Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) has recognized Secunia with the 2010 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for customer value enhancement.

Based in Denmark, Secunia was founded in 2002 by a team of individuals with complementary competencies in management, sales, IT security, and IT development.

Frost & Sullivan said that despite market challenges such as low end-user awareness of the value of original vulnerability research, and competitors that offer differing messages about vulnerability research confusing customers, Secunia has outshone competitors.

From 2007 to 2009, the company grew its number of reported vulnerabilities by a compound annual growth rate of 10.7 percent.

This growth has resulted in a gain in market share, going from 5.4 percent of the total reported vulnerabilities in 2007 to 12.7 percent of vulnerabilities reported in 2009.

"Secunia's penetration rate in the vulnerability research market is directly attributable to its firm commitment towards enhancing the value that customers derive from the company's products and services," said Chris Rodriguez, research analyst, Frost & Sullivan, in a statement.

Rodriguez said that Secunia has been able to provide the highest level of customer value in the vulnerability research market due to several key factors such as consistent research activities, strong performance and brand name, and holistic vulnerability intelligence and management services.

According to Frost & Sullivan unlike several competing companies, Secunia has set the premier example for responsible and secure disclosure and research practices.

It does not disclose vulnerabilities to anyone (except for the affected vendor) until a patch are ready to be released by the software vendor.

Secunia carefully coordinates the public disclosure process and will even collaborate with the software vendor to help address the reported issues. In addition, while Secunia does not have a formal contributor program set up, external researchers continue to disclose vulnerabilities to the company in an effort to correct these issues.

"The Secunia Binary Analysis service provides complete code-level analysis and optimized proof-of-concepts," notes Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said that this helps other security vendors to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of their signatures.

Secunia provides complete, end-to-end coverage of the vulnerability management process; its Personal Software Inspector and Online Software Inspector software is protecting over two million end-users.

The company has exhibited strong organic growth since its inception in 2002 that is due, in large part, to the company's ability to leverage its successful vulnerability research practices in the development and updating of its commercial vulnerability management products.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.