The 41st Parameter Extends U.S. Patent On Improved TimeDiff Linking Technology To Detect And Prevent Phishing Transparently To Bank Customers

Renowned Former Hacker Kevin Mitnick Claims, “If You Use This Technology, Phishers Will Eventually Give Up and Go Find an Easier Target”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 29, 2005—Fulfilling its corporate mission of “Making Fraud History,” The 41st Parameter today announced it has filed an extension to the patent for its innovative anti-fraud technology, TimeDiff Linking. The amended patent filing for “Method and System for Identifying Users and Detecting Fraud By Use of the Internet” more than doubles the number of parameters correlated for TimeDiff Linking in preparation for The 41st Parameter’s line of real-time products. TimeDiff Linking provides state-of-the-art bank protection against phishing scams and their resultant consumer security problems, online identity theft and fraud.

To test the strength of its new TimeDiff Linking technology, The 41st Parameter hired renowned former hacker Kevin Mitnick to attempt to foil the system and mount a successful phishing attack. Once the FBI’s “Most Wanted” cybercriminal for hacking into computers of major international corporations, Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC, a security consultancy dedicated to helping people from government and business protect vital information.

“I use my knowledge of computer and security vulnerabilities to show companies their security weaknesses,” said Mitnick. “For banks and other e-tailers, phishing is a primary concern. I’ve tested The 41st Parameter’s technology that uses TimeDiff Linking, and I found that most phishers will become extremely frustrated because of the difficulty of impersonating a legitimate customer. Given enough time, effort, and resources, any system can be broken, but the effort to break this technology is too time consuming.”

The 41st Parameter’s TimeDiff Linking technology automatically correlates login data, computer data, and customer data to build a fingerprint of the perpetrator’s device in real time. Early versions of TimeDiff Linking correlated dozens of separate parameters to build the phisher’s profile, but The 41st Parameter has more than doubled the number of parameters it checks, for radical improvements in the accuracy of phishing detection. By creating a unique fingerprint for each device that logs in, The 41st Parameter technology can quickly pinpoint repeat offenders and build a stronger defense against all the different behaviors exhibited by cybercriminals and phishing rings.

“Eliminating phishing is a top priority for every bank and e-tailer today,” said Ori Eisen, CEO of The 41st Parameter and anti-fraud expert. “Yet, most anti-phishing products put the onus on the consumer to prevent attacks by asking them to change their behaviors. As hackers are constantly finding new ways to break past security barriers, we can’t ask consumers to constantly do more and different things. Instead, we must use better intelligence to shut down phishing attacks quickly, with zero imposition to the end user. Our new TimeDiff Linking technology is just one of the many ways our technologies can give banks and e-tailers the upper hand for thwarting hackers and phishers, to increase consumer security and confidence.”

According to Gartner, Inc., identity theft from phishing attacks cost U.S. banks and credit-card issuers about $929 million in the year ending May 2005. Banks and credit card companies absorbed about 90 percent of those losses. Yet Federal Trade Commission statistics on identity and credit card theft report that only about 5 percent of cybercriminals are caught today. The 41st Parameter believes its new technology will radically improve the detection rate of phishing attempts while quickly identifying repeat offenders. The 41st Parameter’s technology allows companies to differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent users immediately and transparently, without putting the burden on consumers to change their behavior, a limitation of other anti-phishing technologies.

The 41st Parameter is a fraud detection and financial services risk management company with solutions designed for e-commerce and the online banking industry. The flagship product, FraudNet, provides highly accurate, non-intrusive fraud control measures for Internet, mail-order, and telephone-order merchants. PhishingNet is the company’s anti-phishing solution for the online payment and financial services industry. The 41st Parameter’s fraud and phishing products are “zero imposition” solutions since they require no action on the part of customers or end-users. For more information, please visit www.the41.com.