Juniper Networks offers to mislead hackers

NEW DELHI: US-based network equipment and services provider Juniper Networks is holding talks with the Indian government and chief information officers of top companies for adopting a deception-based cyber-security system that strengthens defence against malicious online attacks.

Juniper Network's technology allows hackers into an artificial part of the company or government and leads them to dead ends or to false information while keeping the entity and critical information it holds safe.

"It wastes the hackers' time and we can start to track what they are doing in any part of the company, globally, compared to certain cases where other branches are unaware of a breach in one location," said Dan Miller, senior vice-president of the global enterprise division.

The software identifies hackers going beyond their IP address and what they do in high-performance networks like telecom, financial services and government agencies. Miller added that hackers are now companies that breach and sell information and that Juniper will take the global lead to publish information about these hackers in the public domain in February next year.

Miller expects to close some deals with government defence agencies, large banking and financial companies in India, one of its biggest growth markets.

Various state agencies have not been spared from consistent hacking attacks. CERT-In, the national nodal agency that monitors and responds to cyber security incidents, recently said that cyber criminals have had field days in the country as more than 14,000 websites were hacked till October this year, of which 294 belonged to various government agencies.

There has been talk of tightening internet security norms after hackers breached the website of the ruling Congress party and defaced its chief Sonia Gandhi's profile page.