Addendum Notice Regarding Scanning Leased or Public Address Space

Applies to Product: USM Appliance™ AlienVault OSSIM®

AlienVault USM Appliance and AlienVault OSSIM® contain a number of built-in tools for asset and network discovery, enumeration, and vulnerability scanning. These tools utilize various methods for discovery, often by mimicking the behavior of the traffic which they are attempting to protect you from in order to ascertain your exposure to such traffic. This leaves the potential for legitimate scans to be misinterpreted as malicious traffic.

In an effort to combat malicious behavior on the internet, several internet service providers and hosting providers have added scanning restrictions in their contracts. And a number of countries have written laws regarding these practices. In many cases, the response for violation of these rules may range from a written warning to contract cancellation and even civil or criminal charges. As a result, it is very important to check with your internet service providers, hosting providers, and local government to establish any legal or contractual restrictions before attempting to scan hosts or networks outside of your internal network space.