Cisco upgrades security on IOS

AFTER TALKING up its network software's abilities to defend itself for ages, Cisco has come up with an update to IOS Software so that it can start to tackle denial of service attacks.

The company has added an IP Source Tracker, which helps users identify and locate where denial-of-service attacks may be entering a network. There is also a "reserved management channel" to a router, which enables administrators to take steps to fight the attack.

Cisco also has added anomaly protocol inspection for ESMTP, the Extended Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, to its IOS Software, so users can better defend against mail attacks.

The update has enhanced firewall support and allows users to divide networks without altering IP-addressing configurations. The new IOS Firewall for IP version 6 includes stateful inspection for traffic running on both IP versions 4 and 6.

Security analysts have said that the changes were a move in the right direction, although Cisco has a long way to go before the self defending network was a reality. µ