IBM Watson Research - Global Security Analysis Lab

The Watson GSAL works closely with the IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Services' managed security services and IBM Consulting's Security and Privacy Services Group, providing technical expertise as well as security tools for these IBM service organizations. Members of the GSAL also interact with various product divisions, providing security advice for both software and hardware products.

Primary Projects:

• Blackthumb

  Blackthumb is a tool currently under development that will test systems for denial of service (DoS) vulnerabilities. The purpose of the tool is to allow product developers to easily test the robustness of the product early in the development cycle, and continuing through the developmental lifetime of the product.

• HAXOR

  HAXOR is an intrusion detection system (IDS). HAXOR will be a part of Tivoli's Risk Manager product.

• Java® Security

  A Java virtual machine has been modified to use operating system and hardware support to separate Java classes, transparently to the Java classes themselves.

• NSA

  NSA is a network scanning tool that scans systems, identifies the servers running on them, and checks for known security vulnerabilities. NSA is actively used internally throughout IBM, is used by IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Services' managed security services and the IBM Consulting Security and Privacy Services Group.

• Postfix

  Postfix is an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server that is a drop in replacement for "sendmail". It was designed with system security and performance as primary concerns. Postfix is being made available for free, in source code form, by IBM in the hope that it will become widely adopted. Postfix is also distributed from IBM Alphaworks as the "IBM Secure Mailer".

• WSA - Wireless Security Auditor

  WSA is a wireless security auditing tool that identifies wireless access points and detects security policy violations by observing traffic between the access point and its clients. See the WSA page for more information.

Members of the GSAL have also been, or are involved in other projects including:

• IBM's AES submission MARS, which was one of the 5 finalists to replace the existing data encryption standard (DES).

• IBM's key recovery technology (SKR).

• IBM's Secure Screening Solution, a system for providing secure distribution of pre-release movies or production video on DVD.

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Contact:

gsal@watson.ibm.com