Shavlik Technologies, LLC, the market leader in simplifying and automating security and compliance readiness, today announced it is offering a limited-time only free version of its NetChk Protect and NetChk Compliance software for users to protect against the Downadup variant of the Conficker worm. Corporations can use Shavlik’s non-invasive, agentless technology to assess their entire network to ensure that Microsoft patch MS08-067 is applied and that their configuration settings have been hardened according to security expert recommendations.

This worm has gained national and international attention as it continues spreading at a rapid pace. Corporations cannot afford to hope that their systems are patched and properly configured. They need to know. They need to quickly find gaps and ensure their networks are patched and configured according to their security policy. And they need visibility and proof of conformance through reporting on the security status of the entire organization.

“Due to the level of sophistication of this worm, networks need defense in depth. Shavlik is uniquely suited to help customers respond to this situation,” says Chris Schwartzbauer, VP Worldwide Field Operations, Shavlik Technologies. “Our solutions simplify patch and configuration management through automation, visibility, and control. It is very easy to target Shavlik products to assess for specific patches and configuration settings, thereby speeding the assessment process and minimizing the impact on IT operations and the organization.”

Shavlik’s industry-leading agentless technology ensures enterprise-wide discovery of all systems, including systems that are not managed by Active Directory or virtual machines that are offline and dormant. By not having to hassle with deploying and managing agents, customers using Shavlik solutions can start their assessments sooner and protect their critical business assets faster than agent-required approaches.

Effective immediately, all new and existing Shavlik customers in Commercial North America and across the globe can utilize Shavlik NetChk Protect and Shavlik NetChk Compliance to find the gaps that other patch and configuration management solutions miss in order to be more fully protected against this worm in a matter of hours, not days or weeks like other solutions. This offer is valid for free assessment for the MS08-067 patch and a specific number of configuration settings identified by Microsoft and other security experts as key to limiting the risk of infection.

Visit Shavlik’s web site at http://www.shavlik.com/landingpage/20090126-downadup.aspx for more information about the offer.