Rapid7 Builds on Strong Community Support by Committing $100,000 to Fund the Open Source Magnificent7

Up to Seven Open Source Projects to Receive Funding During 2011-2012; First Round Projects to be Reviewed at the UNITED Security Summit

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rapid7, the leading provider of security risk intelligence solutions, today announced the creation of a $100,000 investment fund to support up to seven promising open source projects in the security industry. The “Magnificent7” projects will be identified and supported through the remainder of 2011 and into 2012, with the first round of winning projects being evaluated at the upcoming UNITED Security Summit (September 19 - 20, 2011 in San Francisco, CA).

“This investment of $100,000 to fund the Magnificent7 program is both a demonstration of our commitment and a way to improve the open source security ecosystem as a whole.”

“Dedication to the open source community and a belief in continued innovation through collaboration are just two of the things that drive Rapid7’s success today,” said HD Moore, Rapid7 chief security officer and Metasploit chief architect. “This investment of $100,000 to fund the Magnificent7 program is both a demonstration of our commitment and a way to improve the open source security ecosystem as a whole.”

Any security-related open source project – with a preference for BSD-compatible licensing – is applicable and encouraged to submit a “Magnificent7” application. After the Rapid7 program committee reviews all initial proposals, promising projects will be chosen to participate in the second round of application, taking place at the UNITED Security Summit, where they will be granted a 45-minute presentation and in-person Q&A session with the Rapid7 committee. During their pitch, participants will be judged based on several criteria including a working demonstration of the software and the caliber of their project roadmap. Selected recipient(s) for the first funding phase will be announced following the UNITED Security Summit and the second round will open for submissions in Q1 2012.

As a well-known open source supporter, this program augments Rapid7’s already deep community involvement. In 2009, Rapid7 acquired the Metasploit® Project, which created the most widely used and mature penetration testing solution on the market with more than one million unique downloads and the world’s largest, public collection of quality-assured exploits. In July 2010, Rapid7 followed this by sponsoring and partnering with w3af, the open source Web application attack and audit framework, to expand its collaboration with the open source community and further provide the industry with solutions for securing Web and application infrastructure. Most recently, in June 2011, Rapid7 announced its sponsorship of Openwall’s “John the Ripper” project, supporting the initiative in order to help complete the project’s research.

To submit a nomination for Magnificent7 funding consideration, please visit the Rapid7 Community website for details and guidelines and email the submission to [e-mail]. All first round submissions are due by September 9, 2011.

All first round participants must be registered to attend the UNITED Security Summit. For more information about the UNITED Security Summit and to register, please visit http://www.unitedsummit.org/.

About Rapid7

Rapid7 is the leading provider of security risk intelligence solutions. Rapid7's integrated vulnerability management and penetration testing products, NeXpose and Metasploit, empower organizations to obtain accurate, actionable and contextual intelligence into their threat and risk posture. Rapid7's solutions are being used by more than 1,600 enterprises and government agencies, while the Company's free products are downloaded more than one million times per year and enhanced further by over 125,000 security community users and contributors. Rapid7 has been recognized as one of the fastest growing security companies worldwide by Inc. Magazine and is backed by Bain Capital Ventures.

For more information about Rapid7, please visit http://www.rapid7.com.

About UNITED Security Summit

The UNITED (“Using New Ideas To Empower Defenders”) Security Summit is the premier venue entirely focused on innovation and collaboration in the security community. Bringing together security decision makers, practitioners, commercial vendors, open source projects and academia, the Summit will highlight technologies and approaches to help organizations better cope with today’s increased security threats. Unlike other conferences, UNITED’s agenda is based on the anatomy of a breach, and provides educational and interactive sessions that will reflect on the fundamental security challenges from four perspectives (attacker, operational leadership, IT leadership and the security community) through a common lens.

The UNITED Summit, September 19 - 20, 2011, will be at the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California and will feature a variety of industry experts, including Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics; Chris Young, VMware vice president and general manager; and HD Moore, Metasploit chief architect and Rapid7 CSO. For more information, including registration, sponsorship and speaker opportunities, please visit http://www.unitedsummit.org/