When is a new computer technology like a riddle wrapped in a mystery
inside an enigma?
When it's a new PC add-in board that's currently being manufactured
in small, pre-production quantities in — of all places —
Kiev, Ukraine.
I've heard rumors of this experimental development project for months.
Now I've finally tracked down enough confirmed information to reveal
it in print for the first time.
A PC Add-In That Does Windows
Imagine a simple circuit board that fits into a PCI slot of any machine
running Windows or Linux and offers the following benefits:
• Virus protection.
The board reportedly stops all virus-type activity from occurring,
without requiring "signature" files that must constantly be updated;
• Intrusion protection.
Attempts by malicious hackers to break into a PC or plant "Trojan horse"
software are automatically defeated.
• Outbound malware exclusion.
The board can supposedly even detect and prevent attempts by rogue
software to launch denial-of-service and other kinds of attacks from
one PC against others on the Internet.
My first reaction upon hearing all this was, "How could you run
an everyday, innocent application on such a PC without being stopped
by the security mechanisms in this thing?"
I can't tell you the answer for sure. There appear to be only a
handful of these boards in existence and the company that developed
the technology won't provide me with one to test. Executives of the firm,
however, say a user's normal work on a PC wouldn't be impaired —
only malicious actions would be.
An Invention So Secure You Can't Figure It Out
The business entity behind this ambitious activity is called the Laboratory
of Security Technologies (LST). It was co-founded by Aleksey Shevchenko, a
Ukrainian inventor.
I first became aware of this company's claims when it ran a contest
on its Web site last August. A cash reward was offered to anyone who could
remotely break into a PC that had the add-in board installed but
was otherwise unprotected. No one could, apparently, but the firm's Web site,
LSTec.com, is a little short of details
on this.
When I heard that Shevchenko was visiting the United States recently to meet
with potential investors, I decided that this was worth investigating further.
Technology In Search of an Angel
I called Kiev and reached LST co-founder and board member Paul Waters.
He describes himself as an American citizen who was a real estate agent
in northern California before moving to Ukraine in 1991.
Waters' phone manners are impeccable, and he was quite open to my questions.
(The exception was that he repeatedly declined to allow me to review one of
the company's circuit boards.) The hacker contest, he said, had in fact
attracted between 600 and 700 break-in attempts from around the world. Only
16 of them were truly serious, in the company's opinion, but even those got
nowhere.
"There's an incredibly simple principle that this is based on," Waters
says. "If you saw it, you'd go, 'Ah-ha!' "
He reiterated the company's claims that the add-in board could repel
hacker and virus attacks without continual updating. "There's no need
to update it every day or ever. I know it's hard to accept, but it's true."
Waters says the company is firming up its intellectual property rights
while it seeks investments of $1 million in return for a 4% to 5% stake.
"For an investor or someone who's willing to sign an NDA
(Non-Disclosure Agreement), we can be very open," he adds.
Conclusion
I'm not a venture capitalist, but if I were, a measly million bucks would
seem to be a cheap price to pay for a peek at this gizmo. If it can do half
of what the company claims, a lot of corporate CIOs I know would
be installing these boards in a New York minute for the low-maintenance
security they promise.
In case you find the LST Web site to be a little obtuse, Waters encourages
people to e-mail him at "paul at lrpeople dot com". (I'm spelling out the
punctuation marks here to protect his address from being harvested by spammers.)
This technology feels to me like it's either a great big breakthrough or a
great big nothing. I hope one of my readers buys a seat at the table and
then tells me all about it.
When is a new computer technology like a riddle wrapped in a mystery
inside an enigma?
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