Tally Systems ID's Suspicious Hacker/Cracker Software; Patented Census Recognition Technology Automatically ID's Notorious Cracking Tools.

Business/Technology Editors

LEBANON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2001

With a new virus or hacker threat popping up virtually every week, IT managers are growing more aware of the threat posed by insiders who abuse their rights and privileges to gain unauthorized access to data and wreak havoc on computer networks. The 1999 Computer Security Institute/FBI report notes that 55% of respondents reported malicious activity by insiders, while the 2001 survey reported 91% detected employee abuse of Internet access privileges.

In an effort to help organizations ferret out potentially malicious insiders, Tally Systems today announced the release of over 400 new "fingerprints" for its Census line of PC inventory and auditing software. The new recognition update for TS.Census, WebCensus, QuickCensus and PowerCensus will automatically detect software commonly used by crackers and hackers to gain illicit access to networks, author viruses, and perpetrate other mischief, such as cracking user passwords and conducting denial-of-service attacks. The new fingerprints include recognition for such notorious hacker tools as Back Orifice, L0phtcrack, WinNuker, and VBS Worms Generator (used to create the Anna Kournikova virus).

"Whether we like it or not, cyber crime presents the most fundamental challenge for law enforcement in the 21st Century," said Michael A. Vatis, the FBI's director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, in testimony to Congress. "By its very nature, the cyber environment is borderless, affords easy anonymity and methods of concealment to bad actors, and provides new tools to engage in criminal activity.... While remote cracking once required a fair amount of skill or computer knowledge, hackers can now download attack scripts and protocols from the World Wide Web and launch them against victim sites. Thus while attack tools have become more sophisticated, they have also become easier to use."

"The (CSI/FBI) survey results over the years offer compelling evidence that neither technologies nor policies alone really offer an effective defense for your organization," says Patrice Rapalus, CSI Director. "Intrusions take place despite the presence of firewalls. Theft of trade secrets takes place despite the presence of encryption. Net abuse flourishes despite corporate edicts against it. Organizations that want to survive in the coming years need to develop a comprehensive approach to information security, embracing both the human and technical dimensions."

Employers can also be liable for illegal activity by insiders, and damage can often run in the millions of dollars. As part of his guilty plea, Melissa virus author David L. Smith stipulated to affecting one million computer systems and causing $80 million in damage, according to the FBI.

Hacker/cracker tools identified by Tally Systems Census products will be classified as "Suspicious," and include all types of mischievous software, such as audioware, bombers, breachers, cloakers, crackers, crypters, IRC, key loggers, nukers, PDA, phreakers, pranksters, scanners, sniffers, spoofers, trojans and virus makers.

Popular suspicious use/hacking tools now identified by Census recognition include:

Back Orifice - trojan               KaBoom! - bomber
BO FREEZE - trojan                  Legion - cracker
Brutus AET - cracker                L0phtcrack - cracker
Cain - cracker                      Mutilate - nuker
Cracker Jack - cracker              NetBus - trojan
Death n Destruction - bomber        Pinger - scanner
Dr. Spewfy - spoofer                PortScan - scanner
GirlFriend - trojan                 SubSeven - trojan
Jill - cracker                      WinNuker - nuker
John the Ripper - cracker           VBS Worms Generator - virus maker

"Identifying dangerous applications is an important function of auto-discovery software," says Alex Puksta, Product Recognition manager at Tally Systems. "By detecting these potentially malicious applications quickly and early, Tally Systems' Census recognition can hopefully act as an effective preventive measure against these sorts of threats."

About Tally Systems

Since 1990, Tally Systems has delivered innovative IT asset management solutions to power critical IT projects. Tally Systems pioneered automated PC inventory over ten years ago, and continues to draw on its unmatched Census Recognition Technology(R) to develop best-of-breed applications, services and integrations. Tally Systems' products - including TS.Census, WebCensus, QuickCensus, PowerCensus and TS.Ready - are currently licensed on over 9,000,000 PCs at more than 12,000 client sites worldwide. Visit Tally Systems on the web at: http://www.tallysystems.com