FOSTER CITY, CALIF - October 3, 2005 - FaceTime
Communications, the leader in IM Management solutions, today
announced the Day Zero Defense System, a new solution for
preventing worms and spyware downloads over enterprise and public
instant messaging (IM) networks. The system utilizes anomaly
detection techniques to analyze multiple characteristics of
IM-borne worms and other malicious code against normal behavior,
and provides patent-pending protection against these threats
without the need for traditional security signatures. For the first
time, organizations can proactively identify and stop IM attacks
before they occur in all leading enterprise and public IM
applications - including Lotus Sametime, Microsoft MSN, AOL, Yahoo,
and Google Talk.
"Computers can be hijacked without a user's knowledge and buddy
lists can be used to send IM messages with links to harmful worms
and viruses," said Michael Osterman, founder of Osterman Research.
"With FaceTime's technology, enterprises are able to better
understand baseline IM usage within their organization and clearly
delineate malicious IM behavior instantly."
IM usage in business - both sanctioned and not - is growing
rapidly. And because IM opens up unsecured channels into the
organization, malware creators have not wasted any time in
exploiting this growth. FaceTime Security Labs, operating in three
research centers worldwide, monitors the frequency and severity of
risks posed by viruses, worms and other malware propagating through
applications such as instant messaging and P2P file sharing. The
labs released metrics today on the continued malicious attacks
experienced by IM, IRC and P2P networks. Key findings
include:
- IM, IRC and P2P threats reported through the third quarter
ending September 30, 2005 reached over 1,300 incidents,
representing more than a twenty-fold increase in the number of
incidents recorded for the same period in 2004.
- In Q3 2005, the frequency of attacks was relatively flat from
Q2 2005 levels, but was up over 900% compared to Q1 2005
levels
- MSN Messenger was the most targeted public instant messaging
service receiving more than 3 times the number of attacks on AOL IM
and approximately 9 times the number on the Yahoo! Instant
messaging service
This dramatic rise in the number of IM threats, the increasing
sophistication of IM attacks, and the speed with which they
propagate have made day-zero prevention a critical capability for
maximizing productivity and reducing the costs associated with IM
use in the enterprise.
A new IM threat has the greatest propensity to spread and infect
organizations on Day Zero - immediately after it is released by the
creator. IM threats are extremely challenging for corporate IT
because they utilize real-time communications channels and proven
social engineering techniques to propagate significantly faster
than email-based attacks. FaceTime's Day Zero Defense System
utilizes attributes such as message frequency, content matching,
URL identification and other heuristics to detect malicious
behavior and stop infections in real-time - rather than the
conventional approach which requires organizations to wait hours or
even days for a signature to be created, tested and distributed.
Key Components of the Zero Day Defense System include:
- IM Anomaly Detection - intelligently monitors IM communications
and performs behavioral analysis across multiple attributes
including message frequency, content, and message sender to
determine anomalies against normal thresholds set by the
organization.
- Zero-Day Policy Management- Provides administrators complete
flexibility in defining the actions to be taken on IM
communications when an anomaly is detected, including block, allow,
log, send alert, challenge, and more. The system provides
comprehensive reporting on all activity.
- Patent-pending Challenge/Response Technology - allows
administrators to quarantine suspicious IM conversations and
initiate a challenge to the sender which requires a human to
successfully respond to the challenge. This stops malicious threats
created by computer bots and allows uninterrupted delivery of
legitimate communications sent by human sources
- Integration with FaceTime Security Labs - New threats are
automatically reported to researchers for further analysis and
evaluation by the largest security team dedicated to IM, P2P and
spyware threats.
IM, P2P and spyware applications are part of a category of
networked applications that FaceTime calls 'greynets.' Greynets are
network-enabled applications that are installed on an end user's
system without permission from IT and are highly evasive at the
network level.
"We have created a future-proof prevention system that enables our
customers to stop new IM based threats before they happen," said
Kailash Ambwani, CEO of FaceTime Communications. "Our customers can
be confident that legitimate IM messages are being delivered
securely and malicious messages are stopped before causing damage
to corporate networks and corporate data."
Availability
The Day Zero Defense System is integrated with IMAuditor 6.5.1 and
FaceTime Enterprise Edition offerings, and will be available on
October 31, 2005.
About Actiance, Inc. (Formerly FaceTime Communications, Inc.)
FaceTime Communications became Actiance, Inc on January 11, 2011 following an agreement to
transfer the FaceTime trademark to Apple.
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0,
including instant messaging, blogs and social networking. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive
years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security,
management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships
with all leading IM, unified communications providers and social networks including AOL, Google, Yahoo!,
Skype, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-3223.
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