Category: Product

The new additions to Cisco’s product line come less than two months after one of the company’s main competitors, Juniper Networks Inc., paid nearly $4 billion to acquire NetScreen Technologies Inc., a maker of integrated security appliances. The company has added a feature called the IP Source Tracker that can help administrators find the entry point through which a denial-of-service attack is coming into the network.

The VPN 3020 can support up to 750 IPSec tunnels and 200 SSL connections and goes for $9,995. Cisco officials said that the current trend in the industry of turning SSL VPNs into standalone products is not one they intend to follow.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1545800,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Recent versions of the Bagle worm have bypassed corporate gateway security because they are distributed in password-protected Zip files, which are next to impossible for antivirus programs to scan. Emails infected with the Bagle worm, however, contain the password required for opening the Zip file.

Antivirus vendors BitDefender and Kaspersky Labs have both launched updates enabling their software to open any encrypted attachments using the password contained in the email text. Once the file is decrypted, it is treated as an executable file and scanned normally.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at Kaspersky Labs, said: “This new technology protects users from a new generation of worms, specifically worms that hide in password-protected Zip files. Five worms using this technique appeared within only four days – a new trend has been set in the computer underground,” he said.

Viorel Canja, head of BitDefender Labs, said in a statement: “We have developed an engine tasked with finding the Zip password in the email text.

Most AV products could only offer protection after the archive is extracted; that could be a little too late for inexperienced users,” he said. Simon Heron, director of Network Box, told ZDNet UK the product combines Kaspersky’s software with Network Box’s own technology to deal with the latest Bagle mutations at the network perimeter. According to Heron, this does mean the gateway is fractionally slower. “The worst case scenario is we will take 50 milliseconds extra to parse an email that has a password-encrypted attachment.

More info: http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39118922,00.htm

The SLA aims to ensure that all MCI internet customers will have immediate access to MCI’s security staff to help them address and mitigate internet attacks quickly, providing the strongest network security protection available.

“MCI’s experience operating IP networks, along with its advanced network monitoring and management capabilities, enable the company to provide the strongest security defence for our customers,” said Sara Santarelli, MCI vice-president of network security.

More info: http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=128923&liFlavourID=1&sp=1

The launch of a training course is an unusual move for the software giant, which has changed many Windows XP defaults to tighten security and to simplify the software update process. The service pack, now in beta, will make significant changes to deal with increased network protection, memory protection, improved e-mail security and enhanced browsing security; but these changes will lead to major disruption unless developers tweak their applications, the company explained.

In a detailed explanation, Microsoft made it clear that IT administrators and users must make specific changes to allow applications to open certain ports. “Windows Firewall includes an explicit setting in the firewall to enable the automatic opening and closing of ports for RPC for each profile.

More info: http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3322381

TurnTide, a 20-person company based in Conshohocken, Penn., is the latest to take this approach. Last week, the start-up introduced an “antispam router,” which it claims can eliminate up to 90 percent of unsolicited messages.

Unlike spam filters–which sit near e-mail servers, examining every e-mail message and quarantining those that look bad–the antispam router looks at the actual packets and determines which ones are likely to have come from a spammer. Using features inherent in the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), it can limit the amount of traffic being sent from these sources.

Ensuring quality of service and implementing security are usually done at the periphery of the network. But as networks get flooded with millions of unwanted e-mail, peer-to-peer traffic, and denial of service attacks, network operators need tools to control how much traffic comes onto their networks.

More info: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5166589.html

A public demonstration of the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) will occur Thursday at the AFCEA Homeland Security Conference at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security, Ridge said HSIN will expand upon the Joint Regional Information Exchange System (JRIES) that includes Groove Workspace as a core component for real-time, secure, intra- and inter-agency collaboration. Last year, Groove Workspace obtained the first Department of Defense (DoD) certification for interoperability with version 2.0 of the Defense Collaboration Tool Suite (DCTS).

Ridge said HSIN will be expanded to “all 50 states, five territories, tribal governments, and 50 major urban areas” and eventually to the private sector so it can coordinate preparedness efforts with government officials.

The software provides secure communication across insecure networks, is self-synchronizing, supports on- and off-line use, and employs a “web of trust” user authentication model.

More info: http://www.groove.net/release.cfm?pagename=press_feb26_2004