Start-up poised to beat security threat

E-commerce Experts launch internet company to tackle problems.

A group of ex-Racal and Integralis security experts have started an internet security company to deal with security issues surrounding the burgeoning e-commerce market.

CenturyCom, based in Newbury, has been set up by a group of industry experts in response to growing internet security problems and is in talks with Nokia to establish a security products distributor. It will be recruiting re-sellers for the operation.

Clive McCafferty, managing director of CenturyCom, said: 'A lot of companies don't want to take on the responsibility of managing their firewalls.

We can do that remotely, as well as offering further security measures and threat assessment.' He added content-borne attacks were increasing, which were able to infiltrate a company's firewall: 'A firewall is like the Maginot line - it's static and people go around it. Many let ActiveX or Java through and these can introduce malicious applets.'

McCafferty added this could lead to serious legal issues if a client subsequently downloaded the malicious applet because the host site would then be liable.

According to industry sources, the lack of sufficient security is a subject on which many companies are remaining tight-lipped. Revealing even the possibility of a security breach can wipe out the investment in marketing for a Website or could hold a worse fate for an internet-based business.

Sean Brennan, IT law specialist at solicitors Davies Arnold Cooper, confirmed: 'When e-commerce takes off, there will be very real problems - the internet is surrounded by legal problems ranging from email abuse and online libel to hackers and contractual problems. At the moment, the law is out of date and all companies can do is tighten up control and security, especially if they are involved in e-commerce.'