Teros Module Protects Social Security Numbers

Teros, formerly Stratum8 Networks, plans to release at this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco a new module for its Web application security appliance that safeguards social security numbers.

The SafeIdentity module prevents theft of social security numbers from Web-based applications, alerts administrators of any attempts to steal the numbers, and logs details of attempts, Teros executives said.

The module runs on the Teros-100 Application Protection System (APS), a 1U rack-mounted device that filters incoming and outgoing traffic and blocks or flags activity that does not fit acceptable use of a Web application.

SafeIdentity provides protection that firewalls and intrusion-detection systems can't, said Bob Walters, president and CEO of Teros, based here.

"There's no way a firewall [can] even understand what a credit card number is, let alone identify that number in a stream and provide explicit protection for it," Walters said.

Securing social security numbers is increasingly critical in light of legislation that restricts use of the numbers and their disclosure on the Internet, Walters added.

Jim Wallworth, president of Apollo Information Systems, a Los Gatos, Calif.-based solution provider, said he sees a strong market for SafeIdentity, particularly in the higher-education, health-care and financial sectors.

In February, Teros released SafeCommerce, a module to protect credit cards. Both modules are free of charge with the purchase of the Teros-100 APS, which is priced starting at $25,000.