Beyond Security Called In By Government To Defend Banking Systems

It sounds like a nightmare scenario, but yes, there is a war going on between China and the USA. Chinese military strategists understood that this would be an important aspect in the future of international warfare as long ago as 1996, and more recently Major General Wang Pufeng of the Chinese military said that it was their opinion that, "In the near future, information warfare will control the form and future of war."

China has a massive military force, but moving it overseas would be a logistical nightmare; so why bother when you can muster 300 million Internet users to attack the other country's vital technological system and stop them in their tracks?

The Chinese operation started with them trying to hack into the Pentagon's internal communications, but is now much more sophisticated. In moves which make the recent 'cyber wars' between Russia and Estonia, and Arab and Israel look puny, the Chinese have used 'botnets' to infest its other countries' computers with viruses - making them continuously re-send useless information to each other, and rapidly clogging the system and bringing it to a standstill.

These tactics aren't just used against the opposing military; Russian servers were used to attack Estonia's press websites, banking system and Internet service providers. There was a real possibility of the country grinding to a halt. Why bother about conventional warfare when you bring another nation to its knees electronically, without a shot being fired.

Aviram Jenik, the CEO of Beyond Security, was one of the experts in countering this sort of cyber warfare called in by the Estonian authorities to help fight off the assault. As Aviram says, 'It took us several days to get to the bottom of the problem, but the attack began to fade once we started to fight back. In the meantime it cost Estonia billions of euros.'

In recent days the British press has carried stories about the Chinese attacking the technological infrastructure of a total of 103 countries, with the USA being - unsurprisingly - its prime target. As Aviram says, this sort of warfare makes sense for an attacker - for several reasons: 'It's a form of 'clean warfare' which doesn't damage the essential infrastructure; it's very fast and easily reversed; it's very cheap, especially compared with conventional warfare; and, incredibly, it's deniable - the Chinese are blaming Tibetan activists abroad for the current attacks.

So what, if anything, can be done? 'Specialist companies such as Beyond Security can find and help eliminate the weak links that let attackers successfully compromise web sites and communications links', Aviram says, 'But democracies can't order organizations to comply, so there could always be a gap in the defenses, giving an unfriendly power a way in.

'There are measures which can be taken, but they are complex, and there is certainly no single solution; no 'silver bullet'.

'We have to think strategically. First, we have to be aware of the problem, and appreciate the damage which can be done. Second, we must be aware of the potential scope of these attacks; for example, there are dormant 'time bombs' which can be secreted in systems, and are then triggered by date or by event - and we would have no knowledge of them until it's too late.

'Third, we must have a CERT - a Computer Emergency Response Team - in place, as some countries have already. And last, we must be constantly testing our digital defenses. It can be done and it must be done. Countries unfriendly to our own are already attacking us, and to do nothing would be to court Armageddon.'

About Beyond Security
Beyond Security, a privately-held company, develops leading vulnerability assessment and self-management solutions that facilitate preemptive, real-time and continuous network, server, database and application security. The company was founded in 1999 by the founders of SecuriTeam portal (www.securiteam.com), a leading source for vulnerability alerts and solutions serving 1.5 million monthly page views to IT security professionals. Beyond Security's founders are great believers in automation, which is why the company sells tools instead of using them to provide services. Beyond Security's goal is to decrease the number of security holes in products to manageable levels and empower software vendors to release secure products. For more information, visit www.beyondsecurity.com.

Original Press Release - http://www.beyondsecurity.com/press/2009/press20090414.html

Voipex add Paul David as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing

Voipex ltd the developers of the ViBE portfolio of solutions are pleased to welcome Paul david to the role of SVP Sales and Marketing.Paul's career, has had Telecoms and IP experience in 3 continents, and both big and small organisations. He has an outstanding record of sales and marketing achievements in international telecommunications, with extensive experience of IP/IT Services from mid 1990 onwards.

Paul started his career in the 1980s in Cable&Wireless headquarters where Paul successfully negotiated 12 overall pricing rate cases with overseas Governments, and later worked in Mercury when it was a start-up.

Paul then helped Hong Kong Telecom get ready for competition as General Manager for Corporate market .Paul was promoted to Vice President Internet and Intranet Solutions in a C&W/Schlumberger start-up.. Paul then joined COLT in August 2000 as Director Datacentre Solutions . Paul was then promoted to join COLTs Executive Management Team in July 2002 as Group Director, Products and Marketing and charged with getting a new product drive re-initiated.

Paul left COLT in 2006 to become Managing Director of Saiph Communications, a start up in VOIP services, and having successfully got the company started and growing, Paul moved to work on various VOIP assignments in the consulting sector before joining Voipex.

Jonathan Nelson CEO of Voipex said "Paul brings to our team a considerable experience at Tier 1 and Tier 2 Telco level which is fundamental to ensuring our unique proposition around ViBE is structured correctly for that audience"

Original Press Release - http://www.voip-x.co.uk/news/

NeoAccel Positioned in Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN Solutions

NeoAccel, Inc., developer of SSL VPN-Plus™, the market-leading 3rd Generation VPN, today announced that it has been placed in the 3Q07 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN.

NeoAccel’s SSL VPN-Plus is the only VPN solution on the market that truly enables IPsec VPN replacement. It delivers performance better than or equal to IPsec VPN products with vastly superior security, lower return on investment and universal access, all of which translate to lower overall costs and higher user satisfaction.

“Our users access the network from client sites, and we don’t want them waiting around for files to transfer,” said Stephen Gentilozzi, IT Manager at American Century Casualty Company in Atlanta. “SSL VPN-Plus was the only product we found that combined the performance of IPsec with the reduced costs and management simplicity of SSL VPN, and it’s also a no-brainer for our employees to use.”

“NeoAccel has been working hard to evolve SSL VPN technology with a vision of securely connecting any user to any device in any location,” said Michel Susai, CEO and Chairman at NeoAccel. “In my opinion, our inclusion in the SSL VPN Magic Quadrant validates our strategy and demonstrates our momentum in the marketplace.”

About NeoAccel
With the vision to “Secure Everything™,” NeoAccel provides the most advanced, secure, and high-performance access to any application from any device anywhere. Its SSL VPN-Plus™ product line delivers all the performance of IPsec VPNs with the added benefits of increased security, simplified management, and reduced cost of ownership. Its NAM-Plus network access control product line addresses the challenge of secure internal access within the corporate LAN with the added benefit of full application access control. Using patented and innovative technologies, NeoAccel’s products eliminate the traditional management, performance, and security challenges of other solutions to enable truly unified and secure worldwide networks. NeoAccel is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.neoaccel.com.

Gartner, Inc., "Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN, North America, 3Q07" by John Girard, December 6, 2007

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 6, 2007 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

NeoAccel, SSL VPN-Plus, Intelligent Connection Acceleration Architecture, ICAA, Transparent SSL, TSSL, Secure Everything and NAM-Plus are trademarks of NeoAccel, Inc.

Original Press Release - http://www.neoaccel.com/pr-quadrant.php