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PRESS RELEASE

February 26, 2007

FAIRMONT, WV - Backbone Security’s Steganography Analysis and Research Center (SARC) is pleased to announce the release of version 3.0 of the Steganography Application Fingerprint Database (SAFDB). With the fingerprints, or hash values, of every file artifact associated with 625 steganography applications, SAFDB is the world’s largest commercially available hash set exclusive to digital steganography and other information hiding applications. The database is used by Federal, state and local law enforcement; intelligence community; and private sector computer forensic examiners to detect the presence or use of steganography and extract hidden information.

Version 3.0 contains hash values for each file artifact associated with the 625 steganography applications computed with the CRC-32, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512 algorithms.

A free extract of SAFDB with MD5 hashes only is available to qualifying law enforcement, government, and intelligence agency computer forensic examiners.

With the release of version 3.0, Backbone is also pleased to announce the free extract of SAFDB is now available to computer forensic examiners in international law enforcement agencies. The extract is available in formats that can be imported into EnCase, FTK, HashKeeper, ILook, and ProDiscover. For information on registering for access to the free MD5 extract of SAFDB v3.0, please visit http://www.sarc-wv.com.

In addition to SAFDB, the SARC has also developed state-of-the-art steganalysis tools for detecting the presence or use of steganography and has developed the world’s first commercially available network security appliance capable of detecting artifacts and signatures of steganography in real-time.

“Interest in our steganalysis products has literally exploded in the past few months,” according to Bart Guerreri, Backbone’s Chairman of the Board, “which is clearly an indication that awareness of the threat from insider use of steganography to steal sensitive, classified, or proprietary information is on the rise.”

Glenn Watt, President and CEO of Backbone further added that “the threat from steganography is real and growing as is succinctly stated in the Federal Plan for Cyber Security and Information Assurance Research and Development released in April of last year. As computer forensic tools continue to get better and examiners get better at using those tools to find ever more digital evidence, cyber criminals will adapt by finding and using more technologically sophisticated information hiding techniques.”

About the SARC - The SARC is a Center of Excellence in digital steganography R&D within Backbone Security focused on providing a national repository of digital steganography applications, fingerprints, and signatures. The SARC has developed world-class steganlaysis tools for detecting and extracting information hidden with digital steganography applications.

About Backbone Security – Backbone is an Approved Scanning Vender (ASV) certified by the Payment Card Industry-(PCI) Security Standards Council to conduct automated PCI Data Security Standard compliance assessments with a One-Stop Scanning Solution. Backbone is a full-service IT security company that also specializes in vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, and real-time intrusion monitoring.