Press Releases

IPS 5500 Customers Already Protected Against the Latest Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities For Almost a Year

Westboro, MA, April 14, 2005 -

Top Layer Networks, the global leader for high performance intrusion prevention solutions, today announced that its Attack Mitigator IPSÔ 5500 intrusion prevention system has already provided out-of-the-box protection for almost a year for customers for the top two critical vulnerabilities disclosed yesterday by Microsoft in their vulnerability advisory. For these two critical vulnerabilities, customers can just continue to use their IPS 5500 without any updates or configuration changes. All versions of the IPS 5500 already contained the right protection mechanisms to stop these exploits. The IPS 5500 is currently on software version 3.4. Customers were issued an advisory that provided updates for the remaining three critical and other lesser vulnerabilities by Top Layer Network’s TopResponseÔ research and development team. Top Layer customers who deploy the Attack Mitigator IPS 5500 with recommended protection configurations are already proactively protected against exploits of these key vulnerabilities.

Prior to the release of these Microsoft updates, the IPS 5500 was able to offer proactive protection for our customers from two of these critical vulnerabilities with its Microsoft Protocol Validation Module. Since Top Layer’s protocol validation modules use protocol anomaly detection to inspect all transactions for acceptable use of the appropriate protocol, exploits of these critical vulnerabilities are automatically blocked regardless of the attack method used.

Peter Rendall, President and CEO of Top Layer Networks said, “Top Layer Networks is committed to the dedicated research, development and testing of best practices and critical updates relating to new and evolving vulnerabilities. Contrast this to other IPS vendors that offer poorly conceived coverage due to lack of proper testing of patches and signatures. Top Layer is able to provide better proactive protection because we rely on more powerful mechanisms than vendors that rely exclusively on distributing signatures to their customers after a vulnerability has been announced. Our customers know they can sleep at night with the confidence that our network-level and application-level protection is the most advanced and properly tested leaving them well-protected from new and even future Microsoft patch releases.”

Mike Paquette, VP, Product Management and Marketing of Top Layer stated, “Our intrusion prevention technology and advisories offered by our experienced TopResponse team resonate well with customers who struggle to test and deploy patches on a timely basis. They understand that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of vulnerabilities not yet discovered that could have a potentially catastrophic impact on their business. Top Layer continues to see network traffic loads increase as businesses increase their reliance on the use of the Internet to conduct business. When combined with the increasing threat levels associated with the massive number of vulnerabilities that exist, proactive protection and fast response like that offered by Top Layer sets the industry standard for intrusion prevention system solutions.”

For more information on the Microsoft vulnerabilities, click here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/default.mspx

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. To learn more about the Attack Mitigator IPS 5500, see our web site at www.toplayer.com or contact sales@TopLayer.com or call 508-870-1300.

About Top Layer Networks, Inc.

Founded in 1997, Top Layer Networks 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.

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