LONDON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Program enables channel partners to help merchants cost-effectively monitor compliance with the PCI standard using nCircle's certified technology

nCircle, the leading provider of agentless security risk and compliance management solutions, today announced its PCI partner program to help channel partners increase their revenue by offering merchants a number of managed services to help their customers cost-effectively monitor and comply with the PCI data security standard. Partnering with nCircle, partners can ensure that merchants, regardless of their size and location, have access to the industry's most accurate and automated PCI scanning service -- the nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service(TM).

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The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service -- based on nCircle's market-leading, patented discovery technology used by more than 4000 customers worldwide- delivers an end-to-end automated PCI compliance certification service to accurately evaluate a merchant's payment network, prioritize and address vulnerabilities based on the PCI Data Security Standard and generate the required report certifying compliance in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

"nCircle continues to present us with offerings, enabling us to take advantage of a market that presents a significant growth opportunity," said Panos Dimitriou, Director of Managed Services at ENCODE, a leading Information Security services and solutions provider in Europe and the Middle East. "Our partnership with nCircle has helped us expand business in the retail industry while delivering the most comprehensive, trusted and automated technology to all our merchant customers."

nCircle's nAble PCI Partner Program enables Value-added Resellers, Managed Service Providers, merchant banks, payment service providers and security consultants to help merchant customers achieve continuous PCI compliance. Using the nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service as the underlying platform, nAble PCI partners can now deliver online quarterly PCI scanning capabilities as well as advisory and consulting services to their customers.

The program offers partners with the following benefits: -- A high-value, in-demand service to help customers meet their PCI compliance deadlines -- Customizable partnership options to fit a partner's business model -- Incremental revenue opportunity with minimal investment and overhead expenses -- A certified service based on the industry's most accurate, comprehensive technology -- Designation as an nCircle nAble Partner, including listing on nCircle website -- Access to nCircle's security risk and configuration compliance solutions for PCI compliance and security assurance of the entire payment network

Additional information on the program may be accessed at http://www.ncircle.com/pcipartner.

"nCircle continues to recruit strategic channel partners to our world-class partner program," said Gus Malezis, Vice President of Worldwide Sales at nCircle. "We want to partner with companies that share our vision to help maximize customer compliance and security most cost-effectively."

The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service is currently available at http://pci.ncircle.com. Prospective channel partners are eligible to receive free PCI scans for up to 10 IP addresses to trial the scan service. For more information on the partner program and the free trial, please contact nCircle at +44-0-1344-742829 or info@ncircle.com

About nCircle

nCircle is the leading provider of agentless security risk and compliance management solutions. More than 4,000 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle's proactive security solutions to manage and reduce security risk and automate compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership. nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the USA and in London, Toronto and Tokyo. Additional information about nCircle is available at http://www.ncircle.com

nCircle is a registered trademark of nCircle Network Security, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

Web site: http://www.ncircle.com

Shelley Boose of Media First PR, +1-408-398-6987, for nCircle ; Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051214/SFW028LOGO, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com