Press Releases

Present on Anti-DDoS and Worm Defense at the Department of Homeland Security Emerging Security Technology Forum

Westboro, MA, April 13, 2005 -

Top Layer Networks, the global leader for high performance intrusion prevention solutions, today announced that Mike Paquette, vice president of marketing and product management, will present at this year’s Emerging Security Technology Forum (ESTF), held at SRI International in Arlington, VA on April 13-14, 2005. Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and its Cyber Security Research and Development Center, the ESTF provides an opportunity for information security vendors to demonstrate emerging technologies that defend against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and worm attacks to government technologists, technical managers and others responsible for incorporating new technologies into government infrastructure.

Paquette will present a compelling 20-minute overview of how to proactively stop DDoS and worm attacks using Top Layer Networks’ breakthrough IPS technology. This will be followed by a real-world demonstration of the company’s Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 solution in addition to interactive sessions with government-only attendees. The sessions will discuss Top Layer’s intrusion prevention technologies – including protection from undesired access, malicious content and rate-based attacks – and their role in protecting critical government cyber infrastructure, as well as detailing defense-in-depth network deployment strategies.

"One of the goals of the Cyber Security R&D Center is to identify and support emerging security technologies being developed in the private sector. The Emerging Security Technology Forum is our first event that brings vendors and government representatives together to learn about government needs and the technology solutions that may be available to meet those needs," said Douglas Maughan, Cyber Security Program Manager within DHS S&T HSARPA.

“In 2004, the Internet community witnessed a significant increase in the use of Internet-based Denial of Service (DoS) attacks as a tool to commit criminal extortion. Initially targeting “gray market” enterprises such as online gaming and online casinos, the threat has spread to completely legitimate US-based enterprises that derive significant portions of their business from Internet transactions. Today’s protection solutions rely on new attack mitigation technology that provides a more cost effective way of stopping attacks rather than forcing administrators to participate in an escalating “arms-race” of network bandwidth allocation to “out-run” the attackers,” says Mike Paquette.

“As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gets more involved in proactively stopping hackers and cyber terrorism that can threaten U.S. national security and domestic business operations, deploying solutions like the Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 is just as critical a strategy as the existing policy of creating “strategic bandwidth reserves.” The IPS 5500 can provide the most powerful high-performance protection, effectively giving the DHS the ability to “outgun” rather than “outrun” cyber attackers that target critical homeland assets,” says Peter Rendall, CEO and President of Top Layer Networks.

About the Top Layer Attack Mitigator IPS 5500

The Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 family offers the strongest levels of Network IPS protection, performance and reliability on the market today. By improving upon the most powerful characteristics of stateful firewall technology, DDoS mitigation and intrusion detection systems, Top Layer has developed the IPS 5500 in order to protect against attacks in real-time with minimal interruption of legitimate traffic. Top Layer executes high performance, non-disruptive deep packet inspection and analysis coupled with intelligent blocking of attacks through TopFire™ second-generation ASIC technology and TopInspect™ Deep Packet Inspection. To learn more about the Attack Mitigator IPS 5500, see our Web site at www.toplayer.com or contact sales@TopLayer.com or call 508-870-1300.

About Top Layer Networks, Inc.

Founded in 1997, Top Layer Networks develops network security solutions that enable enterprises worldwide to protect their infrastructure and critical online assets from cyber-threats. The Company’s patented, ASIC-based products are engineered to deliver accurate and reliable protection mechanisms while operating as robust in-line network security devices. Top Layer Networks is headquartered in Westboro, Massachusetts with sales and support presence in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

About the ESTF

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate Cyber Security Research and Development Program within the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) announced that 13 technology vendors have been selected to present information security solutions to government personnel at the DHS/S&T Emerging Security Technology Forum (ESTF) on April 13-14, 2005.

The ESTF is an opportunity to introduce government representatives to smaller-sized information security technology vendors whose innovative approaches can help to continually assess and prevent security risks in the nation’s critical infrastructure. For this ESTF vendors will present and demonstrate current and emerging information security technologies that defend against DDOS and worm attacks. The audience will include federal, state, and local government technologists, technical managers, and others responsible for incorporating new technologies into critical government infrastructures.

A critical area of focus for the DHS S&T Directorate is the development and deployment of technologies to protect the nation’s cyber infrastructure including the Internet and other critical infrastructures that depend on computer systems for their mission.

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