100,000+ Challengers; None Claim $100K Hacker Prize.

Business/Technology Editors

BARRINGTON, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2002

One Month After Bodacion Technologies Challenged Hackers, No Decoder Has Cracked HYDRA(R)Internet Server's Complex Security Mathematics or

Crashed Contest Site

More than 100,000 contestants from around the world have tried to crack the security mathematics that make Bodacion Technologies' HYDRA(R) Internet server "hackproof" since the company issued a $100,000 challenge March 1. No one has won the contest nor succeeded in crashing the Web site where entrants register for the competition.

"Our confidence in HYDRA's security algorithm was so high, we bet $100,000 that no one could crack it," said Brad Hessel, Chief Executive Officer of Bodacion Technologies. "Over 30 days and more than 100,000 takers later, and we haven't doled out a dime."

"Our claim that HYDRA is an invulnerable Internet server is stronger than ever," Hessel added.

Hessel and executives from his company issued the "Bodacion Challenge" early last month in front of 1000 representatives from U.S. government agencies and commercial industry who attended the Information Assurance Technical Framework Forum (IATFF), an event sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA). The IATFF serves to increase awareness of available security solutions and allows attendees to establish contacts with other individuals and organizations dealing with similar issues.

During their IATFF presentation, Hessel's team explained how HYDRA uses a biomorphic algorithm to generate series of pattern-less numbers; each figure in a series is called a Bodacion.(R) Biomorphic math is a derivative of Chaos Theory and typically is used to model the random growth of living things.

Because a series of Bodacions is truly random, no two HYDRA users will ever receive the same session ID, customer ID, order ID, etc., nor will any hacker be able to discern a pattern and predict the next number, even if they possess the basic mathematical formula. In addition, HYDRA operates as an embedded system, which makes its operating system inaccessible and therefore unassailable by hackers or viruses.

Contestants in the Bodacion Challenge are issued 999 Bodacions from a series of 1000. To win the $100,000 prize, the decoder must predict correctly the Bodacion that would complete the series. Entrants agree to the terms and conditions of the contest, which include demonstrating the mathematical work used to solve the problem and obtaining permission to use the computing resources of any employer, educational or government organization.

"We expected no one to beat the Bodacion Challenge," said Eric Uner, one of HYDRA's designers and a co-founder of Bodacion Technologies. "We also expected to deflect waves of hacker attacks against the challenge registration site and the company's own network."

No one has successfully crashed the Bodacion Challenge site because the company's Web site resides on a HYDRA, Uner explained. And while the company's network is penetrated daily by hackers, he said all vital data and systems are untouchable because they are protected behind HYDRAs. Even successful "denial of service" assaults -- when hackers paralyze a server with thousands of processing requests -- make little impact on a HYDRA. The server's embedded operating system automatically reboots itself in little more than three seconds after any such onslaught; Uner said this response time virtually eliminates server downtime.

"Our network configuration is an example of how organizations with Web-intensive operations can use HYDRA to assure security and ensure high performance in the face of cyber-terrorism," said Rick Beattie, Bodacion's Senior Executive Vice President of Business Development. "By virtually eliminating interruptions and disruptions from the Internet, companies can accelerate the return on their investments in e-Business."

Beattie added that HYDRA can securely handle the workload of multiple servers, so no firewalls and server appliances -- such as network load balancers, content accelerators or caching devices -- are needed.

Bodacion Technologies will be providing live demonstrations of HYDRA at the Networld+Interop exhibition in Las Vegas May 7-9. The Bodacion Challenge formally ends May 1, 2002; the company will launch another "hacker" contest with a different type of challenge and the same $100,000 prize later this spring. About Bodacion Technologies

Bodacion Technologies, LLC, creates revolutionary server products for Web-intensive enterprises that are seeking secure, reliable, high-performance systems to minimize the Internet's risks and maximize its rewards. The company's flagship product, HYDRA, combines the security of complex encryption mathematics with the reliability of embedded systems to create an invulnerable Internet server that cannot be hacked, will virtually never crash and performs at least eight times better than conventional servers. Based in Barrington, Illinois, Bodacion Technologies' serves an international clientele of government agencies, financial institutions and other e-Business enterprises. For more information, visit www.bodacion.com or contact Rick Beattie, Senior Executive Vice President of Business Development, at 847.842.9008.