Check Point Software Technologies Inc (CHKP)

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Zone Labs Cracks Spyware Prevention Barrier -- New OSFirewall Thwarts Cybercriminals With Behavior-Based PC Protection
Monday July 18, 8:00 am ET
ZoneAlarm 6.0 to Debut a Radical New OSFirewall and Anti-Spyware Solution to Block the Most Dangerous Internet Threats Including Spyware, Rootkits, Viruses, and More From Invading PCs


SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2005-- Zone Labs®, a Check Point® company (Nasdaq:CHKP - News), today announced ZoneAlarm® 6.0, the much-anticipated update to its award-winning Internet security product family. ZoneAlarm 6.0 will offer consumers the most effective multi-layered protection against spyware, viruses and other insidious Internet security threats.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 utilizes a unique new behavior-based strategy to block malware and spyware from ever gaining a foothold on a PC. Rather than intermittently scanning for spyware infections after the damage has been done, ZoneAlarm 6.0 offers the first new defense mechanism, called the OSFirewall(TM), to guard the health of a PC at the core. This kernel-level firewall monitors suspicious activity affecting the operating system, programs and files, and disables destructive programs. To complement the prevention technology, ZoneAlarm 6.0 also employs a new intelligent anti-spyware removal solution as well as DefenseNet(TM), a dynamic zero-hour system leveraging the community of millions of ZoneAlarm users to proactively protect against emerging attacks.

"Unlike the adolescent pranksters of the past, today's cybercriminals are motivated by financial gain and are often highly-organized. They want to steal your identity, track what you do on the Internet, or even hijack your bandwidth to create zombie botnets," said Gregor Freund, chief technology officer of Check Point Software. "And they are using the trust of an unassuming public to dupe people into inviting malware through traditional firewalls and antivirus programs. Current anti-spyware solutions can clean up the mess after the fact, but people now must deploy preventative, proactive measures to protect themselves from these criminals."

Protection at the PC's Core

ZoneAlarm 6.0 continues Zone Lab's legacy of innovation by creating the industry's first OSFirewall, adding a completely new layer of protection to complement the company's powerful network and program firewalls.

The ground-breaking OSFirewall is specifically designed to guard against kernel-level threats such as spyware, hackers, Trojans, keyloggers, and rootkits by closely monitoring internal computing resources like vital files, registry keys and start-up processes at the core of the PC. It goes beyond the user level to inspect activity between computer applications and prevent the reading of memory and loading of malicious drivers and services.

The OSFirewall also achieves a new level of granularity by shielding legitimate programs and preventing program sabotage or hijacking. It not only blocks traditional attacks, the OSFirewall guards against devious programs that may hide within a legitimate download from performing damaging actions that steal personal information or slow computer performance.

The new OSFirewall combined with the existing award-winning firewall technologies create the Zone Labs "Triple Defense Firewall(TM)," a multi-faceted protection system with inbound, outbound and now internal filtering for zero-hour defense and seamless integration -- making ZoneAlarm 6.0 the most effective Internet security solution for everyday consumers.

"The spyware threat is a recent phenomenon that the security market is still struggling with. Much of the focus has been on the development of spyware signature databases, but signatures only treat spyware once it has infected a computer," said Charles Kolodgy, research director at IDC. "The ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite has taken a proactive approach that addresses the spyware threat using several layers of protection through its new OS firewall and outbound traffic blocking capability packaged with antivirus and antispam protection. With Zone Labs monitoring how programs are using the operating system, the rest of the industry will need to evaluate how they are addressing this problem."

New Anti-Spyware Security

Building on the foundation of the Triple Defense Firewall, the new ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware solution is tightly integrated into the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite and ZoneAlarm Pro products to remove existing malware on a PC. It boasts a targeted database of signatures to delete the most pervasive spyware applications on the Internet today. ZoneAlarm's anti-spyware technology also targets particularly invasive adware programs that sap computer performance, interfere with legitimate programs, create new security holes, hijack homepages, deluge users with pop-up ads, and track personal Web usage and private information.

ZoneAlarm 6.0 Anti-Spyware and the OSFirewall together provide automatic prevention, detection and treatment capabilities making it the most effective integrated solution on the market -- right out of the box.

SmartDefense

The SmartDefense service utilizes the expertise of Check Point and Zone Labs' security research departments and leverages DefenseNet -- a community of front-line users -- to provide real-time alerts and actionable information on the latest threats. At work for over a year, DefenseNet enables millions of active users to share security knowledge and provide instant feedback to help Zone Labs' security experts discover new malware programs.

Through the SmartDefense process, over 95% of policy decisions are automated -- significantly reducing the amount of "noise" and sparing the end user from having to constantly manually accept or deny application activities.

Once a threat has been identified and validated, Zone Labs in turn sends customized policies back to the users through a SmartDefense Advisor service for proactive protection. In addition, SmartDefense Advisor provides ZoneAlarm users with periodic distribution of anti-virus, anti-spyware and product updates. The SmartDefense service is included with all licenses of ZoneAlarm.

Building on the Basics

Over 35 million Internet users have downloaded the original ZoneAlarm firewall and its premium versions since the company's launch in 1998. Now, the ZoneAlarm family includes the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite (for all-in-one protection including anti-spyware, antivirus, antispam, IM protection and more), ZoneAlarm Pro (a firewall for users seeking advanced functionality), ZoneAlarm Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm Wireless. ZoneAlarm Internet security solutions have received the industry's highest accolades, and with the added security features in ZoneAlarm 6.0, the company has extended its commitment to delivering the most advanced Internet security available to consumers.

Pricing and Availability

ZoneAlarm Security Suite, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus and ZoneAlarm will be available on Monday, July 25th, on the Zone Labs web site at www.zonelabs.com. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite costs $69.95 for a single user, ZoneAlarm Pro 6.0 costs $49.95 for a single user and ZoneAlarm with Antivirus costs $29.95 for a single user. Existing customers can update to version 6.0 for free if their subscription is current, and will receive a notification within two weeks of availability. ZoneAlarm continues to be free for personal and non-profit use.

The ZoneAlarm family of products supports Windows® 98SE, ME, 2000 Pro and XP.


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