Worst Hacker Attacks Yet to Come — Says Consultant to Defense Department Dr. Aharon Friedman, Chairman of Fortress Technologies - Industry Trend or Event

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 21, 2000

"E-commerce sites should prepare their networks as if they're going to war," says Dr. Aharon Friedman, network security consultant to the US Department of Defense and Chairman of Fortress Technologies, Inc. ( www.fortresstech.com )

Dr. Friedman, a former senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, says that the recent wave of denial of service attacks is just the precursor to truly damaging cyber attacks that are certain to be waged against US business.

"These recent attacks were just distractions, they were not intrusive," says Dr. Friedman. "Intrusive attacks on unprotected sites will have alarming and lasting consequences to both the US economy and the US psyche."

"You can be certain that many hostile groups have taken note of how vulnerable US commerce is to cyber attack," says Dr. Friedman.

Dr. Friedman says the best, proven defense against all types of cyber attack is a "secured network layer" protection system.

"The entire global Internet is run on a communication network with seven layers of systems and protocols. Picture a chocolate layer cake. When you send a message or data to someone, you are on top of your side of the cake. Your message has to go down through seven layers, each layer handing off the data or message to the next layer. Each time it hits another layer it is routed to the next lower and level. When it reaches the bottom of the cake, the message enters a physical layer -- a wire or fiber. The message now travels across the bottom of the cake to the other side, and is routed back up through each layer of the cake until it reaches the top -- where the message recipient is."

"All hacker attacks occur at the bottom of the cake so the defense to the attack must be mounted down at that layer. Unfortunately, most e-commerce companies have their security at the higher layers of the cake, and any security measures at the top layers are easily undermined by hackers. It's like building a fence around your house for protection, but then someone just tunnels in from underneath. Only when you secure your home's floor with steel-reinforced cement are you safe from all attacks."

In the layer cake analogy, the layer close to the bottom layer is called the "Network Layer." If you can secure this layer, you are literally a "fortress."

A secure "network layer" protection system is a vital part of network and Internet security because you really can't hack into anything below it.

Internet users installing "network layer" software and hardware in their home or company computers are able to access network-layer protected Websites, corporate networks, and Internet services safely and with complete privacy. No message or data packet going up and down the layer cake can be tampered with by hackers.

Encryption used on the top of the layer cake is useless, but at the "network layer" it is impenetrable. Secure "network layer" protection is the safest against every form of cyber attack.

"Denial of Service attacks cannot be mounted against this system because the IP address of every incoming request is validated. Requests with unauthorized IP requests are discarded," says Dr. Friedman. "If an attack comes from a validated address, the address can be immediately blocked."

Secure "network layer" protection makes every computer and all traffic on the Internet invisible to hackers. This system can be established for two users -- or two million.

Fortress Technologies Product Suite has undergone grueling testing and is the only such product to attain the NSA's Security Proof of Concept Keystone (SPOCK) certification.

"Customers using our products have never been hacked," stated Dr. Freidman.

Fortress Technologies is a leader in securing network infrastructures for cable and telephone companies. Fortress is co-marketing their security products with Time Warner's Road Runner subsidiary, and C-COR.net, a leader in the cable infrastructure industry. Customers include commercial and government organizations.