Rapid7 today announced it achieved its twelfth consecutive record quarter with a 56% increase in revenue growth in Q1 of 2012, compared to Q1 of 2011. This growth is a result of Rapid7’s focus on hiring top talent, delivering innovative solutions and achieving industry and local award recognition.

“We kick started the year in hyper-growth mode, looking to find top talent to become a part of our dynamic, high-performing company,” said Christina Luconi, chief people officer at Rapid7. “Our growth is largely due to our simple, innovative approach to solving complex security challenges. This would not be possible without truly talented and engaged people, and we aim to provide an amazing career experience for each and every one.”

Company Growth

In Q1, the Company hired 37 new employees to join the Rapid7 team, working towards its goal of adding more than 100 new employees in Boston, MA, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and Toronto, Canada in 2012. As part of its efforts, the Company produced a series of videos to highlight its culture and the attributes valued across the Company. For more information on career opportunities at Rapid7, please visit www.rapid7.com/careers or email careers@rapid7.com.

The quarter’s new hires included Richard Perkett, who joined as the vice president of engineering. At Rapid7, Richard will manage and recruit for the new Boston-based innovation center, which is on track to open in Cambridge, Massachusetts in Q2 of 2012. He will also lead the product development teams for Rapid7’s leading vulnerability management and penetration testing solutions: Nexpose® and Metasploit®.

Product Innovation

Throughout the quarter, Rapid7 continued to innovate to deliver simple solutions to address the complex security challenges faced by its customers. These included the following:

• Nexpose – In January, the Company added improvements to security configuration assessment and improved web application security functionality, scanning vulnerabilities with complete coverage for the OWASP Top 10. Then in March, Nexpose 5.2 was released, introducing enhancements for asset management and reporting as well as extended virtualization support.
• Metasploit – Rapid7 also released Metasploit 4.2 to allow organizations to assess the security posture of IPv6-enabled systems by fully testing whether IPv6 addresses on the network are vulnerable to cyber attacks. This version also audits passwords that can compromise virtual data centers, furthering Rapid7’s vision of security risk assessment for virtualized environments.

Research and Discovery

In addition, the Company conducted critical research regarding the security risks associated with video conferencing equipment used in confidential situations, including corporate boardrooms, law firms and venture capital firms. Led by HD Moore, chief architect of Metasploit and CSO of Rapid7, the team discovered an Internet configuration that allows a remote intruder to silently access and monitor both audio and video information of the video conferencing equipment. They researched approximately 3% of the addressable Internet and focused on equipment that spoke the H.323 protocol, finding an estimated 150,000 systems affected by this issue.

As a result, video conferencing systems were discovered to be one of the most dangerous but least-known exposures for attacks to organizations. Rapid7 advises organizations to protect themselves by ensuring their video conferencing equipment is kept behind a firewall; the “auto-answer” feature is disabled; and employees are educated on proper usage and signs of external interference, such as the camera light coming on at unexpected times. Following this research, features for assessing the security posture of video conferencing equipment were added into both Nexpose and Metasploit.

Customer News

During Q1, Rapid7 expanded its customer base, adding companies such as WilcoHess LLC, the leading operator of 400+ convenience stores, travel plazas and restaurants in the Southeastern United States. Rapid7 also began working with Herman Miller, a contemporary interior furnishings, services and technologies company, and Acquia, a commercial open source software company that provides products and services to the open source Drupal social publishing system.

Industry and Community Leadership

Rapid7 was recognized for both its leadership and momentum during the first quarter of 2012. The Company won the SC Magazine Award for “Best Vulnerability Management Tool” in the Reader’s Trust Award Category. The publication also acknowledged Nexpose Enterprise Edition as “the best version yet,” giving it a five star rating in its product review of vulnerability assessment tools. Rapid7 was also voted one of Massachusetts’ “Most Admired Companies” by the readers of the Boston Business Journal.

In addition, Rapid7 demonstrated its industry leadership through its continued support for community programs, including the Magnificent7 open source funding program. In March, the Company announced the first round finalist projects, Androguard and Cuckoo Sandbox, which will receive financial support and access to technical expertise as well as business guidance throughout the year.

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 2,000 enterprises and government agencies in more than 65 countries worldwide, 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 by Inc. Magazine and as a “Top Place to Work” by the Boston Globe. The Company is backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Technology Crossover Ventures. For more information about Rapid7, please visit http://www.rapid7.com.