by John McHale

SAN JOSE, Calif., - Experts at DynTek in Irvine, Calif., are joining hands with Counterpane Internet Security Inc. of San Jose, Calif., to safeguard computer networks in state and local governments from hackers and cyber terrorists.

The alliance comes as government officials from the federal to local levels are paying increasing attention to computer security threats ranging from random benign hacking to what some experts refer to ominously as a future "digital Pearl Harbor."

"Counterpane vigilantly monitors networks for suspicious activities, and takes immediate, effective action to keep systems running smoothly," says John Bruce, Counterpane's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

"Our services combined with DynTek's ability to identify areas vulnerable to security breaches provide governments with a comprehensive way to prevent, detect and respond to security threats against their intellectual property," Bruce says.

Homeland security is a primary thrust of the DynTek-Counterpane alliance. "Safeguarding key IT [information technology] systems is critical to a comprehensive homeland security plan, which is of the utmost concern to government's today," says Dr. J. Burke Hansen, DynTek's national director of security services.

"DynTek's security team, which consists of experienced technical consultants, white hat hackers, and certified information system security professionals, along with Counterpane's expert security analysts can secure and protect networks and systems from security threats while managing and controlling information security risk," Hansen says.

DynTek's Security Services help IT managers comply with network and system security guidelines and reduce the risk of threats such as cyber terrorism, Counterpane officials say.

The company's services include external penetration analysis, internal network assessments, remediation, and prevention strategies. Additionally, DynTek can help ensure that the applications on networked systems provide no weak points in an otherwise secure environment, company officials say.

Counterpane Internet Security provides managed security-monitoring (MSM) services from a network of Secure Operations Centers (SOCs). Counterpane technology involves a Sentry monitoring probe on the customer's network and the Socrates knowledge base inside the SOCs, which enables security analysts to detect security incidents - external intrusions and insider attacks - in real time, and tailor immediate responses, Counterpane officials say.

For more information on Counterpane contact the company on the World Wide Web at http://www.counterpane.com. For more information on DynTek contact the company on the World Wide Web at http://www.dyntek.com.