Q1 Labs on Monday will announce the latest version of its Qvision network security software, which includes a new feature that enables companies to identify the geographic pattern of rogue traffic in the enterprise network.

The Geographic Views features of Qvision 1.3 from Q1 Labs enables companies to identify the geographic pattern of rogue traffic in the enterprise network. The new feature maps the IP address of the offending party to an external database that identifies where the attack originated.

Qvision provides network and security administrators with the ability to drill down through volumes of data on network traffic to get more detail on specific areas of concern. The product behavioral software engine detects traffic that violates company security policies.

"If the e hacker bounces through four countries to get to you, it will give you the last one," says Sandy Byrd, CTO of Q1 Labs. Qvision can detect for instance whether a server is communicating to a server in China in violation of the company's security policies, even if the attack did not trigger any firewall or intrusion detection system activity.

The product works by capturing flows of network traffic, using flow generators deployed on specific network links, and sending them to the Qvision console where the firm's software runs an analysis. The company shifted from a software license model to an appliance model late last year.

"It reduced the cycle time from decision to deployment and made deployment quicker and easier," says Brett Schklar, director of market solutions for Q1 Labs.

Prices for Qvision start at $35,000 and move up based on the size of the network configuration. A medium-sized deployment ranges from $75,000 to $80,000 in price.

The firm's analysis software does correlation and visualization work. The flow generators pull traffic off the network but do no analysis. Users log in and administer the system from a Web browser.

Future plans for building a more mature alerting engine, so that alerts are more specific and targeted.

Chris Newton, co-founder and now chief architect, originated the Qvision product when he was an IT manager for the University of New Brunswick, trying to cope with network congestion and security issues. Unable to find a tool to help him easily identify rogue behavior and risks to the network, he developed the tool himself and emphasized its visualization features.