Teros Reveals Expanded Anti-Fraud Features in Leading Web Application Gateway; New Appliance Detects and Prevents Deep-Linking and Site Scraping, Greatly Reducing the Effectiveness of Phishing and Pharming Attacks

Business Wire, Sept 19, 2005

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Teros, the global leader in Web application firewalls, today revealed version 5.2 of the Teros 100 and 200 Web Application Gateways, enhanced to protect against online fraud including phishing. New enhancements include expanded anti-fraud features that disrupt multiple stages of the online fraud life cycle. The solution limits fraudsters' ability to use the target brand's own public Web site against their customers in fake web sites and email attacks.

Teros has been secretly shipping this capability at the request of large US banks that are increasingly concerned that customers blame the banks, not just the criminals for online theft. A recent survey of U.S. Internet users by the Ponemon Institute reinforces this concern, finding that 95 percent of the respondents said that banks need to use technology to provide protection to their banking customers. Over 60 percent of the survey respondents found it "unacceptable" for a bank to not respond to phishing schemes that use the bank's identity as the means of gaining the victim's trust.

"Customers are starting to blame the banks not just the criminals for identity theft and financial loses," said Larry Ponemon, Chairman of the Ponemon Institute. "With the increase of high profile data loss incidents, it has become incumbent upon financial institutions to assure their customers they are protected against these new age criminals."

Internet criminals have a financial incentive to continue to develop new ways of committing fraud against Internet users. Most widespread forms of Internet fraud and identity theft start with false representation of a trusted brand through a fake email or web site. Fraudsters typically begin a phishing or pharming attack by first stealing the bank's identity, and using that to steal customer identities.

When a fake site is created, images and design elements are appropriated from the legitimate site directly and en masse by way of a site 'scrape' or deep links. Teros 5.2 recognizes and stops these behaviors in real-time, giving banks and other brands a proactive tool to limit the effectiveness of spoof-based attacks against their customers and their brand. Version 5.2 also includes support for an anti-phishing plug-in which incorporates a list of fraudulent web sites.

"Web application attacks are not only impacting the bottom line of our customers but also causing significant damage to confidence in their online brand. The effect on the latter in particular can be long-lasting," said Bob Walters, CEO of Teros. "The Teros 5.2 release integrates new features that provide the tools to catch and prevent these types of attacks before long term and costly damage occurs."

The Teros Web Application Gateway defends against application attacks that evade network-level defenses. It blocks improper Web requests and filters inappropriate responses, preventing theft of private information and identities and eliminating the risk of Web downtime. The Teros Gateway is a robust, multi-function appliance that includes the industry leading Web application firewall, cloaking and proxy, SSL acceleration and key management. It centralizes Web application related security policy and reduces costs by minimizing a number of devices between users and the Web server.

Designed for maximum reliability and unparalleled scalability, the Teros 100 and 200 enhance the web stream for both security and performance. Positioned between the applications and end users, the Teros positive security model permits only valid Web traffic. Teros ensures correct application behavior and provides a real-time solution to defend against Web application attacks that attempt to steal private information. Because it understands proper application behavior, the positive security model does not require attack signatures or pattern matching techniques to detect and block attacks.

About the Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute is a think tank dedicated to advancing responsible information management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research to promote best practices, to educate leaders from the private and public sectors, and to verify the privacy and data protection practices of organizations. The institute is headquartered in Elk Rapids, Michigan. For more information visit www.ponemon.org.

About Teros

Teros is the global leader in secure application delivery. The company's mission is to guarantee the availability, integrity, and performance of Web and Web Services-enabled applications by defeating all known and unknown application attacks and accelerating application performance. Global 1000 corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and government agencies rely on Teros to secure critical applications and protect sensitive corporate and customer information. Major banks and other financial institutions rely on Teros to protect online assets and consumer privacy. Over 80 percent of Teros customers cite "prevention of online fraud and identity theft" as a primary reason for deployment. Teros is privately held with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. To contact Teros call 408-850-0800, visit us on the Web at www.teros.com or write to info@teros.com.