NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- AdZone Research Inc. (OTCBB:ADZR), a pioneering Internet surveillance technology solutions provider, yesterday provided an extensive update to current and potential investors by Chairman and CEO Charles A. Cardona III, and Washington-based Executive Vice President Dan Wasserman, in a late afternoon meeting sponsored by Monarch Capital Group at its midtown Manhattan headquarters.
"AdZone's capabilities to play an important role in Homeland Security and global defense applications are without peer, and we welcome your near- and longer-term participation in what we believe is an outstanding future for AdZone and its shareholders," Cardona told the assembled audience -- comprised of brokers, research analysts, joint venture specialists, portfolio managers and investment bankers.
The audience was told that a senior staff member of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman had said that AdZone "has eliminated the risk faced by the Federal Government in dealing with the myriad of technology companies that have inundated Congress since 9/11/01 in two ways -- first, AdZone has proof that the threats obviously continue to exist and, second, you've proven your technology works in finding them."
The audience also learned that following a meeting in which a national security specialist was shown AdZone's findings of penetration of a supposedly secure government Web site, the House of Representatives' Counsel for Technology Procurement had forwarded AdZone's results to the Senate Standing Committee on Intelligence.
In addition, the company revealed that a technical evaluation for a major state, self-funded by AdZone, was conducted in August over a three-day period. Utilizing only 12% of AdZone's NetGet(tm) software capability the results underscored two key findings: threats definitely exist, and AdZone technology can detect them.
To date, said AdZone's Wasserman, who also is Managing Director of the company's Global Defense Group, the company has accelerated its own outreach efforts. He has held meetings and other briefings at the Executive Branch level with senior members of both the Office of Homeland Security and the National Security Council.
On the Legislative Branch level, Wasserman reported he has had extensive discussions with, and received expressions of support from, elected officials and senior staff of 12 members of the Senate, and 27 members of the House of Representatives, eight committees of the House and 12 of the Senate, as well as two Senate and four House subcommittees.
In addition to its Systems Integrator Agreement with Raytheon, AdZone revealed to attendees that it also is under Non-Disclosure Agreements and currently involved in significant discussions with three other major defense contractors.
Noting that the company earlier this week announced the signing of a letter of intent with St. Petersburg, Florida-based Spartan Group Holdings, Inc., a private investment banking firm, for up to a minimum of $2 million in funding, Cardona told the assembled group: "The investment community is clearly beginning to appreciate the unique position in which our technology has placed us, and we welcome your joining them." He also cited the recent initiation of coverage and speculative buy recommendation on the company issued by Barrow Street Research, available for review at www.barrowstreet.com.
Meeting attendees saw AdZone-generated material, created for demonstration purposes only, that explained how its proprietary Artificial Intelligence software is able to follow links and identify "suspicious" sites. They also were shown historical Web sites, then saw questionable hyperlinks that had been inserted in the scripting for the Web page, as well as other irregularities detected in the comment section and hidden inside an otherwise ordinary graphic image within the site.
Terrorists may operate in secret organizations, the AdZone executives told the group, but they have the same managerial issues as any other complex organization. Management takes place through communication.
"Terrorists have traditionally had difficulty communicating, because all linkages must be kept secret," said Cardona. "If communications are intercepted, terrorist operations fail."
AdZone, the group was told, "has developed a cutting edge method for intercepting terrorist communications."
Through a process known as steganography, U.S.A. Today reported in December 2001, coded messages can be concealed in otherwise indistinguishable media, such as photographs or messages, especially on the worldwide Internet.
"The use of digital steganography is viewed by cyber-attack investigators as an emerging technological obstacle," Dartmouth College's Institute for Security Technology Studies reported in a recent special report. It said 48% of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with available tools, and fully two thirds of that group reported that "tools were unavailable for the detection of data hidden by steganographic means," the meeting members were told.
As recently as July 23, 2002, CNN said, "Counterterrorism experts are monitoring a number of Web sites and computer servers they believe might contain recent messages from bin Laden ... and some investigators believe they ... are hiding messages inside photographic files..."
Against that background of reality, the AdZone executives told their audience, "AdZone is uniquely capable to both intercept and monitor terrorist activity on the World Wide Web."
It is, they said in conclusion, a technology that is universally language independent, as well as independent of format -- text, graphic or otherwise. It also is enhanced by Artificial Intelligence, able to determine and prioritize threat levels, is vigilant round-the-clock, and is scalable -- able to be increased in size to monitor more than 30 million Internet Web sites, a substantial portion of the World Wide Web.
About AdZone Research:
AdZone Research specializes in automated retrieval, classification, analysis and delivery of worldwide Internet data for global defense as well as media metrics. Through surveillance of more than one half million Web sites worldwide, AdZone provides tracking and monitoring of targeted information on the Internet, with an expanded focus on global Internet analysis of security-related data transmissions. See: www.adzoneinteractive.com.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995). Because such statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.