Industry watch

DOT agency buys WordPerfect Suite licenses

Corel Corp. has signed a deal with the Transportation Department's Federal Highway Administration to provide 3,500 licenses of WordPerfect Suite 8, which includes the WordPerfect 8 word processor, Quattro Pro 8 spreadsheet, Presentations 8 and the Central 8 Personal Information Manager.

About 3,100 of the licenses are for standard WordPerfect Suite 8. The other 400 are for WordPerfect Suite 8 Professional, which includes Corel's Paradox 8 database. WordPerfect Suite 8 will replace previous versions of WordPerfect, including stand-alone Corel applications as well as Lotus Development's Corp. 1-2-3 and PowerPoint.

Corel has also announced software designed specially for Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha platform and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system. Corel produced the software in partnership with Digital.

Intergraph introduces new Windows NT workstations

Intergraph Corp. last week unveiled new high-end and low-end models for its TDZ 2000 Vizual line of Microsoft Corp. Windows NT-based graphical workstations.

The high-end TDZ 2000 GT1 will run single or dual 400 MHz Intel Corp. Pentium II processors in a high-bandwidth chipset. The Champion 2.0 chipset, developed by Reliance Computer Corp., delivers close to 1 gigabyte per second I/O throughput and peak memory bandwidth of 1.6 gigabits/sec, according to Intergraph.

The system will be capable of supporting up to 3G of memory when Intel's new processor technology comes to market, the company said, and it will come with three Peripheral Connect Interface buses. Street pricing for the TDZ 2000 GT1, which will be available in June, begins at $6,930 for a single-processor system and $7,895 for a dual processor.

The low-end TDZ 2000 GL1, a 2-D or entry-level 3-D workstation, comes with single or dual 266 MHz, 300 MHz or 333 MHz Pentium II processors and supports up to 512M of memory. Users can choose from three 2-D or 3-D graphics options, including Intergraph's Intense 3D Pro 2200.

Pricing on the GL1, available this month, begins at $2,265 for a 2-D configuration and $2,999 for entry-level 3-D graphics.

Elron to ship two new firewalls

Elron Software Inc. this month launched two new firewalls— one fully loaded with key security features that are often sold separately and another designed for Microsoft Corp. Windows NT operating system.

The Elron Firewall Version 2.5, which is being shipped now, comes equipped with encryption, Virtual Private Networking, user authentication, network address translation and other features, according to company officials. In addition, the company plans to begin shipping this month its Windows NT version of the Firewall v2.5.

Both offer a firewall-specific proprietary operating system with third-generation firewall technology called stateful multiple-layer inspection, which screens traffic on both sides of the firewall.

Association launches security certification

The International Computer Security Association (ICSA) last week launched a new service designed to help organizations expose and reduce Internet security vulnerabilities at the network perimeter.

Called TruSecure, the new service was developed in response to ICSA data that indicates that 99 percent of Internet-connected organizations are not adequately protected, against even the mildest form of hacker attacks.

The service first provides a realistic assessment of vulnerabilities and then follows with a continuous security-improvement process that ultimately leads to ICSA TruSecure certification. The service evaluates World Wide Web servers, e-mail servers, firewalls and Internet service utilities.

Priced at $40,000, the TruSecure service offers clients a remote-audit phase, in which ICSA officials use a combination of commercial and underground hacker tools to try to penetrate a client's network.

After receiving certification, ICSA will perform two annual remote-access spot checks to ensure that the security improvements taken as a result of the testing are still being implemented.

EPA awards multimedia contract

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc. a five-year, $10.2 million contract to develop multimedia applications for its Safety, Health and Environmental Management Division.

The company will develop computer-based learning tools for agency employees.