MCI Unveils Security Software

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October 10, 1997

MCI Unveils Security Software MCI Unveils Security Software
By Charlotte Dunlap,Computer Reseller News
ATLANTA -- MCI Communications is working to curb the hacker attack reports it gets daily by providing a new tool to the ISP and VAR community.
Called Denial of Service Tracker, the security software, announced today at NetWorld+Interop, offers enterprise networks and backbone networks technology that automatically monitors denial-of-service activity and tracks the location of suspicious communications.
Such illegal activities can have a massive effect on small to large businesses whose E-mail or Web communications and Web servers are attacked, keeping them from doing business.
"We get customer complaints every day by people saying they're being actively attacked via denial of service messages, which can saturate their bandwidth and shut down their Web server or mail server," said Dale Drew, senior manager of security engineering at MCI, in Washington.
These types of attacks can be a nightmare to VARs, because, according to MCI, without such tools the only way to trace and combat such assaults is to search router by router through each interface of the network, and in realtime or during the time of the attack. The search can take 15 to 20 minutes by a networking expert, and attacks normally only last about 15 minutes, Drew explained, making tracing the hacker's real address extremely difficult.
MCI first used the tool in-house, then offered it to the ISP community early this year. It is now available through download at the MCI Website.