TippingPoint Latest Vendor To Integrate Denial Of Service Protection

The new DoS capabilities will block a variety of DoS threats, including SYN flood attacks, connection floods, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, packet floods, and hard-to-detect attacks originating from spoofed and non-spoofed sources.

Tipping Point is the latest vendor to add DoS protection to it's intrusion prevention product. A number of security vendors have already integrated DoS protection, including SilverBack Technologies. Juniper Networks is expected to follow the trend with a new endpoint security solution next week.

Tipping Point CEO Marc Willebeek-LeMair said the expanded benefits mean that solution providers that formerly used products from other vendors to help customers defeat DoS attacks can now rely on an integrated TippingPoint solution for total perimeter security protection.

"Customers are constantly saying they want fewer products from fewer vendors," he said. "This is our way of eliminating another need for using anything but UnityOne."

Specifically, Willebeek-LeMair said that the new DoS protection will be driven by an adaptive tuning capability that dynamically calibrates thresholds based on an organization's traffic patterns.

The system automatically defines values for "normal" traffic based on studies of a network over a period of time. When traffic surges beyond a set percentage of this measure, the anomaly protection capabilities respond to the changes and take action.

One TippingPoint solution provider noted that the company's policy-oriented approach is what sets it apart from competitors such as Radware, TopLayer and Juniper.

John Brayman, network consultant at Xiologix, Bellevue, Wash., said the new capabilities should vastly improve his ability to guarantee customers safety from DoS and DDoS attacks.

"What's cool about UnityOne is that it can handle high levels of attacks, higher than any of the other vendors," Brayman said. "TippingPoint's solution is policy based " not signature based, and their approach is unique in the industry."

In related news, TippingPoint Monday also posted a net loss of $3.2 million on revenue of $6.7 million for its 2004 second quarter ended July 31. The revenue figure was up 72 percent from the $3.9 million in revenue that the firm reported for the first quarter of this year.

Included in the net loss were $727,000, $88,000 and $835,000 of stock-based compensation for the second quarter 2004, second quarter 2003, and first quarter 2004, respectively.

Willebeek-LeMair said he expects revenues for the third quarter to be upwards of $8.0 million.

TippingPoint's new DoS protection capabilities were expected to be available to channel partners as an optional feature starting Oct. 1.