I remember the sidewinder. They had a huge marketing campaign aimed at convincing the customer that their firewalls were inpenetrable. Their firewalls didn't sell all that well, and those that did sell, proved to be a colossal failure. I still have a deck of 'sidewinder' playing cards from COMDEX. (Sorry for being off topic, just thought that was funny and brought back some nostalgia) Greg Sean Donelan wrote:
On Wed, 10 Mar 2004, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
In message <0aa101c40707$eebc2650$dbc21e43@Somi>, "Joshua Brady" writes:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39148215,00.htm
Comments?
The phrase "seriously bad idea" comes to mind. Other phrases include "illegal", "collateral damage", and "stupid".
Any publicity is good publicity.
They haven't actually explained or shown what their product does. Just a bunch of puffery to get the press to write about them.
In the 1990's another company announced their new security product: "Sidewinder: The firewall that strikes back!" at the National Computer Security Conference in Baltimore. Sidewinder used lots of information warfare quotes from Winn Schwartau and ex-military types staffing their sales suite.
I wouldn't be surprised when they finally reveal their product it is a lot less than the hype. Right now its a bit like a movie the movie studio won't give the critics an advanced screening, but has a big advertising budget. Usually that is a sign of a stinker.