the increased capabilities and performance of Meterpreter.”

The new version also offers support for both public and private cloud deployments. Defenders leveraging the public cloud can now easily conduct external penetration tests from Metasploit Pro in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Metasploit Pro is available as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) making external penetration tests from the cloud quick, easy and inexpensive. Organizations using virtualization technologies such as VMware vSphere to underpin a private cloud deployment can now easily penetration test remote sites.

The new capabilities in Metasploit Pro 4.0 now enable defenders to:

Integrate security risk intelligence

Deploy in a way that works for you

Automate penetration testing steps

Metasploit Pro 4.0 is based on the Metasploit Framework, the most widely used and mature penetration testing solution in the market with more than one million unique downloads and the world’s largest, public collection of quality-assured exploits. The Metasploit Framework is continuously updated and version 4.0 marks the inclusion of 36 new exploits, 27 new post-exploitation modules and 12 auxiliary modules, all added since the release of version 3.7.1 in May 2011. These additions include nine new SCADA exploits, improved 64-bit Linux payloads, exploits for Firefox and Internet Explorer, full-HTTPS and HTTP Meterpreter stagers, and post-exploitation modules for dumping passwords from Outlook, WSFTP, CoreFTP, SmartFTP, TotalCommander, BitCoin and many other applications. For more information on the ongoing development of the Metasploit Framework, please visit the Metasploit blog.

In addition to Metasploit Pro, Rapid7 also offers Metasploit Express as an entry-level option for vulnerability verification and penetration testing. With a reduced feature set from Metasploit Pro, Metasploit Express is optimized for security professionals who need an accessible and affordable penetration testing solution to verify the findings of their vulnerability scanners without extensive training.

For more information about learning to use Metasploit Pro to help prevent data breaches, please attend Rapid7′s Webinar, “HD Moore Offers Personal Sneak Preview of New Metasploit Version” at 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST on Thursday, July 28, 2011.

Pricing and Availability

Metasploit Pro 4.0 is available from August 2011. For information on pricing please contact info@rapid7.com. To learn more, visit http://www.rapid7.com/products/metasploit-pro.jsp.

About Rapid7

Rapid7® is the leading provider of security risk intelligence solutions. Rapid7′s integrated vulnerability management and penetration testing products, NeXpose® and Metasploit®, empower organizations to obtain accurate, actionable and contextual intelligence into their threat and risk posture. Rapid7′s solutions are being used by more than 1,600 enterprises and government agencies, while the Companys free products are downloaded more than one million times per year and enhanced further by over 125,000 security community users and contributors. Rapid7 has been recognized as one of the fastest growing security companies worldwide by Inc. Magazine and is backed by Bain Capital Ventures. For more information about Rapid7, please visit http://www.rapid7.com.

CONTACT: SHIFT Communications for Rapid7

Amanda Munroe, 617-779-1816

press@rapid7.com

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MASSACHUSETTS

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TECHNOLOGY INTERNET NETWORKS SOFTWARE SECURITY MOBILE/WIRELESS

SOURCE: Rapid7

Copyright Business Wire 2011

PUB: 07/26/2011 10:00 AM/DISC: 07/26/2011 10:01 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110726006185/en

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FairPlayUSA, a non-profit campaign based in Washington DC, has joined the push for licensed and regulated online poker in the United States. The organization, funded by casino giants Caesars and MGM, launched on Tuesday.

The groups website states that its goal is to educate policymakers and the public on the broad public policy interests raised by the current ambiguous laws in the US that have led to millions of Americans gambling on the Internet.

The initial members of its advisory board include Tom Ridge, the former Governor of Pennsylvania and first Secretary of Homeland Security; Parry Aftab, an Internet safety expert; and 2004 World Series of Poker main event champion Greg Raymer. The group is headed by Executive Director Marisa McNee.

Raymer, who also serves on the board of directors for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), said he was hesitant at first before committing to FairPlayUSA. He said he eventually became sure that the non-lobbying group could help the push for federal legislation.

“Down the round if there was a conflict between what is best for these companies and what is best for the players that might be a concern,” said Raymer, who is unpaid for his position with FairPlayUSA. “However, I was convinced that the interests of the players and the interests of the people starting this organization are aligned, at least at this point in time.” According to Raymer, the group is looking to other brick-and-mortar casinos to join. “This isn’t just about [Caesars and MGM],” he added.

The groups first of 10 principles, which reads Strengthen the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 to unambiguously eliminate illegal Internet gambling, has drawn some criticism this week from the poker community. Raymer said that efforts to bring forth a federal solution need to be about compromise and that the groups first principle has been interpreted as clearing the road for the big casinos, but that isnt how the language was intended to read.

