Wellington company offers security scans

Developed by a Wellington company, the tool, dubbed the RedEye, offers affordable IT surveillance to a growing number of organisations after an investment from TechNZ last year.

Launched last year, the RedEye was developed with a $50,000 investment from TechNZ, the business and investment programme of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. It was developed in 2007 by Aura RedEye Security’s parent company, Aura Software Security Ltd. The tool has already been sold to 20 customers and has recently signed its first Australian client.

With a starting cost of $200 per month for a daily, external scan, Aura RedEye Security Managing Director Andy Prow said the tool has made it possible for smaller businesses to access rigorous IT surveillance.

“Historically, there has been limited technology available to help organisations monitor their network from the outside,” he said. “The products that do exist tend to be expensive, designed for large networks and deliver long complex reports that only an IT expert would understand.”

The system remotely and automatically scans networks once a day or more and if a problem is detected, experts at Aura RedEye Security contact customers to discuss risks and provide solutions.

“Part of what got us thinking about the RedEye is that, as Internet security specialists, we were often called in to help clients make sense of reports their existing security systems were generating, which they didn’t understand,” Prow said.

Organisations already using the RedEye system include Xero, Audit New Zealand and the Ministry of Research, Science and technology (MORST).