Public Relations

A New Approach to Anti-Malware by Sanitizing All Files

- Targeting Critical Infrastructure Sector with Stringent Security Requirements -

January 28, 2015
Asgent, Inc.
(JASDAQ: 4288)

Asgent, Inc. (President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in network security and operations management solutions, announces the start of sales for Secure Data Sanitization (SDS), an anti-malware solution developed by VOTIRO, Inc. (CEO and Co-Founder: Itay Glick, located in Israel) for critical infrastructure such as roads, railways, the water supply etc.

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in view as a national project, strengthening of security measures for the critical social infrastructure sector that includes power and water suppliers, transportation, medical and administrative services, which are in turn having increased levels of ICT utilization, is being positioned as one of the most critical topics facing the nation.

On the other hand, threats from spear-phishing attacks against corporations and public facilities are increasing and the attacks methods being utilized are becoming more sophisticated day by day. Many of these attacks use craftily spoofed e-mails to gain a foothold in the organization, whereupon the attackers use e-mail attachments and leading victims to malicious websites in order to infect the organizations$B!G(B network with malware. Once the network is infected, the malware in turn uses that malware as a foothold to hide from view, spread out across the network, gather information on the network itself and wait for a chance to fulfill its objective, which is to extract confidential information. In addition, having completed its objective, there are many cases where the malware will delete any trace of it having been in the network, resulting in many cases where the system administrator may not even notice that they have been attacked. Therefore, it is not uncommon for organizations to first become aware of these attacks and the resulting damage following being informed by outside sources or cases even exist where information was being leaked for a long period of time, such as more than a year.
Also, it is often common to find malware that performs these types of attacks being released as $B!H(Btool kits$B!I(B on the internet, which attackers can easily get hold of and customize.

In these circumstances, it must be said that it is difficult for traditional malware detection and removal solutions such as anti-virus that use $B!H(Bpattern matching$B!I(B to handle the infinitely increasing number of subspecies of virus and unknown (zero-day) malware. Also, even while malware solutions such as sandbox solutions, which are increasingly being used and which are used in a complementary position, are able to $B!H(Bdetermine$B!I(B and $B!H(Bdetect$B!I(B malware by confirming the actions taken by suspicious files in a virtual environment, it is a fact that other measures are required to actually $B!H(Bhandle$B!I(B the discovered malware.

With this background in mind, Asgent announces the start of sales for VOTIRO Secure Data Sanitization, a completely new approach to dealing with sophisticated malware. SDS is an anti-malware solution that sanitizes all files on the premise that there is a $B!H(Bpossibility$B!I(B that the file may contain malware. Generally, exploits (scripts or programs that utilize vulnerabilities) and malware tend to hide in the metadata, empty bit space and macros within files. SDS checks this data and either removes data portions unnecessary for the file to run correctly or replaces that data with random data, in turn removing the file uses for the attack. This enables unknown attacks that do not have published signatures available to be prevented.

Also, in order to protect itself from attacks, SDS is based on a read-only secure OS that is booted from a DVD-ROM.

SDS is being deployed overseas, primarily in the Israeli market, in government agencies, power stations, aerospace and financial institutions, all of which have stringent security requirements. In addition, SDS received the $B!H(BInfo Security Products Guide* Awards 2014$B!I(B Global Excellence award for $B!H(BInnovation in Next Generation Security$B!I(B.

Asgent will initially release the $B!H(BSecure Data Sanitization for E-mail$B!I(B solution that operates with Microsoft Exchange to automatically sanitize attachments on external e-mails, and the $B!H(BSecure Data Sanitization Automatic Engine$B!I(B solution for sanitizing files on file servers. Asgent also intends to introduce other solutions in time, such as a solution to sanitize web access from inside the organization by operating with a web proxy system etc.

Sales of SDS will begin on February 1^st, targeting the critical infrastructure sector, which has strict security requirements, and with a sales target of 500 Million Yen over 3 years.

* Info Security Products Guide: US trade magazine that provides information security related survey and evaluation information

$B!Z(BVOTIRO Secure Data Sanitization$B![(B

Vendor:

VOTIRO, Inc. $B!!(BCEO and Co-Founder: Itay Glick

Location:

Israel

Start of Sales:

February 1^st, 2015$B!A(B

Lineup and List Price (tax excl.):

$B!&(BSecure Data Sanitization for E-mail (operates with Exchange)
(500 users) \5,320,000$B!A(B

$B!&(BSecure Data Sanitization Automatic Engine (operates with file/FTP servers)
(1Core) \3,176,000$B!A(B

Product Features:

$B!&(BPrevents unknown malware through sanitization

$B!&(BBlocks targeted attacks
Prevents malware intrusion through targeted attacks by sanitizing all files.

$B!&(BSupports various file types
Sanitizes Microsoft Office files, PDF, image files (BMP, GIF, PNG, JPG etc.), E-mail files (including attachments), archived files (ZIP, CAB etc.) etc.

$B!&(BSDS protects itself using read-only dedicated OS
Utilizing a secure OS that boots from a DVD-ROM, SDS protects itself from threat of attacks.

$B!&(BMultiple anti-virus engines
Uses anti-virus engines to block malware that can be stopped by signatures.

$B!&(BFlexible Deployment
Supports both on premise and cloud environments.

$B!Z(BSecure Data Sanitization for E-mail Flow$B![(B

$B-!(B When the MS Exchange Edge Server (Edge Server) receives an e-mail, the Connector (provided by VOTIRO) installed within it automatically hands the e-mail off to Secure Data Sanitization for E-mail (SDS).

$B-"(B SDS sanitizes the e-mail and returns it to the Edge Server. Simultaneously, it stores the original e-mail on the Flow Server $B!J-"!G!K(B.

$B-#(B The Edge Server sends the sanitized e-mail to the recipient through the MS Exchange Server.

* All company names or product names are registered trademarks of their respective companies.