TippingPoint Releases Open Source Network Protection Tool

TippingPoint Technologies has released Tomahawk, an open source testing tool designed to evaluate the capabilities of network-based intrusion prevention systems (IPS).

TippingPoint's UnityOne provides application protection, performance protection and infrastructure protection at gigabit speeds through total packet inspection. It protects VoIP infrastructure, routers, switches, DNS and other critical infrastructure from targeted internal and external cyber attacks and traffic anomalies.

The software also allows customers to throttle non-mission critical applications that hijack valuable bandwidth and IT resources, aligning network resources and business-critical application performance.

"TippingPoint is contributing Tomahawk to the public to make IPS testing easier and more affordable for end users," TippingPoint's Chief Technology Officer Marc Willebeek-LeMair said in a statement. "By enabling users to evaluate security, performance, and usability in real world environments, we believe it will accelerate the adoption of intrusion prevention and confirm its necessity in today's threat environment. We believe the benefit of open sourcing the tool to facilitate IPS testing outweighs the potential benefits of commercializing the tool."

Tomahawk is freely available, and can be downloaded at http://tomahawk.sourceforge.net/ . For more information, including a white paper on IPS testing, go to http://www.tomahawktesttool.org/resources.html.