Israel is a tiny country, but it sure produces lots of security product
vendors.
Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd. and RadGuard, Inc. are among the more successful security firms in Israel, and now AbirNet, Inc. is looking to join this august lineup.
In April, AbirNet shipped its first product, Session-Wall-3. The software monitors network traffic behind the firewall to prevent unauthorized Internet access and to deter hacker break-in attempts.
While it's hard for a start- up to get a foothold in the security arena - buyers aren't usually eager to be security product guinea pigs - the feedback from early adopters suggests AbirNet has a fighting chance with SessionWall-3.
"I have it on a Windows 95 workstation connected to a LAN," says John Brother-ton, network administrator at Flight Safety International, Inc., a pilot training and aircraft maintenance firm. "I use it to keep an open window on what our people are doing. We want to know if they're spending all their time playing on the Internet or looking at pornography."
A network sniffer, SessionWall-3 creates a URL audit based on IP address. Plus, it keeps tabs on the Web pages employees have looked at or e-mail they've sent. It also does virus detection and can block Java or ActiveX applets.
Brotherton says he tested similar products from other vendors but chose the AbirNet security software because it was easier to install and use, and it was not expensive, at $1,300.
AbirNet was founded in late 1996, with product labs in Yoqneam, Israel, and marketing headquarters in Grapevine, Texas, just outside of Dallas. The company was formed by Ziv Dascalu, an Israeli, and Kurt Zeigler Jr., a naturalized American who came to the U.S. from Austria as a child.
The two got to know each other while working at NetManage, Inc. - Zeigler as vice president of marketing and Dascalu as lead technical developer. They decided to launch AbirNet to offer network security products conceived by Dascalu.
Zeigler acknowledges that AbirNet's current version of SessionWall-3 is somewhat low-end in its functionality and expects the company in the coming year will have higher end products that do more detailed reporting with remote management.
And just why is Israel the home of so many security vendors? "It has to do with the country being under attack for so many years," Zeigler says. "Almost every Israeli has done time in the military, and they get a lot of security training there."
