StreamShield Predicts the End of the Phishing Season

London, January 20, 2005 – StreamShield Networks?” – the leader in real-time, high performance Internet content security solutions – today predicts that the multi-million pound fraud phenomenon known as phishing could soon be out of season. Its Content Security Gateway (CSG) provides ISPs with the unique ability to prevent phishing attacks within their networks.

Phishing is the latest and most damaging fraud perpetrated by organised crime within the Internet. It operates by sending consumers and businesses bogus emails asking them to log into a fake website and enter their account details, enabling fraudsters to steal at will, making phishing a multi-billion dollar problem globally.

Andrew Radley, Senior Product Manager at StreamShield Networks, explains; “Phishing is the equivalent of being mugged by your own computer. The phenomenon is a prime example of the pace of change of Internet technologies far outstripping the consumer’s ability to protect themselves whilst online. We firmly believe that the best place to stop Internet threats is in the Internet itself – our technology enables ISPs to do just that. Banks still have a major role to play; they must ensure that their clients are truly protected by demanding they use ISPs that can provide network/Internet-based protection.”

With the vast majority of Internet users voicing concern over the theft of their online identity, confidence in conducting sensitive transactions has been rapidly eroded. Research from the banking industry association APACS shows that more than 25% of the UK’s 14 million users have inadequate virus protection, and 41% have no firewall.

“As phishing attacks become more sophisticated it is clear that the best way of beating fraudsters is to work together whether it is giving advice, sharing best practice or developing technological solutions” explains Tom Salmond, APACS Payment Markets & E-Commerce.

The StreamShield CSG is a network-based hardware product that can identify and block dangerous content prior to it reaching the consumer. The CSG incorporates revolutionary silicon-based scanning technology, called StreamScan?”, that can monitor 5,000 emails a second and 250,000 web page requests a second for phishing scams and other threats.

The CSG incorporates multiple anti-phishing techniques including statistical analysis of email content, blocking access to bogus websites and digital finger printing of messages to identify fraudulent content.

Andrew Radley concludes, “The banks and the ISPs have a tremendous opportunity to bring about the end of phishing. This will rebuild confidence in the crucial market of online transactions without having to embrace difficult, cumbersome and costly security measures.”

About StreamShield Networks
StreamShield Networks is the leader in real-time, high performance Internet content security solutions.

The company’s products and services identify and block threats – such as viruses, worms, other forms of malware, spam, pornography and inappropriate content – in the Internet before the content reaches any users and harms their computer systems.

The company enables service providers, carriers and mobile operators to offer clean and safe Internet services to their residential and business customers which can be tailored to their own individual preferences and requirements.

StreamShield overcomes the performance and scalability limitations of current software and network appliance technologies (which are designed for customer premises rather than deployment in the Internet) through a unique, patent-pending silicon-accelerated content security engine called StreamScan?”. Based on a massively parallel architecture, StreamScan can monitor network traffic and check for multiple threats simultaneously in real-time at multi-gigabit speeds regardless of protocol or application.