infoTECH Feature

October 12, 2011

NSFOCUS: Working to Protect Your Applications

As much as we enjoy the seamless use of our network and websites, there are others out there who would prefer to see the network crash and our valuable data vulnerable to theft. Fortunately, there are companies consistently working on innovations to stop malicious attacks and interruptions and NSFOCUS is right on the frontline.

To get an inside scoop on the latest from this company, TMC’s (News - Alert) Group Editorial Director Erik Linask sat down with J. Christoph Jost, relationships manager at NSFOCUS during ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin, TX. The interview was captured in this video.

FiOS (News - Alert) attacks have increased globally – what’s going on?

“One of the biggest changes we have seen is the size of the attacks, up to 120G per second,” said Jost. “This is kind of the old way of doing things. We’re now seeing application attacks. Bandwidth attacks are easier to deflect, as you can always throw more bandwidth at it. Application attacks target underlying servers and applications, which requires a lot more intelligence and trying to mitigate the effects of those attacks.”

What does that mean in terms of traditional approaches to fight attacks?

The traditional approach has been to purchase a device and put it on the network, according to Jost. This is a capital intensive approach. Now, NSFOCUS is trying to get application protection out to people who may have been out of reach previously.

“At our heart, we are a research company,” said Jost, “so when we come into a new attack form, we try to propagate that out. We work with a lot of firms, and we’re major contributor to stopbadware.org. By having that hard research arm, we have great definitions and great algorithms that can work on attacks. Zero day attacks, by the shape of the earth, first happen in China. So, we see the attacks before they arrive.”

NSFOCUS takes a very focused approach as they believe the market is underserved. “We think we have a different approach and think the market here lends itself to it,” added Jost.

We have the largest bank in the world, the largest telecom in the world and the largest ISP in the world as customers. “As we come into the U.S. market more, we learn about many of the challenges that companies face,” and continue to evolve solutions. 


Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend
ITEXPO East 2012, taking place Feb. 1-3, 2012 in Miami, Fla. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.


Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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