Sandvine and Sigma Systems partner -- paving the way to identify and treat malicious traffic threats Cable Operators Benefit from Integrated Solution Providing Effective Control Against Worms, Spam and DoS Attacks Waterloo, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario; February 25, 2005 – Sigma Systems, the service management leader in operational support systems (OSS), has partnered with Sandvine Incorporated, the premiere provider of intelligent PacketCable MultiMedia attack traffic mitigation solutions, to ensure cable operators gain control against malicious worms, spam and Denial of Service attacks. Research shows that persistent malicious broadband traffic is degrading the subscriber experience and imposing hundreds of millions of dollars in unplanned hard costs directly related to thwarting attacks. At the root of this cost burden is the relative inability of cable operators to identify and mitigate malicious traffic, and enhance customers’ experiences while worm, spam and DoS (Denial of Service) attacks are actually underway. Attack traffic exhibits known behaviors and signatures and with the right technologies in place, can easily be identified in the network operations center. With the first hints, and therefore early warnings of “worm sign or signature”, network managers can engage appropriate mitigation techniques to protect overall service integrity for subscribers. At the same time, customer care managers can assure customers are informed of the latest status of their service, are able to easily take remedial steps, and ultimately appreciate the value of the service provided. Using a combination of behavior-based recognition to telescope into anomalous network behavior at the flow level, and signature-based pattern recognition to inspect content within and across packets, the integrated solution detects worm, spam and denial of service attacks for a particular DOCSIS cable modem. The solution uses a robust service management information model to query relevant information network, subscriber equipment, and subscriber’s service profiles to provide a walled-garden web portal for customer notification and treatment during malicious traffic events. This web portal environment can also be utilized to boost operator revenues by treating network bandwidth abusers with the appropriate usage fees and promote service upgrade options for higher bandwidth and quality of service. “Sandvine is a pioneer in IP Traffic and Service Control in arming service providers with a comprehensive strategy to mitigate all forms of malicious traffic,” says Preston Gilmer, Vice President of Product Marketing, Sigma Systems. “Strategically, our partnership with Sandvine is important in that subscribers and network operations are proactively notified of malicious traffic attacks and the appropriate subscriber treatment options are available during and after the attack.” “Given the increasing frequency of attacks, service providers are looking to improve their ability to fend off the impacts of worms and the DoS attacks they often spawn”, said Tom Donnelly, co-founder and VP marketing and sales for Sandvine. “Sandvine’s network-based approach identifies and isolates all forms of suspect traffic, including spam trojans. It also provides the tools to cleanse the network, OSS subscriber service management integration, and provides ongoing analysis to ensure service providers maintain optimal states of readiness and control in the event of an attack.” NOTE TO EDITORS: PacketCable and CableLabs are trademarks of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. An equipment demonstration at a CableLabs' event does not constitute CableLabs' endorsement of that equipment. ABOUT SANDVINE ABOUT SIGMA SYSTEMS |
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Friday, February 25, 2005