June 6, 2005

DeepNines Mitigates Critical Vulnerability in Nortel Routers

DALLAS, TEXAS - DeepNines Technologies, the only technology vendor to provide comprehensive router security, offers a security solution that protects networks from router exploits such as the Nortel VPN router vulnerability announced Monday. This most recent router vulnerability can be easily exploited to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) attack against the router.

The vulnerability was labeled "moderately critical" by Secunia on Monday with Nortel categorizing it as "major" in a bulletin posted to their website. This vulnerability is serious because a single malformed IKE packet will cause the router to instantly crash. In addition, a crash will occur every time a malformed packet is sent. This attack is not detected by most intrusion detection or intrusion prevention systems since the malformed packet looks very similar to a normal IKE packet and these traditional security devices sit behind the router inside of the network. While a software upgrade has been released by Nortel, it is becoming evident that routers will continue to be a target for hackers and the only way to protect against router vulnerabilities is by placing a security system in front of the router.

DeepNines Security Edge PlatformT (SEP) with patent-pending Zero Footprint TechnologyT sits invisibly in front of the router, with no IP or MAC address, stopping threats at the furthest network edge before they ever reach the router. DeepNines protects against DoS, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and other malicious attacks aimed at the router. The SEP is a plug and play appliance that does not require any changes to the router or any other network devices.

"Instead of constantly applying filters and patches to the router, DeepNines offers a cost-effective solution by placing security in front of the router which safeguards the entire network from attacks," said Dan Jackson, president and COO of DeepNines. "In recent months, we've seen the number of router vulnerabilities increase dramatically and this latest announcement from Nortel proves that no router is safe. DeepNines SEP with router security continues to be the only security solution that offers proactive protection from router vulnerabilities."

About Deep Nines Inc. DeepNines offers a scalable security platform for Global 2000 companies with a vertical market focus in education, government, telecommunications, energy and financial services. The DeepNines Security Edge PlatformT integrates intelligent firewall, intrusion prevention, best-of-breed secure content management, forensics and reporting. It operates outside the network infrastructure, improving organizations' security "deep into the nines." DeepNines' Security Edge Platform, the company's patent-pending security system, is a fully automated signature and behavior-based, intrusion prevention and traffic management system preventing known and unknown attacks from entering an organization's network. The Security Edge Platform runs on Solaris and Linux platforms from Sun Microsystems. To learn more about Deep Nines visit www.deepnines.com.