Spirent Extends Industry Leadership in Security Assurance by Expanding Performance and Scale Testing to TLS v1.3 Encryption Protocol

SAN JOSE, California, April 3, 2018 – Spirent Communications plc (LSE:SPT) today announced that it has dramatically expanded the functionality of its CyberFlood and Avalanche solutions by adding performance and scale testing for the new TLS v1.3 encryption protocol.  CyberFlood and Avalanche are the only solutions on the market to offer this new capability. Available immediately, the new functionality allows customers to better prepare for the rapid proliferation of TLS v1.3 technology by testing and stressing traffic capacities on TLS v1.3-enabled devices and endpoint applications.  In August 2017, CyberFlood became the first product to offer functional security testing with fuzz testing. Today’s announcement further extends the company’s leadership in the security assurance space.

TLS (transport layer security) enables secure communication between web browsers and servers on the Internet. TLS v1.3 is the latest version and is quickly becoming the de facto encryption standard. Companies such as Facebook, Google, and Akamai are rapidly adopting TLS v1.3, which significantly improves efficiency and security and includes optimizations that address the rising tide of performance-slowing encrypted Internet traffic. However, TLS v1.3 will need to co-exist with legacy implementations such as TLS v1.2, leading to potential interoperability and other deployment issues.

“TLS v1.3 will ultimately improve security and privacy for Internet users; however, there is risk with new standards and new potential holes in customers’ security,” said David DeSanto, director of products and threat research at Spirent Communications. “With Spirent’s performance and scale testing of this bleeding edge cryptographic standard, customers can validate that they are securely deployed, that they can achieve their desired performance, and that they know where the skeletons are in their TLS v1.3 deployments. With this capability, Spirent is helping to secure the future of the connected world.”

Because the new capability is available in all of Spirent’s recent platforms, customers can go straight to functional testing with Spirent’s virtual solution, CyberFlood Virtual (CFV), which lowers any barriers to entry by allowing users to install CyberFlood security and performance solutions on their own hardware and perform scale testing to their specific needs. At the other end of the spectrum, high-end customers in need of maximum muscle can use Spirent’s C100-S3 appliance, which provides high-density interconnect capabilities from 1G to100G for full-scale performance testing. C100-S3 can emulate an enterprise or service provider network with millions of users with such fidelity that Spirent traffic is indistinguishable from real-world traffic on the Internet. This stress testing helps customers identify any performance ceilings in their TLS v1.3-enabled devices and endpoint applications.

“TLS v1.3 will rapidly become the new standard because it has a world of enhancements and performance advantages over previous iterations,” said Larry Stefonic, founder and CEO of wolfSSL. “As such, it is imperative that internet infrastructure providers move quickly to get ahead of the curve by employing Spirent’s security assurance technology.”

“Enterprises and other organizations cannot afford to be left behind when TLS v1.3 becomes the de facto encryption standard, as it surely will,” said Sean Pike, program vice president, Worldwide Security Products at IDC. “There is great value in being able to gain advance insights into any resource limitation—be it computing power, memory, network latency, user experience issues, or connectivity. Spirent’s performance testing yields such insights so that customers can be better prepared for the emerging TLS v1.3 technology.”

Availability

Cyberflood and Avalanche with TLS v1.3 support will be demonstrated in Booth 1101 at the upcoming RSA Conference and Expo at Moscone Center in San Francisco, April 16-19, 2018.

For availability and more information about CyberFlood and Avalanche with TLS v1.3 support, please visit the Spirent Security Blog.