Copyright 1995 Information Access Company, a Thomson Corporation Company IAC (SM) Newsletter Database (TM) Edge Publishing Edge: Work-Group Computing Report August 14, 1995 SECTION: No. 273, Vol. 6 LENGTH: 659 words HEADLINE: INTERNET ACCESS: REPORT ON THE ULTIMATE BETA TEST: SIDEWINDER FIREWALL AT DEFCON HACKER CONFERENCE BODY: Hundreds of computer hackers spent the better part of three days at the annual DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas from August 4-6, 1995 listening to more than a dozen well known speakers and attempting to breach the security of Sidewinder, the award winning Internet firewall. Secure Computing Corporation brought Sidewinder to DefCon to perform the ultimate Beta test on its latest release, 2.0. Likewise, hackers from around the world accessed the DefCon network, via a high-speed Internet connection to attack the Sidewinder firewall system set up at the event. Despite hundreds of attempts, they all failed Secure Computing's Challenge. The response of the hackers at DefCon to Secure Computing Corporation and Sidewinder should be encouraging to organizations that are turning to firewalls to protect their front door access to the Internet. "There's no way I can hack Sidewinder," said one hacker. "You've made a sealed black box that nobody can get into" said another. Many hackers have come to the conclusion that it just isn't worth the time and effort to try to hack a Sidewinder protected site. Sidewinder, the world's most sophisticated firewall, employs the patented Type Enforcement mechanism as its core security technology. Jeff Moss, the hack-fest promoter, hopes that Sidewinder will return next year to again challenge the attendees. "Secure Computing Corporation is the first large security company to realize the value of coming to a hacker conference. They provided an advanced firewall product and allowed hackers to launch intensive assaults on it for days." "DefCon is one of the ways that we make sure our internal test procedures stay ahead of the real-world challenges Sidewinder will receive on the Internet," said Craig Alesso, Director of Marketing at Secure Computing Corporation. "The Sidewinder Challenge is also a way we can actively focus the attention of the hackers towards Secure Computing Corporation and away from our customers, a lightning rod if you will." The company introduced Sidewinder in October of 1994 and immediately challenged the best hackers to foil the firewall's security mechanisms on an Internet site established for just that purpose. To date, almost 2,000 attacks have been launched against the Sidewinder challenge site, all of them unsuccessful. According to Kermit Beseke, President and CEO of Secure Computing Corporation, "Sidewinder continues to demonstrate that it is resistant to attack. This is exactly what our customers want: a firewall which is proven to work against the same attacks that their sites will experience on the Internet. Only Sidewinder can give them that level of confidence." Was putting Sidewinder in the middle of the lions den, at a hacker conference, a risky endeavor? What if they had broken in? "If the hackers had found a hole, or some other weakness in the new Sidewinder release, we would have had it fixed within hours and immediately distributed the update to Sidewinder customers," said Alesso. "This is the type of service we offer our customers," he added. "It is in our customers' best interest to uncover problems at our facility." Secure Computing Corporation has and will continue to maintain a policy of openness regarding Internet and Sidewinder security. Secure Computing Corporation is the largest privately held computer security firm in the world, and has over 160 security engineers and scientists exclusively dedicated to information security and management. The company offers a complete range of security products and services. Sidewinder is also the proud recipient of three major industry awards for its ground-breaking technical achievements: * "Security Product of the Year" award from LAN Magazine * Reader's Choice: "Best New Security Product," Infosecurity News Readers * Reader's Choice: "Best Internet Firewall," Infosecurity News Readers Copyright 1995 Edge Publishing