As a practical matter, in order to get support from people like [Senator Jon] Kyl and [Representative Spencer] Bachus, we need to give them something they want,” Raymer said. And they want to stop online gambling. So, we convince them poker is a game of skill, and that it should be licensed and regulated, and in return the same legislation makes it easier for the [Department of Justice] to stop both other forms of online gambling, as well as unlicensed poker sites, from doing business in the US. So, strengthening the UIGEA is not code for get rid of PokerStars and Full Tilt and such; it is strengthen the UIGEA against non-poker online gambling, and against sites that don’t come and get licenses. This principle has nothing to do with who should get a license.

Raymer said that FairPlayUSA does not endorse Joe Bartons online poker bill, or any other piece of legislation, at this point in time. We are just endorsing the creation of some legislation that will specifically allow for licensed and regulated online poker for Americans. So, we are not trying to differentiate between bills, and saying that this bill is bad, and this one is good. We are trying to mobilize as many people as possible to tell Congress that they need to regulate online poker.

John Pappas, executive director of the PPA, issued a statement on the launch of FairPlayUSA, saying that his organization was pleased to see another group join the fight.

FairPlayUSA will be made up of variety of non-poker constituencies and can help the PPA deliver a powerful message to Capitol Hill that regulation will strengthen consumer protections and aid law enforcement, Pappas said. We look forward to working with FairPlayUSA to keep the interests of the poker playing community at the forefront, and we hope they will add their support to current and future legislation that provides for a safe, competitive and thriving Internet poker market in the US”

Dubai already hosts a number of high-profile sporting events, including the Dubai World Cup horse race, but has decided not to bid to hold the 2020 Olympic Games.

(Pawan Singh / The National)

Granted, some of these arent music festivals per se. But everything from the Taste of Grand Rapids to Fremonts National Baby Food Festival will offer up riveting live entertainment. Check em out:

bull; The Taste of Grand Rapids A.B! Coconut Brown, James Wesley, Bradley Gaskin and a host of local and regional bands play Friday night and all day Saturday as part of Taste of Grand Rapids at John Ball Park, 1300 W. Fulton St., which naturally, features a barbecue competition and food samples from more than two dozen area restaurants. Admission and parking is free. Friday evenings entertainment is hosted by 101.3 The FOX, Saturdays by STAR 105.7 and B-93. Get details at the website here.

bull; National Baby Food Festival Fremonts annual celebration has the usual kids and family-friendly activities, along with a huge parade at 10:30 am Saturday. But theres plenty of musical entertainment, with two major concerts: Da Yoopers on Friday night, and Blue Oyster Cult and Mid-Life Crisis on Saturday night. Get the full schedule online at the festival website.

bull; Interlochen Summer Arts Festival – OK, this really is a music festival, with some internationally recognized stars and musical talents performing in this charming northern Michigan camp all summer long. Tonight, Interlochen hosts Irish Fest featuring Leahy and Cathie Ryan. Get the full schedule and directions online at Interlochens website here.

bull; The Saugatuck Venetian Festival This lakeshore communitys unique celebration takes place July 29-31, featuring, of course, a boat parade and an art fair. But there are plenty of other events, too. Star Farm performs 80s hits on Friday night, with live music in Wicks Park starting at 6 pm Saturday. Get the full schedule and more details at the festivals website here.

E-mail John Sinkevics: jsinkevics@grpress.com

George Michael Tickets

• SecureYourSeat.com
• Arsenal FC Tickets
• Man Utd Tickets
• Liverpool FC Tickets
• Chelsea FC Tickets
• Premiership Tickets
• FA Cup Tickets
• Carling Cup Tickets

• Sold Out Entertainments
• Manchester United Tickets
• Liverpool FC Tickets
• Arsenal FC Tickets
• Chelsea Tickets
• England Football Tickets
• Celtic Tickets
• Glasgow Rangers Tickets

Visit BubbasGotTickets.com for great Redskins Tickets and other tickets to great sporting events like Washington Capitals Tickets and great venue tickets like Verizon Center Tickets, as well as tickets to all other events!

For cheap Washington Redskins tickets, college football tickets, Super Bowl tickets, Dallas Cowboys tickets, New England Patriots tickets, KC Chiefs tickets, Chicago Bears tickets, Indianapolis Colts tickets, and Ohio State football tickets, bookmark TicketLiquidator.

Premiership tickets

Arsenal tickets

Chelsea Tickets

Champions League tickets

Tottenham Hotspur tickets

NFL Odds

While in DC check out any of the great Washington DC Tours! Don’t forget to check out an affordable Washington DC Vacation Package with plenty of Cheap DC Hotels to choose from! All the sights make Washington DC one great Washington Vacation!

Football Betting

Football Betting

NFL Sunday Ticket with Directsattv

Redskin fans love the blog www.riggisrag.com and the NFL odds and nfl betting lines at SBGGlobal sportsbook where they can use their cell phone to play instantly.

• Football tickets
• Arsenal football tickets
• Chelsea tickets
• Liverpool tickets
• FA Cup Tickets
• Champion League Tickets
• Manchester united tickets
• Spurs tickets
• Take That Tickets

Washington Redskins Tickets

Cabinet minister Rich Coleman announces launch of BC Lottery Corporations online gambling site in July 2010.

