Hamburger Abendblatt, November 19, 2002  (translated from German)

Their mission: a clean internet
How a company from Leipzig wants to revolutionize the virus protection

Imagine the waterworks tell you: "Unfortunately we can only deliver dirty water. But you can buy the necessary filters yourself." It is the same with internet providers who ignore the virus-infected data from the internet and pass on everything to the private surfer, says René Holzer, CEO of Nutzwerk. The ignorance of some providers drives him up the wall – this man is on a mission. Everything could be so easy: A filter software of only 300 kilobytes could eradicate the problem, if it is installed at the big internet nodes that all data have to pass sooner or later on their way to the individual users. "Devices and method to individually filter information transferred by a network" is the name of the invention that the CEOs Holzer and Wonneberger have patented in Europe and the USA.

This may not sound revolutionary, but it is: The Nutzwerk filter sorts out suspicious files on a central server and in real-time, before they can reach the user – while they are still on the data highway. "Because once the dangerous program has arrived on the PC, it always causes problems, no matter how the system is protected", says Holzer.

Now only the providers who are supposed to install the Nutzwerk filter on their servers need to understand this. A well-known German provider waved the proposal aside, saying that it is impossible to check such an amount of data – though without talking to Nutzwerk first. If he had, he would have heard that the data filter does not require an additional effort, on the contrary: the data load is even reduced.

In addition Holzer could have pointed out that the internet is a product that can be sold much better if it is freed of all dangers and ciruclating dirt and trash. The users are willing to pay a few dollars more for a secure net. "If the providers would start to change their views instead of only selling online minutes, they would get a whole lot of new business opportunities.

For the moment Nutzwerk takes care of a clean internet itself. The service is offered at Safersurf.com, "just to proof that it works".

The Nutzwerk filter is updated every five minutes. The installation and maintenance of protection programs that always involves intervention in the operating system is unnecessary – simply sign up for the service. "After all, you cannot expect every user to become a system administrator", continues Holzer.

Data filter in real-time
Before data or e-mails from the internet reach the private PC, they are passed on from server to server. The destination of the data package is identified by the IP address of the user. The user only has to sign on for the Nutzwerk safety filter before he connects to the internet. All data take a detour via a proxy server, where they are checked. If a suspicious file matches the continuously updated virus database, the data package is deleted. According to experts, a virus could live for half an hour at the most with this new method.