Riptech Releases Groundbreaking Internet Security Threat Report; Report Delivers Information Security Trend Data From Actual Cyber Attacks Against Corporate Networks

Business Wire, Jan 28, 2002

Business Editors/Hi-Tech & Banking Writers

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2002

Riptech, Inc., the premier provider of scalable, real-time managed security services, today released the Internet Security Threat Report, the first report to present cyber attack trends based on the empirical analysis of actual cyber attacks detected against a global sample of security devices.

The sample set from which the attack trends in this report were derived consists of more than 300 companies in more than 25 countries throughout the world. Combined, the security devices of these organizations protect more than one million Internet-connected hosts. The Internet Security Threat Report quantifies the intensity, severity, and geographic sources of cyber attacks. Never before has information security attack trend data been available to the public broken down by company characteristics, such as industry and company size.

"Information security has emerged as a strategic concern for corporate decision makers," said Amit Yoran, president and CEO of Riptech. "The release of the Internet Security Threat Report marks the first time that corporate decision makers have access to the factual information they need to assess and mitigate the risk of cyber attack."

This issue of the Report analyzes attack activity that occurred during the final six months of 2001. Riptech will release an updated version of the Internet Security Threat Report on a semi-annual basis.

The Internet Security Threat Report provides insight into existing and emerging information security attack trends across distinct communities. By reviewing the observations presented in the Report, businesses will be able to gain a better understanding of their unique risk profile and implement more effective mitigation strategies.

Key observations from the Report include:

-- The rate of attack activity has increased substantially - attacks per
company increased by 79 percent between July and December 2001

-- A substantial percent of attacks (39 percent) appeared to be deliberately
targeted at a specific organization

-- A small number of nations were the source of the vast majority of the
attacks: U.S. (30 percent), South Korea (9 percent), China (8 percent)

-- Adjusting for the number of Internet users in each country, the intensity of
attacks from Israel is nearly double the attack intensity rate of any other
individual country

-- Different industries suffer significantly different rates of attack
intensity and severity. High tech, financial services, media/entertainment, and
power and energy showed the highest number of attacks per company, each
averaging more than 700 attacks per company over the past six months

-- Power and energy companies suffered severe attacks at a rate that was more
than twice the mean of all companies in the sample set

-- Attack intensity and intent varied moderately based on company size and
significantly based on ownership type. Companies with 500 or more employees
suffered at least 50 percent more attacks per company than companies with less
than 500 employees. Public companies suffered approximately twice the number of
attacks per company as private and nonprofit companies

Prior to the development of this report, other attempts to summarize network attack trends have relied on survey data. The accuracy of these other reports is limited by inconsistent attack detection capabilities and the inherent problems of self-reporting security data. The Internet Security Threat Report is based on highly accurate statistical analysis of more than 5.5 million discreet data points, in which over 128,000 unique cyber-attacks were discovered, analyzed, and investigated.

Trends presented in this report are made possible by Riptech's managed security service. Riptech provides management, monitoring, analysis, and response against suspicious activities detected across firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection systems (IDS). By correlating and analyzing vast amounts of security data through its proprietary Caltarian technology platform, Riptech's Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts quickly identify and defend against potential intrusions or other malicious activity.

Copies of the Internet Security Threat Report are available on Riptech's Web site at www.riptech.com.

About Riptech

Riptech, Inc., the premier provider of scalable, real-time managed security services, protects clients through advanced outsourced security monitoring and professional services. Riptech's unique Caltarian technology platform provides real-time information protection through around-the-clock monitoring, analysis, and response. The Caltarian technology is capable of processing large volumes of network security data to separate security threats from false positives in real-time, with carrier-class scalability. Additionally, Riptech's Security Professional Services group provides security policy development, assessment and auditing, penetration testing, incident forensics, and response. Riptech security specialists have secured hundreds of organizations including Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies. Founded in 1998 by former Department of Defense security professionals and market experts, Riptech is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia with offices in San Jose, California, and New York City.