Press Release

Whitehat Inc. Wins First Ever Wow Iron Chef Of Information Security Challenge

JULY 24, 2006 (Folsom, CA. and Toronto, ON) Top security professionals from WhiteHat Inc. and Team Security USA competed last week in the final round at the First Annual Iron Chef of Information Security competition at the HostingCon 2006 Conference in Las Vegas, NV. WhiteHat Inc. emerged the WOW Champions.

Mark DuBois, WOW Academy Director and event coordinator stated, “This event was an excellent demonstration on how true professionals balance their team’s skill sets with the ability to analyze a complex situations and produce viable solutions, and apply the technology and security techniques appropriately for the circumstances.”

“A great deal of emphasis has been placed on securing the network and computer hardware for websites. As a result, attacks have shifted to Web applications themselves. WOW’s Iron Chef of Information Security competition in Las Vegas addressed theses issues and provided a forum for educating industry professionals and the general public regarding risk, analysis and cost effective solutions” added DuBois.

The winners:


Team WhiteHat Inc., based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, edged out the US rival’s to claim the top honors in the overall competition with team members Tom Slodichak and Chris Chromiak competing.

Tom Slodichak, CSO at WhiteHat Inc. and team leader for the championship said, “The security initiative of WOW's mission is an important evolutionary event. It brings security awareness to the developers, where the security should be built in. The media has shown us that trying to secure applications after they have been deployed is not very efficient. The security needs to be built in, not bolted on. WhiteHat is pleased to win WOW Iron Chef of Information Security competition however, more importantly I believe it is helping to garner greater awareness on web security.”

Rosaleen Citron, WhiteHat CEO, said “We were delighted to participate in this event. It is our corporate responsibility to educate IT professionals and the general public in Security Best practices, having the opportunity with this competition to not only show our best of breed security skills but to educate others in the IT community that having security “built-in” from the ground up instead of “bolted-on” later makes it much easier to defend in the long run.”

TeamUSA Security walked away with the “WOW Factor” award for overcoming significant technical challenges and remaining upbeat throughout the competition with Professor Bebo White, Becky Miller, and Erik Hedges competing.

A panel of three experts selected from the Web professional community based their winning scores on the following criteria developed by WOW:

About World Organization of Webmasters
 The World Organization of Webmasters is a non-profit professional association dedicated to the support of individuals and organizations that create, manage or market Web sites. WOW provides education as well as certification, technical, employment and member advantage services to thousands of aspiring and practicing Web professionals worldwide. For more information please visit http://www.joinwow.org

About WhiteHat

WhiteHat Inc. is a leading Information Technology Security Provider (ITSP). WhiteHat employs CISSP certified industry leading security practitioners and offers a portfolio of security offerings including: Professional consulting services, Managed security services, Security education, third party software and hardware products and training. With clientele in the financial, healthcare, pharmaceutical, critical infrastructure and government sectors, WhiteHat security assessment professionals assist clients by providing independent assessment of their IT security posture. For more information visit www.whitehatinc.com.

Media Contact:
Leanne Bucaro
Infinity Communications Inc.
416-708-4488
leanne@2infinity.ca