AXENT Unleashes New Version of Market Leading Security Assessment Solution.

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 1999--

Enterprise Security Manager 5.0 Checks and

Enforces Sound Security Practices across Tens of Thousands

of Systems and Internet Servers from One Central Console

AXENT Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXNT), one of the world's largest information security solution providers, today released Enterprise Security Manager(tm) 5.0 (ESM), the only security solution with a central management console and advanced reporting features that help organizations easily check, manage and enforce sound security practices across tens of thousands of systems. With Enterprise Security Manager to assess and enforce security across the network, organizations can confidently conduct secure e-commerce using the Internet, intranets, and remote sites with customers and partners worldwide.

Only Enterprise Security Manager's groundbreaking technology reaches out to assess the security for every critical enterprise system, including more than 55 operating systems, routers, firewalls, Web servers and key enterprise applications like Oracle(R) databases and Lotus Notes(R). Version 5.0 further expands Enterprise Security Manager's capabilities, delivering more than 1,000 security checks for critical systems--three times as many checks as any other security assessment or management software. The new central management console and advanced reporting features, including .html-based reports that can be viewed by both IT and executive managers on any Web browser, streamline the day-to-day process of assessing and reporting on security practices enterprise-wide.

"Large organizations have thousands of business-critical applications and operations running on a wide-range of operating systems and environments. Executives need to quickly assess enterprise security across all these key platforms from a centralized location," said Rob Clyde, vice president and general manager of AXENT(tm). "Other security vendors cover just a fraction of the enterprise-- exposing critical systems or forcing executives to juggle multiple products. Only Enterprise Security Manager can streamline the day-to-day creation and enforcement of established security policies in every key area of the enterprise from a single management console."

According to a recent study by the Hurwitz Group(R), entitled Information Security: Assessing Risks and Detecting Intrusions, AXENT is the undisputed market leader for risk assessment and intrusion detection. The report states that with twice the revenue of its closest competitor, AXENT is the dominant player with 43 percent market share.

"We wanted to automate our security assessment and turned to AXENT because management demanded a superior solution," said Doug Wilger, IT security analyst for Correctional Services, Canada. "Correctional Services had some unique requirements and we needed a company who would work together with us to develop a custom solution to meet those needs. We needed an account analysis product that would run on Windows NT on an Alpha processor, but that wasn't available at that time. AXENT partnered with us, tailoring ESM to accommodate our needs. Now, instead of having to check every system on the network manually, where it's far too easy to miss something significant, ESM runs the audits overnight and I can have the results when I get to the office in the morning."

Reports Offer Enterprise Security "Snapshot"

Enterprise Security Manager 5.0 adds additional reporting capabilities, enabling organizations to view a "snapshot" of security levels across the entire enterprise with a single graph. With Enterprise Security Manager you can drill down for more detailed reporting information on specific areas that aren't compliant with current security policy--right down to a single system or application.

Enterprise Security Manager 5.0 includes several report templates designed for different audiences in the enterprise. These include an "Executive Report" that provides a high-level overview--a single graph--illustrating how much of the enterprise is compliant with existing security policy. Organizations can also easily export information to key reporting packages like Crystal Reports to create their own customized reports, including both instant and historical trend analysis of system security. Reports are also available in .html format, enabling organizations to post security reports on intranets or e-mail them directly to IT or executive management.

"Large networks are virtual ecosystems with complexity approaching rain forest proportions. Maintaining an acceptable level of security across this environment requires highly flexible solutions that can be centrally managed while scaling across a wide range of operating platforms and an ever increasing population of network components," said Abner Germanow, Internet Security analyst at International Data Corporation(R) (IDC).

Additional Features

Open Manager/Agent Architecture--A single management console can collect data from and manage up to 10,000 agents--dramatically streamlining the day-to-day assessment and management of established security policies. Agents have a very low overhead and do not take up any significant bandwidth or system resources. Enterprise Security Manager's open API and software developer's kit (SDK) also enable organizations to bring the solution's assessment and management capabilities to virtually any area of the enterprise--including mission-critical legacy systems and proprietary applications.

Application-level Security Modules--AXENT is providing a series of Enterprise Security Manager modules for the most popular applications and devices, including leading firewalls, routers, Web servers, Lotus Notes and Oracle databases. These eliminate the need for organizations to develop custom programs to manage application-level security.

Broadest Range of Operating System Support--Only Enterprise Security Manager provides comprehensive, cross-platform support required for large organizations running a mix of Windows NT(R), UNIX(R), Novell(R), NetWare(R), OpenVMS(R) and other applications. More than 55 different operating systems and application platforms are supported by Enterprise Security Manager 5.0.

Encrypted Transmissions--Agent transmissions to the Enterprise Security Manager console are completely encrypted to prevent tampering or unauthorized access to security information with Sniffers and other network scanners.

Real-time Development for the Latest Threats--AXENT's Information Security SWAT Team continually researches the latest security threats and hacks. They quickly develop new Enterprise Security Manager policies to guard against these threats and posts them on the SWAT Team Web site (www.axent.com/swat/swat.htm). Users can quickly download and distribute new policies to protect the organization enterprise-wide from new security threats.

Integration with Systems Management Frameworks--Enterprise Security Manager is integrated with leading systems management frameworks including BMC Patrol(R), Tivoli Management Environment(R) and HP OpenView. This lets large organizations intertwine systems and security operations to further streamline enterprise management.

Integration with Other Key AXENT Solutions--Enterprise Security Manager is also integrated with Intruder Alert(tm), NetRecon(tm), PCShield(tm), and Privilege Manager(tm) for UNIX(R).

Year 2000 (Y2K) Compliance--Enterprise Security Manager is compliant with the year 2000 as of version 4.2, released in 1996.

Pricing and Availability

Enterprise Security Manager 5.0 is available immediately. Pricing is based on the number of managers, agents and application modules deployed. Pricing starts at $1,995 for the manager, $995 for the server agent, and $95 for the Workstation agent.

About AXENT(tm)

AXENT Technologies, Inc., is a trusted security partner and solution provider for more than 5,000 companies, government agencies and resellers worldwide, including 40 of the top Fortune 50. Only AXENT offers Lifecycle Security(tm) solutions--an all-encompassing approach that helps organizations identify unique security needs and implement realistic solutions to protect and enable business. With more security solutions that cover more of the enterprise than any other security provider, AXENT's award-winning solutions provide security assessment, intrusion detection, remote access security, single sign-on, Virtual Private Networks, Web security and firewalls, for UNIX(R), Windows(R) 3.x, Windows NT(R), Windows 95 and 98, NetWare(R) and mid-range systems in heterogeneous computing environments.

Headquartered in Rockville, MD, AXENT's customer-proven information security solutions are used by Fortune 1000 companies and governments worldwide. Contact AXENT via e-mail at [e-mail], or visit AXENT's World Wide Web site at http://vpo.axent.com.

AXENT, AXENT Technologies, the AXENT logo, Enterprise Security Manager, Intruder Alert, PCShield, NetRecon, Privilege Manager, and Lifecycle Security are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States and certain other countries, of AXENT Technologies, Inc. or its subsidiaries. Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation; Lotus Notes is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation; Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc.; OpenVMS is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation; International Data Corporation is a registered trademark of International Data Group, Inc.; Patrol is a registered trademark of BMC Software, Inc.; Tivoli Management Environment is a registered trademark of Tivoli Systems, Inc.; UNIX is a registered trademark licensed exclusively by X/Open Company, Ltd.; and other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.