Vormetric Announces the Addition of Vigilar to Its Payment Card Industry (PCI) Partner Program

SecureWorld Expo -- Vormetric, a leading provider of security solutions for protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access, today announced that Vigilar, an information security consulting firm, joined its PCI partner program. Vigilar is approved to perform on-site PCI audits as a PCI qualified auditor under Visa's CISP program.

Vigilar's PCI expertise runs deep: As a Visa qualified auditor, Vigilar has earned Visa's approval to certify, remediate, and maintain security requirements for organizations that need to achieve and maintain PCI compliance. As a result, Vigilar can audit processes, architecture, and IT controls as regulated and defined under the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS). These security requirements apply to all system components that store, transmit, or process cardholder data. This includes, but is not limited to, web, database, authentication, DNS, mail, proxy, and NTP. In addition, Vigilar has earned its Compliant Security Vendor approval under MasterCard International's Site Data Protection (SDP) program, allowing Vigilar to perform quarterly network scans for credit card merchants and others who store or transmit cardholder data. Lastly, Vigilar has a full breadth of security services (training, product, consulting, and managed services) to provide PCI-related activity.

Vormetric's partner program gives PCI qualified auditors like Vigilar preferred access to Vormetric's customer-proven PCI data security products, expertise, training, and support. Credit card merchants, acquirers, and service providers benefit by knowing that their assessor has knowledge and special access to a proven, cost-effective alternative to address their unique PCI needs.

Pam Sanders, Vigilar's Vice President of Marketing, said, "Our PCI expertise combined with our vast knowledge of and experience within information security allows us to provide highly effective and timely audit and security services for our clients. We have a deep understanding of IT controls and access to a large array of remediation resources, including relevant product and solution recommendations by experts in IT controls. Vormetric's approach to encryption, access control, auditing, and host integrity provides a solid offering and solution to customers with compliance needs in these areas."

The PCI DSS is a compliance initiative agreed upon by the payment card industry (Visa USA, MasterCard International, Amex and Discover) that requires best-practice security standards for merchants and service providers that handle payment card information. The standards require on-site audits, self-administered audits, and network scanning by merchants and service providers on various levels according to the volume of transactions each facilitates. Only qualified auditors, such as Vigilar, may conduct on-site PCI audits.

Vormetric's PCI Partner Program is managed and supported by a seasoned team of proven channel business leaders, including Vormetric's Director of Industry Marketing, Heather Mark, PhD, CISSP, who have built and managed highly successful PCI programs in the past. This team created the program with its partners' needs as the driving force.

"Partnerships with full service security companies like Vigilar, where they offer consulting services including PCI audits, remediation, product consulting, managed services and training, are crucial to our company's success," said Reed Taussig, CEO of Vormetric, Inc. "Forward thinking companies like Vigilar realize that data protection must include encryption and access control to data -- exactly what we help provide. This partnership is a great opportunity for Visa-qualified PCI auditors like Vigilar and Vormetric to mutually solve customer data protection problems and grow our businesses."

Vormetric's PCI Partner program offers two distinct categories of membership: Referral and Reseller. The program is available to solution providers in North America and Europe. Interested partners should contact Dr. Heather Mark at pci@vormetric.com for more information.

About Vormetric

Vormetric is a leading provider of solutions for protecting enterprise information from unauthorized access or theft. The company's CoreGuard system is a single, scalable and manageable system for data privacy and protection that enables businesses and government agencies to control who, what, when, where and how people can access sensitive information. CoreGuard protects intellectual property and enables enterprises to comply with increasingly strict data privacy and system integrity regulations. Founded in 2001, Vormetric is a privately held company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. More information is available at www.vormetric.com

Vormetric, the Vormetric logo, CoreGuard and MetaClear are trademarks of Vormetric Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Vigilar

Vigilar is the leading information security consulting firm assisting clients in protecting their company against internal and external threats. Vigilar's focus is on meeting the customer's budget and business requirements while ensuring compliance to government regulations. With a sole focus on information security and a team of highly skilled industry experts, Vigilar partners with the leading security technology innovators ensuring that our clients stay ahead of the technology curve.