Evidian’s NetWall 6 resolves Internet security complexity issues

~ AccessMaster NetWall 6 enforces Internet security and reduces costs through policy based VPN and firewall business management principles ~

Paris; October 15, 2001 -Evidian, a leading vendor of secure e-business management software, today announced the release of NetWall 6. This leading Internet security software allows large corporations to deploy maximum Internet security at low cost of ownership.

The new release addresses the challenges of “bricks to clicks” companies and telecoms players who require an open but secure interface with partners and customers.

‘Denial of service, web site defacement, intrusion, malicious code attacks, corporate espionage-¦ never has IT been more at risk” said Henry Ancona, President and CEO of Evidian. “Nevertheless, the cost and complexity involved in managing large security networks often means that companies fail to implement complete external and internal firewall and VPN protection. NetWall offers a powerful answer to this dilemma by simplifying the management and keeping costs down.”

Helping corporations to facilitate highly secure network connectivity inside corporations and with numerous partners, suppliers and customers, NetWall helps establish an easily manageable Internet security policy.

Highlights of NetWall 6 enhancements include :

· Centralized Management: Enables consistent security levels to be implemented in hundreds of sites with unique business-oriented security management of firewalls and, new with release 6, VPNs.

· Security dashboard: Simplifies security management by providing a graphical, visual map for managing a corporation’s network security with greater ease and control

· Standard IPSEC VPN software: Enables the establishment of fully secure communications with thousands of branch offices and business partners.

A powerful answer to security complexity

Leveraging years of experience in securing connectivity for leading European corporations, NetWall’s comprehensive approach is the only solution that helps overcome the security, manageability and scalability weaknesses of other Internet security solutions, enabling:

· Maximum security with multi-level control, combining stateful filtering and application proxies to protect against vulnerabilities at all levels, ensuring high performance. In addition, NetWall’s IPSEC VPN supporting IKE, and the broadest offer in terms of encryption algorithms (DES, 3DES, Blowfish, CAST128, Twofish, AES) offers high end tunneling to secure communications integrity and privacy.

· Business oriented, graphical management. NetWall allows security officers express their policy in a business-oriented way by partitioning the extended organization into zones of confidence (e.g., by division, department, user group [marketing, R&D, finance, partner etc.), determining specific connection privileges. NetWall’s centralized console then automatically converts these business oriented policies into specific rules needed for each firewall, and securely deploys the configurations and VPNs on these devices. NetWall also enables centralized supervision, auditing and reporting. This unique approach, reduces complexity, enhances security consistency, and spares security officers from repetitive, time consuming management tasks. As a result, security is enhanced and costs of ownership are reduced.

· Extended enterprise scalability, through native load balancing and failover, easy management and integration with enterprise wide security policy, notably with LDAP directories and Evidian’s AccessMaster security management software.

“With other firewalls on the market, set up security for hundreds of sites leads to exponential complexity and exploding costs, forcing companies to compromise on security” concluded Henry Ancona. “As a result, while more than 50% of security breaches are made by insiders, organizations hesitate to fully partition Intranets with firewalls. VPNs are built with a handful of remote sites or partners only, while most may need them. With NetWall, we offer corporations a means to set up uncompromising security while controlling costs. It is a key advantage in a networked world, especially for extended corporations, where moving corporate boundaries forces security to become ubiquitous, and where trust is a condition for business.”

Availability and pricing

NetWall 6 is available immediately on Solaris 8, AIX and Windows NT. Centralized management console is available immediately on Solaris, AIX, Windows 98, NT and 2000.

Examples of NetWall prices range from 2.000 Euros for a 25 user IP protection, up to 28.400 Euros for a multi-level control firewall with unlimited address protection. An example price of the NetWall administration console would be 6.500 Euros for managing 5 firewalls and VPNs devices.

Resources for press

More information on Netwall (technical specsheet, FAQ, screenshots, white paper) is available at www.evidian.com/netwall

About NetWall

AccessMaster NetWall is a complete, high-end firewall and VPN software, designed to be a key component of an enterprise’s security policy. An ITSEC E3 certified technology, NetWall has been chosen by hundreds of leading European corporations and deployed on thousands of sites.

Netwall is a modular component of AccessMaster, Evidian’s leading security management software suite for bricks to clicks companies, which also includes single sign-on, user management and PKI management. In 2000 and 2001 again, AccessMaster received the worldwide “Best Access Control” award from SC Magazine, the leading publication in IT security.

About Evidian

Evidian is a leading vendor of secure e-business management software. Products include: AccessMaster and PortalXpert, for enterprise security and Internet management; OpenMasterTM; for service assurance in telecom and business-centric service level management; plus SafeKitTM, for load balancing and auto fail-over for Internet and enterprise applications.

Based in Billerica, Mass., Evidian has Research and development operations in France plus sales, marketing, and service operations in the U.S. and throughout Europe. More information on Evidian and its products is available via www.Evidian.com or via email at info@Evidian.com.

Evidian, NetWall, AccessMaster, PortalXpert and OpenMaster are registered trademarks or trademarks of Evidian in Europe, U.S. and other countries.