Cylant offers Intrusion Detection System Free of Charge to Educational Institutions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 26, 2002
Contact: Diana Laverdure
561-391-8717
dlaverdure@reevescommunications.com
CYLANT OFFERS INTRUSION DETECTION SYSTEM
FREE-OF CHARGE TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
MOSCOW, Idaho – Cylant, the premiere provider of host-based intrusion detection
and rejection systems for the Linux and FreeBSD server platforms, is offering
an "academic version" of its CylantSecure intrusion defense software for Linux
free of charge to all educational institutions.
The announcement was made by Joel Rothman, president of Cylant.
"The Linux platform is widely used at universities, colleges, and other academic
institutions," said Rothman. "We're happy to provide this powerful intrusion
detection and defense system to institutions that qualify for this unique offer.
The CylantSecure product originated in a university setting, so we certainly
understand the value it offers academia."
"Unfortunately, network attacks are commonplace in universities," said Rothman,
citing a recent attack on a server at Georgia Tech in which a computer hacker
downloaded 350 gigabits of data including personal information like social security
and credit card numbers (see 1 below ). "Attacks in general are on the rise,
and universities are a particularly vulnerable target because they are a relatively
unguarded environment. In the case of the Georgia Tech attack, CylantSecure
would have prevented the hacker from being able to complete his mission."
According to Scott Wimer, CTO of Cylant, "If the server in question was protected
by CylantSecure, the Georgia Tech hacker would not have been able to break in.
Second, if he had started up a rogue FTP server as happened at Georgia Tech,
CylantSecure would have issued an alert or simply implemented the necessary procedures
to stop the attack. Finally, with CylantSecure's self-training access control
mechanisms in place, the attacker would not have been able to get to the university's
sensitive information without compromising the necessary user account information,
which would have been very difficult because CylantSecure would have prevented
him from accessing even the encrypted password files. With that in mind, we
feel that CylantSecure is a necessary preventative security tool for all educational
institutions, especially due to the breadth of private information contained
on their networks."
To qualify for the offer, participants must verify that they work for an educational
institution by presenting a student, faculty, or staff identification card or
a request on appropriate letterhead.
The academic license includes the latest version of CylantSecure with no technical
support. Technical support can be purchased from Cylant at a discounted academic
rate. Users can apply for as many licenses as they wish. If an academic user
converts a server protected by CylantSecure to commercial use they must upgrade
to the commercial version, but at the reduced price of $299 per license.
For more information on this offer visit Cylant's website at www.cylant.com or
send an e-mail to info@cylant.com.
CylantSecure is the first commercial host-based intrusion detection and rejection
product available for both Linux and FreeBSD systems. CylantSecure uses kernel
monitoring to detect attacks without needing continual signature or rule-set
updates. Through behavioral monitoring, CylantSecure can detect new attacks and
new types of attacks without needing updates.
Benefits of CylantSecure
· Attacks are stopped before they can cause damage.
· Costly attack repair and recovery are eliminated.
· Internet servers are protected.
· Service availability is increased.
· Systems are protected against known and unknown attacks.
Features
· Kernel level attack detection.
· Customizable response actions.
· Support for multiple operating systems.
· Real-time detection and response.
· Self-training mandatory access control.
Evaluation versions of CylantSecure are available for free download at:
http://www.cylant.com/products/cylantsecure.html
About Cylant
Cylant, a division of Software Systems International, develops technologies and
systems for measuring the execution behavior of running software. Cylant's behavioral
measurement technology (ARIA) is applicable to any software application. The
first commercial application of ARIA has been to the Linux kernel. Other software
it has been applied to include: Java Virtual Machine (JVM), GNU C compiler, Apache
web server, Open BSD Kernel, portions of the Solaris 8 kernel, libc for Solaris
7 & 8 and Linux 2.2.X & 2.4.X, ftp demons, BIND, and sendmail. The principles
and practices of behavioral measurement can be applied to any application to
continuously monitor it for security, reliability, availability, or accountability
purposes. Cylant provides tools to observe the behavior of running software and
measure that behavior against a stored behavioral baseline.
1. Georgia Tech Computer Fraud. http://www.fraud_concern.gatech.edu/
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