SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 (UPI) — An appliance to be unveiled at California’s premier international security conference next week is being marketed as the world’s first comprehensive counter-hacking device that may address urgent issues arising from amateur and professional hacking of business and government computers.
Hacking and related cybercrime and the risk of spinoffs for terrorism were blamed for widespread damage to computer systems in North America and elsewhere last year.
Large-scale hacking of computers at government departments and corporate establishments was behind the Obama administration’s campaign in fall 2009 to raise awareness of cybercrime.
The U.S. Congress has issued alerts of potential linkages between computer hacking, crime and cyberterrorism and urged the administration to focus more on hacking to eliminate the problem.
Mykonos Software, developers of Web-based technological security solutions, said the company would unveil the new appliance at the RSA Security Conference, next Monday-Friday in San Francisco.
The appliance is designed to trap and confound hackers in real-time with the Web-based appliance, which will be part of a live demonstration at the conference, Mykonos Software said.
“The primary security threat for businesses has shifted from the network layer to the application layer,” Mykonos said.
The Mykonos Security Appliance gives system administrators and security staff a real-time view of hackers as they introspect Web applications. It profiles hackers in real-time, ascertaining their location, skill level and other critical data and enables information technology staff to instantly deploy countermeasures, said the company.
The Mykonos security appliance is targeted at financial services and insurance companies, healthcare companies, e-commerce companies, government entities and other high-profile targets of Web-based hacking attempts, Mykonos said.
“As businesses continue to deploy applications to the Web, they are exposing a massive attack surface for hackers to exploit,” said David Koretz, president and chief executive officer of Mykonos Software. As a result, he indicated, the primary security threat for businesses has shifted from the network layer to the application layer.