CHICAGO, April 4, 2005, –
Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd.
(NASDAQ: ALDN) today announced it now estimates that
more than 70 percent of
virus writers worldwide are now focused on creating contracted spyware.
The announcement follows detailed analysis conducted by the Aladdin
Content Security Response
Team (CSRT)
evaluating recent viruses and virus writer
activity. Aladdin CSRT research concludes that spyware is the favorite
among malicious code
writers, as it allows them to wrap their “technology” and sell it or
even introduce their own
money-making ventures.
“Our analysis over the last several months confirms that the majority of
virus writers are
shifting away from creating complicated viruses purely aimed at causing
havoc, and instead,
are creating spyware that is linked to organized crime and illegal
money-making opportunities,”
said Shimon Gruper, vice president of technologies for the Aladdin
eSafe Business Unit. “Aladdin is
confident that it will
continue to see a growing number of spyware applications linked to
organized crime, jointly
created by those with the resources to create the applications and those
with the resources to
quickly utilize the data stolen. This is a major change from the types
of threats that we saw
emerging just a few years ago.”
Aladdin Responds by Adding Gateway Protection for
Spyware
Forrester Research predicts that spyware will reach at least 25 percent
of all business
computers within the next 12 months. In response to this fast-growing
threat, Aladdin recently
added gateway protection signatures to its Aladdin eSafe
product to identify hundreds of new spyware components and spyware
communications. An
integrated, proactive content security and anti-virus protection
solution for large
organizations, Aladdin eSafe now guards against spyware, password
stealing Trojans, and
multipurpose automated zombie bot networks that are used for various
malicious activities
such as spamming, phishing, denial of service and using victim PCs as
attack proxies.
Aladdin eSafe is the only gateway product providing four layers of
spyware protection, as well
as multiple content security layers against other malicious code — all
at the entrance to the
organization. Other solutions in the market focus on only one or two
layers of spyware
protection, leaving organizations susceptible to “smart” users who can
circumvent desktop
policy, but not gateway enforcement. Desktop solutions may also not be
effective against
“driveby” spyware, while also lacking enterprise-wide real-time spyware
activity monitoring.
“In the past malicious code writers were motivated by technological
challenges and the urge to
cause damage. Today the motivation is money — and there is no greater
motivator. Malicious
code writers get organized and even traditional organized crime
organizations now want a piece
of the cake,” Gruper said. “Aladdin eSafe is the only product that
quickly addresses this
dangerous threat that can easily enter organizations through something
as basic as employee
Web browsing.”
Significant Aladdin eSafe benefits:
- No other gateway products covers all 4 layers of anti-spyware
security - Anti-virus gateway solutions only provide signatures, a reactive
solution - URL filtering products only block access to spyware download servers
on port 80 - Firewalls and IDS products only block limited spyware protocol data
or URLs - eSafe blocks all ‘driveby’ spyware infections while Web surfing
- Real-time spyware activity monitoring
- Proactive anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-spam, and malicious code
protection in one
integrated solution - Full content security at over 32Mbps speeds – up to 10 times faster
than competing
products
Proactive Aladdin eSafe Protection
Aladdin’s eSafe features
high-performance, proactive
content inspection that stops threats and increases employee
productivity while reducing the
load on corporate bandwidth. eSafe features the Proactive Security
Engine (PSE). Using
multiple technologies, the PSE enables eSafe to even block most zero-day
malicious code.
Performance is essential to content security – slow, inefficient
solutions cannot be tolerated
in today’s fast-paced networks. eSafe’s NitroInspection™ provides a
high-speed solution
that efficiently combines operation of all core technologies at the
gateway to the organization.
Aladdin’s eSafe product suite includes eSafe Gateway, eSafe Mail and
eSafe Appliance. For
more information on eSafe, and the entire family of eSafe content
security and anti-spam
solutions, visit www.eSafe.com.
About Aladdin Knowledge Systems
Aladdin is a global provider of software digital rights management (DRM)
and enterprise security.
Aladdin products include: the HASP® family of hardware
and software-based products that flexibly
protect, license and distribute software and intellectual property; the
USB-based eToken™
device
for strong user authentication and e-commerce security; and the eSafe® line of integrated
content
security solutions that protect networks against malicious,
inappropriate and nonproductive
Internet-borne content. Visit the Aladdin Web site at http://www.Aladdin.com.
