Dennis Cox, BreakingPoint's chief technology officer at BreakingPoint Systems Inc. announced that the company plans to launch a new network test appliance that sniffs out security holes in devices like load balancers, intrusion prevention systems and routers. Called the BPS-1000, the device also gives users a way to see how their networking equipment performs under a high volume of networking traffic.

    When Cox and Craig Cantrell (cofounder) realized that they were spending more money on testing equipment than they were spending on building products, the new idea for BreakingPoint was borned. This happend two years ago while working at 3Com Corp.'s TippingPoint division. It began as a running joke "every time we had to sign a purchase order for a half-million dollars worth of test equipment," and eventually became a business plan. Now they want to build a product that gives customers an accurate picture of how their networking gear will behave in the real world, before the bad guys have a chance to attack.  

    Cox hired HD Moore, maintainer of the popular Metasploit security testing tool, shortly after the company was founded in September 2005. Cox stated: "He was one of the first guys I called up. There is no better person in the U.S. to break things than HD." Now, the company has over 30 employees, including three security researchers who work with Moore to help develop BreakingPoint's security testing capabilities. They "do only evil," Cox joked, a play on Google's "Don't be evil" corporate motto.

    The BreakingPoint's appliance does not use any of the Metasploit code, the company is leveraging Moore's expertise as a bug finder to offer customers a service called Strike Pack, which tests to see if about 2,500 attacks -- some of which have not yet been publicly reported -- are blocked on the network. Networking administrators can use the BPS-1000 to get a fix on how well their gear is really performing, something that some networking vendors try to hide with. The appliance can be used to evaluate new network applications like VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) systems before they are rolled out.

Pricing for the BPS-1000 has not yet been determined, but it will sell in the US$100,000 to $200,000 range. One-year subscriptions to Strike Pack will cost between $20,000 and $40,000 per year Cox said. For more information you can visit: http://bpointsys.com/