New RFC, co-authored by NetSecOPEN members, standardizes network security performance testing

HARRISBURG, PA, USA, May 22, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- NetSecOPEN, a leading non-profit members organization composed of well-known network security product vendors, test tool vendors and test labs, is pleased to announce the opening of testing against the newly ratified IETF RFC9411, Benchmarking Methodology for Network Security Device Performance.

NetSecOPEN brings together leading security product vendors, testing solutions and services vendors, and testing labs. Our mission is to develop open, standardized tests based on real-world network conditions.

“NetSecOPEN was created to bring a standardized approach to network security product performance and capability testing.”, according to Brian Monkman, executive director of NetSecOPEN. “With support of the NetSecOPEN membership, the IETF Benchmark Working Group and many months of development, research, and validation testing products can be tested under fair conditions and results will be obtained that will enable end users to make “apple to apple’ comparisons of multiple solutions.”

This testing will be against a suite of performance requirements from the RFC plus over 1,700 exploits, over 3, 900 malware samples, evasion techniques, and multiple industry specific application traffic mixes.

In addition, the network security products will be required to demonstrate that the DUT’s security controls can be maintained while under load.

The reports produced because of these tests will be used by Informa Tech to aid in the production of a group report. NetSecOPEN entered a partnership with Informa Tech as announced in this press release (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005082/en/).

“NetSecOPEN’s effort to bring standardization to the world of network security product testing has been long needed”, said Maxine Holt, Senior Director, Cybersecurity at Omdia. “We look forward to seeing the collective results of the testing done on certified products to support our research and analysis.”

Two test labs are accredited to conduct testing against the NetSecOPEN certification requirements. They are, EANTC (https://eantc.de/) located in Berlin, Germany and UNH-IOL (https://www.iol.unh.edu/) located in Durham, NH, USA.

“At the European Advanced Networking Test Center, we have benchmarked firewalls for more than a decade,” said Carsten Rossenhoevel, CTO and co-founder of EANTC. “With RFC 9411, we have co-authored an industry-wide agreement between network equipment manufacturers, test tool vendors, and independent labs. This new benchmarking methodology enables state of the art evaluation of advanced security features and performance. NetSecOPEN’s certification program will benefit and provide vendors and enterprises with benchmarking results that are truly reproducible and accurate.”

“The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) and NetSecOPEN have been working together since 2019 to foster performance and security effectiveness test standards for the NetSecOPEN certification program,” said Chris Brown, Technical Manager, UNH-IOL. “The release of the previously outlined performance and security tests will help enterprises ensure that the performance and security of products they’re selecting have been rigorously tested with an ability to transparently view the testing methodology.”

The two market leading test and measurement tool vendors, Keysight and Spirent, have incorporated the NetSecOPEN tests into their BreakingPoint and CyberFlood products, respectively.

"NetSecOPEN's collaboration of industry leaders signifies a shared dedication to enhancing network security, “said NetSecOPEN’s board chair, Jurrie van den Breekel. “This joint effort promotes higher standards, transparency, trust, and innovation within the industry. By using NetSecOPEN-certified performance metrics, businesses can better select security products that meet their unique needs, bolstering their defenses against ever-evolving threats."

“Palo Alto Networks is a founding member of NetSecOPEN and has actively contributed to the development of its test methodology,” said Samaresh Nair, Director- Product Line Manager. This significant milestone is the result of the industry getting together to develop an open and transparent 3rd Party test under the aegis of NetSecOPEN.”

NetSecOPEN certification testing is open to all security product vendors. Please contact one of the two approved test labs:

EANTC AG
Salzufer 14
10587 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 3180595 0
info@eantc.de

University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL)
21 Madury Road, Suite 100
Durham, NH 03824
+1-603-862-0090
mara.johnson@iol.unh.edu

About NetSecOPEN

NetSecOPEN is a network security industry group in which network security vendors, tool vendors, labs, and enterprises collaborate to create open and transparent testing standards. The goal of the group is to create a suite of standards that can be used for the evaluation and/or certification of network security products. The NetSecOPEN standards provide guidelines and best practices for testing modern network security infrastructure.

NetSecOPEN oversees certification testing conducted by accredited labs against the standards. Anyone with a vested interest in the outcome can participate in the creation or updating of the standards. These efforts are conducted in an open and transparent manner, with meeting minutes and the status of the projects posted at https://www.netsecopen.org.

Brian Monkman
NetSecOPEN
+1 717-462-5422
bmonkman@netsecopen.org