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MWEB offers increased protection from bandwidth theft


Johannesburg, 28 Feb 2007

While crime continues to plague South African consumers and businesses, those with ADSL Internet access face yet another potential threat - that of bandwidth theft.

Those small businesses and home users who have fallen victim to this crime find their data cap being used up by criminals, which means they then have to purchase additional bandwidth in order to continue accessing e-mail or the Internet.

Gary Hart, GM of Products and Marketing at MWEB Business said: "We are aware that the scourge of bandwidth theft is increasing and are constantly educating our members and customers about how to prevent it. Furthermore, to help combat bandwidth theft, MWEB has developed a service which allows users to increase their security even further."

Called ADSL Protected Access, the service, which resides on the SAIX network, works by blocking unsolicited incoming connections on four vulnerable ports on an ADSL router. These four ports are most often exploited by criminals targeting victims for bandwidth theft.

Customers are able to choose whether to enable this service or not, but if it is enabled, criminals will find it much harder to gain access and steal bandwidth from these protected routers.

Hart said while ADSL Protected Access does not affect normal incoming and outgoing traffic, it will block the most common vulnerable spots on routers that are used by criminals to gain access to users' accounts and thereby steal bandwidth.

"While most big corporates have firewalls which prevent unsolicited access to their Internet connections, small businesses and home users generally don't, and are therefore more vulnerable. Protected Access will not affect existing anti-virus programs, incoming or outgoing e-mails, or the ability to view Web pages. It also won't affect existing proxy settings or VPN connections."

MWEB has elected to disable the Protected Access service for all business customers by default, but will recommend that customers enable it wherever appropriate. MWEB Home will activate the service for all new ADSL customers and recommend to existing home customers that they protect their connection by activating the Protected Access service.

"The Protected Access service is a free, value-added service to MWEB customers," said Hart. "It is not a program, so it doesn't have to be downloaded and installed; it simply needs to be activated in MWEB's 'My ADSL Account' section.

"We would still recommend to our customers that they use reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, as well as change the default settings (including the username and password) on their routers. Together with the Protected Access service, this helps to make an ADSL connection as secure as it can be," concludes Hart.

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MWEB Business

Founded in January 1998 as the business division of MWEB, MWEB Business provides comprehensive solutions in areas of Internet services, application services, content services, Web development, e-commerce, e-procurement and consultancy to businesses.

We are dedicated to helping our business clients leverage the power of the Internet by providing a comprehensive solution for all their Internet needs along with the expertise and skills to successfully implement their ventures online.

MWEB Business has e-commerce enabled more than 320 businesses and provided Internet services to more than 75 000 business clients, including Pick 'n Pay, Makro, Netflorist, Incredible Connection, The Pro Shop and many more.

Editorial contacts

Catherine McCormack
MWeb Business
(011) 340 7010
cmccormack@mweb.com