Secure Hacker Safe Shopping by Techrate.com

The techrate product sweeps a client's Web site for potential security flaws, and then posts a "Hacker Safe" security logo if the site comes up clean.

"I have had experiences with customers who don't want to give out their credit card information, their personal information," said Andy Anand, who pays about $299 a year to have techrate perform periodic security checks on his system. "I knew this was an issue for my customers, but this made me aware of just how big an issue it was."

In launching Techrate in 2000, Andy Anand sought to bring a new concept to the security market. Rather than simply putting up a firewall or installing anti-virus software, he would offer an ongoing service; one that would continually monitor and report on a client's system security.

With 10 new vulnerabilities popping up every day, he said, it is likely that a client's system will require some sort of security update at least once a month. Anand's team therefore launches daily assaults against client sites, in an effort to exploit known vulnerabilities. Sometimes they get through, and when that happens, "we give the client complete patch information, and we give them telephone tech support to show them exactly how to patch the system," Anand explained. "We give them a lot of support, but it is their technical staff that has to respond to our alerts."

The client will have 72 hours in which to plug the hole. If the vulnerability still exists after that time has elapsed, the Hacker Safe logo will be taken down from the client's site.

Anand explained that these smaller businesses are those most likely to benefit from such a service.