Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 2000/12/23 (translated from German)
Security – Software Innovation from Halle
Filter is supposed to check data streams and to block dubious offers – Company owns patent
Martin Schramme
Halle/MZ. Apart from pornographic contents, also the glorification of violence and extremist sites can be accessed by every user via internet. And children are no exception. This autumn the Nutzwerk company from Halle introduced a new technology called "SaferSurf" that tackles this problem.
Certainly it is already possible to see in the cache of the browser what internet pages the users of a computer have visited. However, the filter developed by Nutzwerk can do much more. It makes it possible to block internet offers and to analyze the entire data stream.
The filter can react to keywords, pictures, symbols and even hidden contents. "We can scan the data stream and identify file contents", says Ramona Wonneberger of Nutzwerk Informationsgesellschaft mbH. Nutzwerk had this technology patented.
A specially developed statistics module shows who was where and for how long in the internet. SaferSurf cannot be fooled by file extensions about the contents of the sent files. By matching the statistics, internet pages can be locked automatically. Besides, the system is capable of learning.
In order to avoid pages about sex education and prevention of violence that are suitable for young people being locked, so-called white lists can be created, for example for offers by a family advice center or a center for the protection of minors. In addition SaferSurf protects from viruses and keeps an eye on the online fees.
The product that is based on Linux can be run on a separate computer or as a service at the provider. Authorized persons can determine themselves which internet contents are allowed and which are to be locked. But not only incoming, also outgoing data can be filtered to prevent confidential information from leaking out via eMail. The possibilty of scanning data streams is the technological key development by Nutzwerk that the currently thirteen employees want to develop further into several other applications.
At the moment they are working on an automatic virus scanner and a search engine that only lists hits that are really relevant, says Wonneberger. Among other functions the search engine recognizes dead links and sorts them out from the beginning. This would make internet searches considerably faster and more effective.
With this and other IT developments Nutzwerk is on the advance. For 2001 plans are to convert the GmbH (private limited liability company) into a stock corporation, to finish a second product line, to employ more specialists, and to open a branch in Leipzig.
Founder and visionary of Nutzwerk is René Holzer. In 1997 a couple of venturesome investors – among them the former Microsoft Manager for Eastern Europe, Reiner Michl – got interested in the idea of a secure internet. In order to speed up their own growth, Nutzwerk had just sold 12 percent of their company shares to a Saxon Venture Capital company.
Meanwhile the smart developers from Halle were able to win the hardware manufacturer Bluechip as strategic partner. The company from Thuringia integrated SaferSurf into their Internet in-a-box solution for which they had won the innovation prize of Thuringia this year. In September 2000 Digital Data Communications started to distribute the English version of the filter program worldwide.
As Nutzwerk wants to remain a software developer and is working to full capacity already, the data processing center DVZ Halle is in charge of installation, support and service for the Inaro.
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