Watchfire Launches Online Risk Management Platform

Watchfire, a Waltham, MA provider of risk management software and sevices, today unveiled Watchfire WebXM 4.0, an online risk management platform addressing security, privacy, accessibility, quality, and regulatory compliance issues.

The new release features Web application security testing and reporting capabilities, and what Watchfire calls an Issue Management Engine designed to help companies implement and maintain Web compliance.

A new Security module in WebXM 4.0 is the result of integrating the Web application security technology that Watchfire acquired from Sanctum. The Security module scans enterprise Websites and reports on a wide variety of security weaknesses including Web vulnerabilities that can cause phishing attacks, customer identity theft, service interruptions, and Website defacement.

WebXM also includes compliance reporting capabilities that may assist financial services organizations with anti-money laundering initiatives. WebXM now reports on more than 20 global compliance laws, requirements and industry standards

In this release, Watchfire has also introduced an Issue Management Engine, which integrates with all WebXM modules, (Security, Privacy, Quality, Accessibility, Regulatory Compliance and Corporate Standards) to classify, prioritize and manage critical issues throughout the entire enterprise from identification through to resolution.

"Enterprise risk management has become a critical issue for senior management and while Websites continue to grow in strategic importance and operational complexity, many executives fail to recognize the risks associated with conducting business online," said Peter McKay, president and CEO of Watchfire. "These risks include non-compliance, business disruption, and privacy and quality issues that can undermine brand value. In addition, accelerating costs associated with manually monitoring for these issues is increasingly onerous to management."

WebXM 4.0 can report on more than 20 global compliance laws, including GLBA, FISMA and SOX. It includes an executive management dashboard to provide key business and compliance stakeholders with detailed and correlated views into their online risk management and compliance environment. Administrative enhancements including new user roles, audit trails and job logging.