VoIPshield Systems launches VoIPguard, the industry's first enterprise VoIP Intrusion Prevention System to provide effective protection against known and new security threats for VoIP systems from Avaya, Cisco and Nortel. Microsoft support will be added in Q3.

Attacks on communication networks can be stopped most effectively if their signatures are known. Years of research by VoIPshield Laboratories, the research division of VoIPshield Systems, has yielded the industry's most comprehensive database of known VoIP attack signatures. These attacks are specific to VoIP, and therefore cannot be detected and stopped by traditional data security products.

The new category is VIPS, or VoIP Intrusion Prevention Systems. There are two key technical requirements: a VIPS must protect against voice-specific attacks, and it must do so without causing increased latency, jitter or packet loss.

VoIPguard helps IT security and telecommunications professionals maintain VoIP quality, reliability and security at levels comparable to existing circuit-switched voice networks, protect against known and zero-day attacks, and assure compliance with internal and government regulations.

VoIPguard ships as a 1U security appliance and comes in two models: the VIPS 100 supports up to 1,000 users/lines and the VIPS 500 supports up to 10,000 users/lines. The VIPS 500 is also offered with load sharing and full redundancy options for added reliability. Both models are rated at less than 10 milliseconds call setup delay.

Included in the VoIPguard license is a one-year subscription to VoIPshield Update, which provides ongoing software upgrades and signature updates. As VoIPshield Labs discovers new vulnerabilities, the corresponding signatures can be downloaded by customers to ensure VoIPguard's ability to detect the most recently-discovered exploits. The product is also capable of preventing undiscovered attacks, through proprietary anomaly-based and behavior-based detection technology.

VoIPshield is also making a basic version of its award-winning VoIP Vulnerability Assessment appliance, VoIPaudit, available as a free software download. VoIPaudit Lite gives the prospective VoIPaudit Enterprise buyer a no-cost introduction to the product. VoIPaudit Lite is a single-user license, includes vulnerabilities for a single vendor, and scans up to 128 targets on a single network. It runs on any Windows and Linux PC.

VoIPguard, VoIPaudit and VoIPaudit Lite are available immediately. VoIPguard and VoIPaudit will be sold through Authorized VoIPshield Solution Partners, and for a limited time, directly from the company. VoIPaudit Lite is available as a download from the company's website.