The moment your organization does more than simply showcase its wares on the Web, you acquire new responsibilities. With every online transaction you enable – especially if you offer banking or reservations services – you gather vital and highly sensitive customer information that you must protect, often by law. At the same time, as the Web grows as a revenue source, any downtime can seriously affect your bottom line. You need to ensure that your site stays up and available to your customers at all times.

Suddenly, traditional solutions like firewalls and intrusion prevention systems no longer provide the effective protection your business needs.

Fortunately, there’s a new category in security solutions: the Web Application Firewall (WAF). Designed to protect your organization and data against a broad range of hazards such as hacker attacks and new, more virulent worms and viruses, an effective WAF solution can block virtually 100% of Web-application level security threats, without compromising the application’s performance.

In April 2006, TELUS acquired Assurent Secure Technologies, one of the world’s leading security solutions developers. Recognized as having the top vulnerability research laboratory in the industry, Assurent is also the developer of AssureLogic, the first WAF to achieve “NSS Approved” certification.

Recognition from the world’s foremost security testing facility
Based in the United Kingdom, the NSS Group has security and network testing facilities in the South of France and offers a range of specialist IT, networking and security-related services to vendors and end-user organizations around the world.

The NSS Group also operates certification programs for vendors and certification bodies. When it grants “NSS Approved” status to a product, it indicates that the product has successfully completed exhaustive testing to the required standards based on rigorous criteria. For the WAF category, products are evaluated in three main areas: performance and reliability, security and effectiveness, and usability.

"Overall, the level of protection AssureLogic WAF offers is excellent," said Bob Walder, Director, NSS Group. "Out of the many products tested, AssureLogic is currently the only WAF product to achieve 'NSS Approved' certification."

TELUS and Assurent, stronger together
For businesses today, ensuring the security of their systems and information is a major concern. Recognizing this need, TELUS has set out to offer its clients the strongest IT security portfolio in Canada. The acquisition of Assurent Secure Technologies is just one of the ways TELUS is able to assure its clients that it is meeting all their needs.

"When we acquired Assurent Secure Technologies, we knew they were the best in their field," said Mark Noppe, Vice President, TELUS Information Security Solutions. "The NSS award reflects their leadership and innovation in IT security application development."