Press Releases

Top Layer Networks Sets New Standard for Intrusion Prevention

Westboro, MA, December 13, 2004 -

Top Layer Networks, provider of globally proven Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), today announced the availability of the latest release of its flagship Attack Mitigator Ô IPS 5500 family of intrusion prevention solutions. Version 3 of the IPS 5500 expands on Top Layer’s leadership position in providing superior levels of protection and performance for critical IT assets. The IPS 5500 now offers improved mechanisms for network-level and application-level protection from cyber threats including undesired access, malicious content, such as viruses, worms, Trojans and other remote exploits, and rate-based attacks, such as DoS, DDoS and other Flood attacks. With Top Layer’s enhanced protection capabilities and globally proven anti-DDoS technology, the IPS 5500 offers more robust protection against existing cyber-threats and newly discovered “zero-day” exploits. Top Layer has also added new features that provide easier and faster deployment, improved configuration management, and improved detailed IPS analysis and reports.

“Those behind today’s cyber threats are relentless and creative, identifying new software and systems vulnerabilities as well as utilizing social engineering tricks to penetrate a company’s defenses,” said Mike Paquette, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Top Layer. “The new release of our Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 provides a number of powerful enhancements that deliver the highest levels of protection and performance necessary for our customers to stay ahead of the cyber-threats and dynamic DDoS attacks that lurk online. In addition, we’ve added a number of improvements to the user interface and default security configurations that will help our customers easily deploy and quickly adapt the IPS 5500 solution to their specific needs.”

The following list summarizes the highlights of the IPS 5500 version 3:

NEW ADVANCED PROTECTION CAPABILITIES

Protection Against Zero-Day Exploits: Some vendors claim to protect against zero-day exploits by monitoring traffic anomalies -- this is woefully inadequate. Top Layer uses internally developed Advanced Protocol Validation Modules to provide leading edge protection against known and unknown application-level attacks, including zero-day attacks.
Availability of New Advanced Protocol Validation Modules: Top Layer has added the following Advanced Protocol Validation Modules to its protection mechanisms -- email (SMTP), Microsoft RPC, Microsoft CIFS, SSH and Telnet. In conjunction with new enhancements to its existing Advanced Protocol Validation Modules (HTTP, FTP and DNS), Top Layer is able to provide the most comprehensive protection for all of these protocols. The IPS 5500 can also be easily updated to accept new signatures for future vulnerabilities that may not be covered by its suite of Advanced Protocol Validation Modules. In addition, customers may add their own user-defined signatures.
New DDoS Attack Mitigation Capabilities: Top Layer’s industry-leading DDoS protection has been further enhanced with the introduction of a feature called “Client Request Limiting” - a new anti-DDoS feature that allows the IPS 5500 to defend against new advanced types of brute force DDoS attacks including those targeted at DNS infrastructures.
Powerful Firewall Enhancements: Enhancements to firewall configurations deliver added protection and ease of use. The IPS 5500 firewall function maintains session state with no performance degradation at multi-gigabit loads.
Unparalleled Performance: Other IPS solutions drop legitimate traffic
when under attack. Top Layer’s approach to protection ensures that all legitimate traffic will continue to pass, even when an organization is under brute force network and application attacks.
IPS 5500 Can Be Deployed as a ProtectionClusterÔ: Top Layer’s patented, custom-ASIC IPS 5500 can deliver non-stop protection at up to eight gigabits per second, even in networks that require asymmetric traffic handling, the highest performance of any IPS solution.
Overall - Best Performing IPS Available: The Tolly Group report issued in November 2004 proves that Top Layer’s latest IPS 5500 can process more legitimate business transactions when defending against attacks.

FASTER DEPLOYMENT

Pre-Configured Security Policies provide Immediate Comprehensive Out-of-the-Box Protection: Top Layer has introduced several pre-configured security policies including “recommended” rule sets to provide immediate comprehensive out-of-the-box protection which means customers experience an immediate return on their investment.

IMPROVED USABILITY

New Descriptive Rule and Event Names: Addition of descriptive rule and event names delivers improved configuration and reporting capabilities that allow customers to easily invoke configuration changes.
Real-time Event Drill-Down Analysis/Detailed Packet Drilldown: Detailed packet information available through Top Layer's device manager provides for better real-time analysis of threats.
Compatibility with Top Layer’s SecureCommand+Ô Management Solution: By combining centralized management capabilities with an advanced security information management solution, SecureCommand+ enables customers to defend against highly adaptive and dynamic security threats and automate risk-based correlation and analysis by allowing the rapid provisioning of the IPS infrastructure with a single button-click.

“Companies in every industry are struggling to cope with the onslaught of IT security issues, from worms to application-level attacks to zero-day exploits,” said Jim Slaby, senior analyst, the Yankee Group. “Top Layer’s Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 delivers protection from all of these threats with the high performance necessary to stop attacks in-line, in real-time -- a critical requirement in today’s security environment.”

“Our network evolves day in and day out as new machines are plugged in and disconnected by students, faculty staff and visitors – each with their own security issues waiting to be unleashed,” said Dave Foss, Assistant Director for Information Technology Services (RLE), MIT. “The advanced protection that Top Layer’s intrusion prevention technology provides is an integral part of our security infrastructure that helps my team overcome the daily security challenges of an educational institution while also protecting us from those potentially catastrophic-level threats that lurk around the connected world.”

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 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.

For more information on the Top Layer Attack Mitigator IPS 5500, please contact sales@TopLayer.com, or call 508-870-1300.

About Top Layer Networks, Inc.

Founded in 1997, Top Layer Networks (www.TopLayer.com) 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.

All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.

Contact: