SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- SecureLogix Corporation, a leading enterprise telephony security and management company, today announced that its award-winning TeleSweep Secure(R) modem-vulnerability scanner is now available for free download off the corporate website, http://www.securelogix.com/ . Originally released in 1999, the TeleSweep Secure scanner was sold commercially until late 2003. Even though sales of the popular modem scanner had remained strong at the time, SecureLogix discontinued selling the diagnostic tool due to rising sales of its voice firewall product. The SecureLogix(R) ETM(R) System's voice firewall application blocks enterprise modem threats and other telephony security vulnerabilities.

SecureLogix president Lee Sutterfield explained, "Modem scanners are not a solution to the modem threat, and are of limited value as a diagnostic tool. For example, our ETM System voice firewall typically identifies 5-to-10 times more modems inside an organization than a modem scanner will find. We removed our scanner from the market because we were no longer comfortable marketing and selling a scanner as any type of credible modem solution. And of course, modems represent only one of many telecom security concerns, especially with the advent of VoIP systems.
"But by offering free downloads of our modem scanner, we have an opportunity to provide a no-cost tool to enable organizations to begin understanding some of the many phone line security threats to their operations. And we stand ready to assist these organizations when they are ready to fully identify and solve the larger number of telephony security issues they face today and throughout migration to VoIP."
Scanners Have Limited Value
A modem scanner (or war dialer) is a software program that systematically dials hundreds or thousands of phone numbers searching for answering modems. Before the development of next-generation voice firewall technologies, periodic modem scanning was the only method available to identify modem vulnerabilities inside an enterprise. Although these scanners retain some usefulness in identifying general modem security issues, their value is quite limited. Scanners only identify a small subset of the total number of modems inside an enterprise, and their static, "snapshot-in-time" findings are only relevant for a very brief period. Additionally, any attempt to enforce a no- modem policy through scanning is dependent upon desk-to-desk, physical inspection and removal of identified modems. And employees can easily install new unauthorized modems mere moments after search and removal. Scanners, unlike voice firewalls, provide no means to continuously monitor and block unauthorized modem connections in real time.
Comparative studies performed by SecureLogix on customer networks have revealed that real-time phone line monitoring by a voice firewall identifies 5-to-10 times the number of modems found by scanners or war dialers. For example, during a recent service engagement with a prominent financial institution, SecureLogix scanned a small group of voice T1s for modems, while the ETM System voice firewall simultaneously monitored the same lines for modem traffic. Scanning detected 20 modems, while the real-time firewall identified 117 modems. The disparity is due largely to the fact that modem scanners only detect modems that are connected and set to auto-answer, but are not in use for dial-up connectivity at the time of the scan. It is dangerously ironic that scanners cannot identify an organization's greatest modem risk -- those modems with live, unmonitored Internet connections conducting active sessions during the scan. These live modem connections are invisible to scanners, but not to voice firewalls that can detect all modems as soon as they become active on the network. Further, voice firewalls can log and block all modem activity in real time, and eliminate the threat of in- bound war dialing. Voice firewalls such as the SecureLogix ETM System also identify and block other phone-based threats like toll fraud and emerging VoIP attacks.
Modems Remain a Serious Security Concern
Authorized and unauthorized modem connections represent a longstanding and serious threat to corporate data network security. Employees often connect modems to their corporate workstations and dial out to their private Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts over their desktop phone lines. They seek these unmonitored Internet connections in order to circumvent the logging and filtering performed by the corporate data firewall. Traditional data network security technologies do not interface with telephone circuits, and cannot monitor traditional phone network traffic. Once dial-up connections are established, employees can download viruses and other restricted content. In addition, hackers can war dial to locate these modem connections inside the network perimeter and utilize them to gain unmonitored back-door access into the entire corporate data network.
About SecureLogix
SecureLogix Corporation, a Gartner designated "Cool Vendor" in telecom for 2004, builds first-of-kind solutions that secure enterprise telecom resources from attack and abuse, and simplify the management of enterprise voice networks. SecureLogix technologies are currently protecting and managing over half-a-million phone lines for small-to-large commercial and federal organizations. The company's ETM System has been named "Security Product of the Year" and "Most Outstanding Product of the Year" by Network Computing.
Reader Contact Information
SecureLogix Corporation, 13750 San Pedro, Suite 230, San Antonio, Texas,
78232, 210-402-9669, fax 210-402-6996, info@securelogix.com ,
http://www.securelogix.com/ .

TeleSweep Secure, ETM, SecureLogix, SecureLogix Corporation, and the SecureLogix Diamond Emblems are trademarks or registered trademarks of SecureLogix Corporation in the U.S.A. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are believed to be trademarks of their respective owners.
U.S. Patents No. US 6,249,575 B1, US 6,320,948 B1, US 6,542,421 B2, US 687,353 B1, US 6,700,964 B2, US 6,718,024 B1, US 6,735,291 B1, US 6,760,420 B2, US 879,671 B2 and CA 2,354,149. U.S. and Foreign Patents Pending.
SecureLogix Contact: PR Agency Contact:
David Heard, VP Marketing Bob Robson
210-402-9669 210-820-3070 ext. 100
dheard@securelogix.com bobr@weinkrantz.com

SecureLogix Corporation

CONTACT: David Heard, VP Marketing of SecureLogix Corporation,+1-210-402-9669, or dheard@securelogix.com ; or Bob Robson, +1-210-820-3070,ext. 100, or bobr@weinkrantz.com , for SecureLogix Corporation

Web site: http://www.securelogix.com/

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