SPI Dynamics

SPI Dynamics operated as a specialized provider of web application security assessment software and services. The Atlanta-based company was founded in 2000 by Caleb Sima, Brian Christian, and Wade Malone.

The founding of SPI Dynamics was sparked by co-founder Caleb Sima's work in penetration testing. A client at Bell South expressed a need for an automated, in-house tool for web assessment techniques, which planted the seed for the company's core product. Sima, who had been involved in internet security since 1996, brought deep technical expertise from his time at Internet Security Systems' elite X-Force R&D team and as a security engineer for S1 Corporation. He partnered with Wade Malone, who had a strong business background, and Brian Christian to form the company. While building their flagship product, the founding team sustained the business through consulting services, with one of their first major penetration testing engagements being with S1.

The company's primary business was developing and selling software that identified security vulnerabilities in web applications throughout their lifecycle, from development to deployment. Its flagship product was WebInspect, a tool that crawls websites to audit for common security defects like SQL injection and cross-site scripting. The product suite also included DevInspect, which integrated into developer IDEs for source code analysis, and QAInspect, a simplified tool for quality assurance testers. For enterprise clients, the Assessment Management Platform (AMP) provided a dashboard to manage and schedule regular security scans across multiple applications. This product portfolio catered to developers, QA teams, and security professionals, enabling them to secure business-critical systems such as e-commerce sites and financial applications. By the time of its acquisition, the company served over 1,000 customers.

A significant milestone in the company's history was its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HP), which was announced in June 2007 and finalized in August 2007. The acquisition was a strategic move for HP to strengthen its application quality management offerings, integrating SPI Dynamics' technology into the HP Quality Center software. This integration allowed customers to manage performance, functionality, and security testing within a single, comprehensive platform. Following the acquisition, Caleb Sima became the Chief Technologist for HP's Application Security Center.

Keywords: web application security, vulnerability assessment, WebInspect, application security testing, security assessment software, Caleb Sima, SPI Dynamics, HP acquisition, security lifecycle management, DevInspect, QAInspect, Assessment Management Platform, web security scanning, application quality management, penetration testing automation, source code analysis, IT security, cybersecurity, Brian Christian, Wade Malone