The Laboratory had the first public and commercial demonstration of its NARQ software to deal with the ever-growing threat posed by malicious computer network worms at the Supercomputing 2005 conference in Seattle, Wash.
The Technology Transfer (TT) Division is seeking to commercialize NARQ software in an effort to assist industry with one of the most significant threats posed today: malicious attacks by worms and other self-replicating intrusion software.
Computer viruses and worms cost companies billions of dollars annually in lost data, repair costs and loss of productivity. Computer worms are programs that spread themselves from computer to computer over a network. Worms, unlike viruses, do not infect programs, diskettes, or files with macro capabilities; instead, they make copies of themselves and send these copies over the network to other targeted machines, ultimately bringing the entire enterprise computer system down.
Los Alamos developed NARQ as a response to this ongoing threat after an extensive and exhaustive search for a commercial product. The Laboratory's TT Division is responsible for licensing select, mature technologies invented at the Lab to assist U.S. companies in increasing their global competitive capabilities.
The commercialization of NARQ may be accomplished as a new standalone product or as a set of features for an existing product. The NARQ technology includes software source code, access to the inventors and rights to the patent-pending search and mapping algorithm.
Applications for NARQ include immediate response to detected invasive infections (worms), instant quarantine to remove infected computers and devices from the network at the port level, and network planning and optimization. NARQ was designed for robust and heterogeneous networks, providing instantaneous, automated reaction to a detected attack.
NARQ is available for licensing. Contact TT for plan format and requirements.
Additional information concerning NARQ can be obtained by contacting TT Division or by writing to narq@lanl.gov by electronic mail or go to http://www.lanl.gov/narq online.
