Symbiot, a Texas-based security company, plans to release a corporate defense system that fights back against distributed denial-of-service and hacker attacks by launching counterstrikes. Security experts are expressing alarm at the company’s plans for the product, set for release at month’s end. Mike Erwin, Symbiot’s president, and Paco Nathan, its chief scientist, are preparing for the release by posting a set of “rules of engagement for information warfare” on the company’s Web site. They say such rules should be part of corporate security policy to help companies determine their exact response to an incoming attack. “Until today, security solutions have been totally passive in nature. Merely erecting defensive walls around the perimeter of an enterprise network is not an adequate deterrent,” said Erwin, who asserts that offensive tactics must be part of a complete defense. Symbiot, which is located in Austin, said it bases its theory on the military doctrine of “necessity and proportionality,” which means the response to an attack is proportionate to the attack’s ferocity. According to the company, a response could range from “profiling and blacklisting upstream providers” or it could be escalated to launch a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) “counterstrike.” Full Story
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