Institute For Internet Security Offers Free Sensor

PRESS RELEASE

Gelsenkirchen/San Francisco, 20th January 2009.- At RSA conference in San Francisco in April 2009, the Institute for Internet Security - if(is) - offers special sensor technology to collect and store statistical raw data for a long period of time. This technology is for free. It enables users to monitor their networks and evaluate its current state before using sensible services like online banking. This is an important step to turn the Internet into a more trustworthy and secure medium.

The Institute for Internet Security - if(is) - from the University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen has developed a passive sensor technology that continuously collects statistical raw data with sensors, which are placed at selected spots of the Internet communication infrastructure. Nowadays if(is) has implemented sensors mainly in Germany to monitor the internal government network and the networks of Universities and Companies. In addition, if(is) found partners in Austria and Brazil. The intention is to create and analyze local and above all global perspectives in order to make the generation of a global view and the individual situation awareness of the Internet possible. The raw data is captured from header information of the passing network traffic, by counting the occurrence of currently 870.000 different parameters. This processing is to assure that all sensitive header information, like IP addresses and user data, is left out. Avoiding ethical, privacy, and legal challenges, the collected data are not privacy-sensitive.

The processing is designed to have very high performance and, using encryption, it allows to transfer the collected data frequently to a centralized database and to store it securely over a long period of time. This approach is different to Intrusion Detection Systems and to other monitoring systems that store highly confidential content or IP addresses. if(is) offers its technology to all interested researchers and other partners free of charge.

Unlike other systems sheltering critical assets, the Internet does not offer any overall facility to monitor its current status, health or development. Thus, an overlay monitoring layer is needed, which can be utilized to address a very important aspect for a more secure and trustworthy Internet. This information is needed by many stakeholders to make reliable decisions about their tasks.

This smart approach should utilize well proven global statistics, best practices and technical sensors. The stakeholders win knowledge and experience, which will help them to improve further decisions and actions. The benefit is mainly on the side of enterprises and governments: They will get an added value not just from early warnings, but also from inside information on the development of the Internet, like technology trends and bandwidth?s development. Internet Situation Awareness is a good start towards an integrative security and developing approach for the Internet. www.internet-sicherheit.de Institute for Internet Security if(is) at RSA Conference in San Francisco, 20st - 24th April 2009: Information Center and German Pavillon, Expo Booth 1332.

Contact: Markus Linnemann [email protected]