Lockstep repairs hacked Web sites with WebAgain

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO68450,00.html

By SAM COSTELLO
IDG NEWS SERVICE 
February 19, 2002

Lockstep Systems Inc. Tuesday announced a new version of its WebAgain
automated Web site repair software, adding detection and removal of
trojan horses and backdoor programs, better support for virtual
private networks (VPN), expanded protocol support and international
language editions.

WebAgain allows Web sites that are compromised or modified by
attackers to automatically be restored to their proper state,
according to Mark Dixon, vice president of business development at
Lockstep. The software does this by sitting on a server placed between
Web designers and the Web servers they publish their work to, he said.  
Instead of publishing Web site changes to a test or production server,
developers publish their changes to the WebAgain server, which
immediately makes an archive of the site and then publishes the
changes to the proper server, Dixon said.

The WebAgain server can then monitor the publicly available Web site
for changes and if it finds any, return them to the state saved on the
server, Dixon explained, adding that the changed content is also saved
for law enforcement or research purposes. Monitoring can be done with
varying degrees of thoroughness every minute, hour or a few times a
day, depending on a user's needs.

WebAgain Version 2.5 boosts the capabilities of the software by adding
the ability to detect the unauthorized addition of files to a Web
server. It also adds support for VPN, file transfer protocol and Front
Page extensions.

The software is also available in Japanese, with future international
versions to follow, Dixon said.

WebAgain is "a very smart product," said Ken Pappas, president of Opal
One, a Tyngsborough, Mass.-based analyst firm. The product can do what
Lockstep claims it can, and does it well, he said.

Pappas said the product could have mass appeal to business, and should
be especially popular with online retailers, companies with online
catalogs and financial services firms. The automatic repair feature
will be particularly compelling due to the time and money it will
save, he said.

"If you don't need to put an IT guy on a particular problem, then
you're ahead of the game," he said.

Despite his praise for the product, Pappas said he would like Lockstep
to add to WebAgain support for more platforms and the ability to
monitor servers located on a network separate from the WebAgain
server.

Nevertheless, "I think it's a legitimate product," he said.

WebAgain runs on Windows NT, 2000 and XP. A license costs $995, with
each Web site -- or site subsection, as defined by where a Web
designer has to log on to a new site -- requiring a separate license.  
The software is immediately available worldwide.



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