Real-Time Mitigation Of Denial Of Service Attacks Now Available With AT&T Internet Protect

BEDMINSTER, N.J.-- AT&T today announced it can help mitigate the devastating effects of denial of service (DoS) and distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks against enterprise networks by detecting and blocking malicious traffic, while allowing legitimate online transactions to continue.

The company is integrating the new network-based AT&T DDoS Defense option with AT&T Internet Protect, a revolutionary predictive intrusion alerting service introduced in March. Using sophisticated tools to analyze traffic on its global Internet Protocol (IP) network, which handles 1.3 petabytes of data per day, AT&T Internet Protect identifies and proactively notifies customers of potential malicious threats, sometimes weeks in advance, before they become full-fledged cybersecurity attacks.

For example, in the case of the most recent Sasser worm, AT&T Internet Protect identified precursors to the worm several weeks before it was fully launched. AT&T immediately notified AT&T Internet Protect customers of the malicious activity and provided recommendations for remediation through a secure Web portal to help them proactively protect their networks.

With the new DDoS Defense capability, AT&T Internet Protect will integrate real-time attack mitigation, stopping DoS and DDoS attack traffic floods within AT&T's network before they reach the customer.

"We believe that by integrating the predictive and early warning capabilities of AT&T Internet Protect with DDoS Defense, we are delivering the most potent tools against these types of attacks, which have crippled entire networks and brought businesses to a halt," said Eric

Shepcaro, vice president, AT&T application networking and emerging services. "In addition, because we provide these capabilities as fully managed services, customers don't have to make a significant capital outlay to get this protection."

A DoS attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service. Examples include attempts to:

* "Flood" a network, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic attempts;
* Disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing access to a service;
* Prevent a particular individual from accessing a service; or
* Disrupt service to a specific system or person.

DDoS attacks target and compromise a wider range of networks and computers.

According to a 2003 Computer Security Institute/Federal Bureau of Investigation study, enterprises and government agencies cited DoS attacks as the second most expensive computer crime, costing them $65.6 million. The average enterprise loss from a DoS attack was over $1.4 million, the study noted.

The network-based AT&T DDoS Defense option is based on technologies from Cisco Systems and Arbor Networks of Lexington, Mass. It compares enterprise traffic flows to learned profiles of normal traffic patterns, behavior and protocol compliance.

As a result, DDoS Defense can accurately identify attacks in seconds and immediately mitigate a broad range of DoS and DDoS attacks. The mitigation option uses the principles of analysis, filtering, scrubbing and diversion to protect against such attacks. When an attack is detected, suspicious traffic is immediately diverted for scrubbing to remove attack flows without disrupting legitimate transactions.

Available to U.S. customers and U.S.-based multinationals, AT&T DDoS Defense becomes the first mitigation option for AT&T Internet Protect, the company's flagship managed security service designed to arm customers in their ongoing battle against increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks.

"As businesses migrate critical applications and data onto IP networks, the network becomes the natural and most logical frontline defense against cybersecurity attacks. As a result, the network itself becomes a primary security device," Shepcaro added.

More information on AT&T managed security services is available at www.att.com/business.

About AT&T

For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.