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Hewlett-Packard has released software it promises will "throttle" the activity of viruses in corporate networks.
The company's Virus Throttle software helps businesses detect, contain and slow the rate at which an attack spreads inside the core of the IT infrastructure. Originally developed in HP's Labs, the software is designed for use on the company's ProLiant servers in a special pack, and for ProCurve Networking by HP 5300 switches.
HP Labs, the company's central research facility, has also begun collaborating with two partners to test damage-containment security software designed to prevent certain viruses from corrupting entire systems. Called the HP Security Containment suite, it helps applications compromised by an attack deter unauthorized access to other applications or files. It is now available for the HP-UX 11i v2 operating system.
"If IT systems were intelligent enough to automatically detect and shut down attacks before they spread, administrators would spend less time and money trying to catch up," HP Security Office chief technology officer Tony Redmond said in a statement.
HP Virus Throttle software is a non-traditional approach to virus protection. While traditional anti-virus products rely on existing virus "signatures" provided by third parties, which are ineffective against new viruses.
Virus Throttle, however, detects abnormal, virus-like behaviour and slows down the number of different connections an infected machine can make until an administrator can determine whether the problem is viral in nature and take further action.
According the way it works, abnormal activity is the type that is typically exhibited by a worm or virus attempting to propagate itself within a network. The faster a virus tries to spread itself, the faster Virus Throttle reacts — and it reacts automatically, typically in milliseconds, without waiting for human attention.
Virus Throttle is designed to run without interference to normal system or networking operation and affects the viral process while all normal traffic continues. Once a worm or virus is detected, Virus Throttle inhibits it from making network connections and thus chokes off its ability to propagate.
Virus Throttle flags the presence of the worm or virus to the system administrator, who can then take the appropriate action to remove it from the system.
The software is available on an enhanced ProLiant Essentials Intelligent Networking Pack. With an street price of $149 (U.S.) the ProLiant Essentials Intelligent Networking Pack also includes advanced teaming features for improved network performance and availability.
HP also announced that HP Labs is developing software that provides a similar product for Windows XP users. The company is working to configure applications so they automatically launch in a restricted environment and have only the permissions they need to perform their primary purposes — the applications are given the least authority they need to operate and are prevented from accessing files they don't need.
HP researchers say that early results show that the software effectively limits the damage an infected application can do. The company is conducting trials of the new software as part of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Project within the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and with the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Centre.
 News source: GlobeTechnology
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