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| British Hero Can Save Us From Cyber Attack It may not have a dirty white vest and run around shouting 'Yippee Kai Yay', but the XGate device from British company Global Security One is still loaded with enough hi-tech weaponry to save home PC users from cyber attack, while its sibling, the Prodigy, stands guard over business computers. There are several types of Denial of Service (DoS) attack: - Buffer Overflow Attack: exploits flaws in computer programs' data buffers so that they cannot handle more traffic than programmers anticipated. - SYN Attack: sender transmits a volume of connections that cannot be completed, causing connection queues to fill up, thereby denying services to legitimate users. - Teardrop Attack: an attack where fragmented packets are forged to overlay each other when the receiving host tries to reassemble them. - Smurf Attack: a network security breach in which a network connected to the Internet is swamped with replies to PING or Internet Control Managing Protocol (ICMP) requests. A single attack sending hundred of the PING messages per second can bring entire Internet service to its knees, rather like having 1000 people demanding entry into your office at once. The XGate and the Prodigy will filter the legitimate requests and drop the others. Unlike traditional security solutions for home PC users, XGate is not a piece of software that sits on the PC and slows it down. It is a hardware device which plugs into the PC and includes an ADSL modem, enabling the user to safely browse the Internet as fast the connection allows. Key benefits of the XGate approach include: - it is a unified approach to home Internet security so doing away with the need for the user to buy disparate pieces of software or worry about integration, compatibility and licensing issues. - A single XGate meets all home broadband Internet security needs and allows up to 4 computers to be connected. - A single renewal relieves the user from tracking multiple software subscriptions. - It's a stand alone device which stops threats before they reach the computer. Unlike conventional security software which will only identify threats when they have actually infiltrated the computer system. The XGate is currently ADSL compatible as GSEC1's research highlights that the greater proportion of the country has that type of Internet access and so it can offer a wider population of children the protection they need. The next iteration of the XGate will be compatible with cable Internet, wireless and ADSL. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Computing News :: home page |