Risk Manager™ wins prize at Microsoft Partner Program Awards 2005

Risk Manager™, a software program for risk assessment and Information Security knowledge management developed by Modulo Security, was elected Best Security Solution in Latin America by Microsoft. Two-time champion in the "Technological Innovation in Information Security" category, Modulo received the prize on July 9, in Minneapolis, U.S.A.

The ceremony was held in Minnesota during the Worldwide Partner Conference, an annual worldwide event for Microsoft partners. Executives and professionals from Brazilian companies and Microsoft partners from around the world were present.

"Being acknowledged once again as the best security solution in Latin America shows that we are right in choosing to invest in research on your technologies. This award confirms that we have been on the right path during our 20 years of operation", says Alberto Bastos, one of Modulo's founding partners.

The award was granted to the latest version of the program released to the market, Risk Manager™ 4.0. The program presents new features, such as the possibility to create security indexes and metrics that allow management by risk indicators, as well as new legal checklists that help companies comply with the new laws.

Risk Manager™'s high level of innovation in the development of solutions on a Microsoft platform was critical in winning the award. The evaluation committee considered criteria such as the program's features, benefits to clients, ease of use, and adaptation of the technology to international laws, regulations and standards. This is one of Risk Manager™'s strong points, for the program includes checklists for compliance with ISO 17799, COBIT and Resolutions 2554 and 2817 by the Brazilian Central Bank. The fact that partner companies are able to use the technology to leverage their own businesses was another point that was taken into account. This particular aspect was demonstrated by means of the Security Provider Program, a partnership model created by Modulo, which allows other companies to offer security services using Risk Manager™, or even to integrate the tool with their own solutions, adding value to their existing services.

The new 4.06 version will include 107 checklists, and a total of 6,617 controls, of which 1,559 have automatic collectors for assessing technological environments. It will be officially released in August during the Third National Meeting of Chief Security Officers, in guas de Lindia, Brazil. The new version of Risk Manager™ will include the following new features:
- Possibility to create dynamic fields for inventory of assets, such as cost centers, characteristics, and others;
- Inclusion of files as evidence of audits (image files, documents and configurations);
- Live update for automatic version and system module updates;
- Definition of color-coded alert ranges for indexes, associating, for example, high risks with red alerts and medium risks with yellow alerts;
- Generation of specific reports to ease monitoring and management by the users in charge of particular assets or perimeters;
- Customization of user interviews before they are sent by e-mail;
- Implementation of risk comparison report, allowing evaluation of risk history in the company.

As announced in 2004, Modulo has begun to expand internationally in this semester. The English version of Risk Manager™ is already being commercialized.