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The Fort of Deliverance

This is a firewall combined with an application server, allowing the same machine to serve both to protect your internal network from intruders, and also offer services such as mail, a web site and so forth.

It is designed so that if an intruder does manage to enter the system through the Internet, it cannot be used as a stepping stone to enter your internal network. It uses a specially modified Linux kernel, allowing things such as web servers to run normally, but restricting activities that might be dangerous.

The current Linux worms that are running about could cause little or no disruption on this system, even without applying the available patches to fix these holes, as daemons such as web servers cannot modify system files, and cannot create executable files on the system.

Find out more

What is a firewall and why do I need one?

Is your organisation connected to the Internet, or considering setting up a permanent connection? Getting connected can be like moving from the country to an inner city address. Yes, you get more business, but you may also get more trouble, and you wouldn't consider doing it without proper security.

...Viruses......Trojan Horses......Theft of Secrets......Data Loss...

Yes, whilst the Internet and e-commerce can bring more customers to your door, it can also bring in a lot of undesirables. With many computer systems it is trivial to gain access, steal secrets and even modify or destroy data. Imagine the impact on your business if someone started tampering with your account data.

Ok, now for some good news!

There is a solution to this problem: install a firewall - a system that sits between you and the Internet, to keep intruders out. But that's only half the solution. If your store has a 20 foot brick wall around it, it may be secure, but nobody can buy anything! You may need to offer a web site, handle email and so forth.

A popular way of handling this is to have a machine outside the firewall, or in a partially protected network zone, which handles these things. It takes requests, mail and so forth from the bad Internet, and forwards them into your internal network where necessary. The idea is that this machine will be secure and make sure no harmful attacks are forwarded inside. The problem is, not only can this be costly to set up, if intruders manage to get into this machine and take control of it, they might find a way into your network. This is not a rare occurrence.

So what's so good about this one?

Low-cost
The Fort of Deliverance is aimed at small to medium-size businesses, who need protection, but also must keep their costs down. It is an inexpensive firewall, designed to run on a low-end PC. (Wondering what to do with that outdated PC you have lying around? Now you know!) But not only can it perform the functions of a firewall, it can also run external services such as a mail server, web server and so forth.

Highly secure
But best of all, if an intruder manages to take control of the machine, the person doesn't really gain anything, because the system is specially designed to disallow unfriendly activities, while still allowing external services to be provided. A lot of research has been done to make sure that these controls can't be subverted by an external hacker.

For example, the firewall is not allowed to connect to anything in the internal network. Ever. Any data that needs to be sent to the internal network must be requested from inside. Special servers are provided to easily do this where necessary. This means that an intruder cannot start trying to break into your internal network from the firewall.

Built on reliable technology
The firewall is based on RedHat Linux 6.2, a system which has been used successfully by an immense number of people. In fact, the product comes with an installer that allows an existing RedHat system to be converted into a firewall!

How can you run normal programs, but not let intruders break things?

Actually, legitimate server programs are generally pretty boring once they get going. They read a file here and there, talk to other servers, reply to requests and generally mind their own business. They usually don't do things that hackers want to do, like:

So it is quite feasible for a system to allow external services to run, but stop attackers wreaking havoc.

Technical Specifications

Required Hardware Pentium 100 or better, with 32MB memory, 300MB disk
Operating System Linux, based on Red Hat 6.2 / 7.0, with specially modified kernel.

How does it work?

Watch out for our technical paper with more detailed information here!

When is it available?

The product is due to be released very shortly, though an exact release date has not yet been determined. Do you want to be notified when it becomes available or a release date has been fixed? Click here to find out more about our announcement mailing list.

For comments or problems, please mail webmaster@datadeliverance.com
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Last modified: Fri Apr 20 17:39:16 CST 2001