It is no secret that the US economy is stagnant; the country seemingly has a new economic problem every day.

Unemployment is over 9% and could be headed higher when we receive the results of the July jobs report. Congress is playing a game of chicken with our AAA credit rating. The deficit is soaring and if a deal does not get done soon, the US will soon be Greece. Consumer confidence is low, business confidence is low, and nobody feels particularly happy.

Despite all of these problems, the NASDAQ continues to make new 10-year highs, the Samp;P 500 is above 1,300, and the Dow is firmly over 12,000. Investing is not the same thing as gambling, but at the end of the day, youre making an educated bet on a direction of a particular security. Heck, the Federal Reserve, with its policies, has told you to bet on stocks going up because it wants them to. Betting on a particular security has made more people wealthy in the past few years due to the stock market.

This begs the question: Is betting the way to prosperity?

A change in Nevada gaming laws will now allow casinos to take bets on a variety of different things, other than sports, horse racing and of course, games of chance. This will open the door, said Johnny Avello, the director of the race and sports operations for the Wynn (WYNN) and Encore casinos.

As sports betting has increased, other gaming revenues have fallen. But we could see a new rise of gambling wagers in Vegas that may alter how we perceive gambling in this country. Britain has long been known for having bookies take bets on anything and everything, but with entrants, including Cantor Gaming, a subsidiary of New York investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald amp; Co., and William Hill PLC, a big London-based bookmaker, we could see that kind of gambling here.

Wall Street got filthy rich creating many different types of derivatives on all kinds of products, including CDOs, CLOs, ABSs, MBSs, and a host of other alphabet-soup products. Perhaps the key to wealth in this country is to figure out who will be the the singer of the next James Bond theme song or who wins the Oscar for best male actor.

It could be like horses, where you get to pick favorites and long shots, said Cantor Gaming Chief Executive Lee Amaitis.I think you can build up momentum around that. He cited two key criteria: Can the event be effectively regulated, and does someone have an advantage in knowing the outcome to give them an edge?

With the way society is changing, it looks as if hard work and determination are not the keys to wealth anymore. Just make a bet and hope youre right.

ACTION ITEMS:

Bullish:
Traders who believe that gambling growth will explode because of these new regulations might want to consider the following trades:

• Consider the casinos, which will see new forms of revenues. Names like Wynn, MGM (MGM), Boyd Gaming (BYD) and Pinnacle Entertainment (PNK) should do well.

Bearish:

• Short hard work and determination. It seems as if those qualities, which were once admired and respected, do not matter anymore. Just place a bet and hope you get lucky.

Editors Note: This content was originally published on Benzinga.com by Jonathan Chen.

Below, find some more great ETF and market content from Benzinga:

Who Is the Anti-Facebook?
By Louis Bedigian

What Can Brown Do for Your Portfolio?
By Jonathan Chen

Unheralded ETF Plays on Emerging Markets Consumers
By The ETF Professor

Stay on top of the best financial news and commentary on Wall Street by following us @Minyanville.

The World Jewish Congress says Iran should be barred from taking part in the Olympics and other international sporting events until its athletes stop boycotting their Israeli counterparts.

A WJC press release says the Iranian behavior is unsportsmanlike and smacks of anti-Semitism.

The release was issued this week after an Iranian swimmer, claiming he was tired and drowsy, pulled out of a July 24 race that included an Israeli at the world swimming championships in Shanghai, China.

The same swimmer, Mohammed Alirezaei, pulled out of a race against an Israeli at the 2008 Olympics, claiming he was ill. This time, Alirezaei did not start a heat in the 100-meter breaststroke that included Gal Nevo of Israel.

In a press release, Ronald S. Lauder, president of the WJC, called Irans repeated attempts to politicize sporting events disgraceful and the regimes obligation on Iranian athletes not to compete against sportsmen from Israel a clear breach of the spirit and the letter of the statutes of international sporting bodies.

Unfortunately, this is what usually happens its crazy, said Yitzhak Kramer, the head of the Israeli delegation. This competition is about sport, not politics, and you need to separate the two. Thats what is supposed to be nice about sport.

The Iranian team was unavailable for immediate comment, and swimming governing body FINA was reportedly investigating the situation.

A similar case occurred at the 2004 Athens Olympics when an Iranian judo athlete did not compete against an Israeli opponent, and Iranian government officials were quoted in state media as congratulating him for doing so. ap

Editorial: Not the time for a vacation
Budget crisis needs attention: A failure to compromise by the House could put the US economy in greater trouble.

• Posted July 22, 2011 at midnight

• Email
• Discuss
• Share raquo;
  • Digg
  • onclick=return fbs_click() target=_blank title=Share this on Facebook class=facebook>Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Tweet this
• Print
• A
• A
• A