AberdeenGroup Salutes Micromuse Customer, a Leading Global Telecom Company, in Report on ''Security Best Practices''.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Netcool(R)/NeuSecure(TM) Customer Ranks Among Top Three Providers to Institute "Security Best Practices" According to AberdeenGroup Study

Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE), the leading provider of ultra-scalable, realtime business and service assurance software today announced that AberdeenGroup has identified a Micromuse customer - a prominent global telecommunications carrier and member of the Fortune 500 - among the top three companies in its inaugural "Security Best Practices" report.

The AberdeenGroup report states, "As one of the top-tier telecommunications companies, this Micromuse customer has improved its performance results dramatically, put in place an organizational structure to keep pace, and now has the automation tools to improve security profiles to come very close to self-defending networks, all due in large part to its commitment to better manage data and knowledge."

The Micromuse customer highlighted in the AberdeenGroup study was concurrently dealing with rapid technology change-outs and business transformation challenges due to mergers and acquisitions, while working to meet a wide range of regulatory issues. Taking an aggressive avoidance and prevention stance, the company brought in Micromuse's Netcool(R)/NeuSecure(TM) solution to automate the monitoring, detection, and analysis of security incidents to deliver an automated risk threshold system to enable it to manage security events by exception, instead of becoming sidetracked by every incident.

According to the AberdeenGroup study, "The automation of these functions has aided usability immensely; data that was not previously available is now. Overcoming the limitations of having people inspect and try to decipher audit logs, the solution collects this information and more, automatically correlates data from across the company's vast networks operating around the world, and delivers an easy-to-understand snapshot of what's out of band, what's out of threshold, what poses a technical risk and to the business, and where. Used for centralized event, technical and business risk analysis, the system has enabled this company to significantly improve its response to events and, more importantly, reduce the number of outages."

"We are excited that AberdeenGroup has recognized one of our largest customers, who also happens to be among the world's industry leaders, as a best-of-breed security organization," said Tom McNeight, General Manager of the Netcool/NeuSecure solution. "We'd like to think that our solution played an integral role in the company's security successes, but any best-of-breed program also requires strong security practitioners with a big picture vision. The security team at this telecommunications company is a perfect example."

AberdeenGroup researched more than 200 companies known to be operating at best-in-class levels. Subsequent blind interviews were conducted with more than 70 respondents to determine qualification status based on performance results. These resulted in more than 50 additional in-depth interviews to cover detailed best practices. Of the 50 sites that were interviewed in-depth, those profiled in this report were selected based on their metrics, practices, and were rank ordered by performance results. To view the complete AberdeenGroup report, you can register at http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/RA_BPSecNetInf_JH.asp

About Netcool/NeuSecure

Netcool/NeuSecure provides a centralized security event monitoring and response platform for log aggregation, event correlation, threat analysis, threat response and forensic investigation of the enormous quantities of security event data in heterogeneous enterprise, government and service provider networks. It correlates log data files from disparate machines such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, computer systems and routers and automatically analyzes this data to uncover legitimate threats to the enterprise. Netcool/NeuSecure allows security analysts to prioritize their investigations and focus on the mission-critical task of responding to threats as they are occurring, rather than after the damage is done. And with Netcool/NeuSecure a security team can manage threats from early detection to final resolution without ever leaving the intuitive, Web-based console.

About Micromuse

Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE) is the leading provider of ultra-scalable, realtime business and service assurance software solutions. The Netcool(R) software suite provides organizations with the assurance that their IT systems are supporting and driving profits 24 hours a day. Unlike traditional infrastructure management systems, Netcool solutions provide realtime end-to-end visibility and accurate troubleshooting from a business perspective. Such business intelligence allows organizations to respond to problems quickly, streamline workflow processes and improve business uptime. Micromuse customers include BT, Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Telekom, EarthLink, ITC^DeltaCom, JPMorgan Chase, MCI, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Headquarters are located at 139 Townsend Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94107; [phone]. The Web site is at www.micromuse.com.

Micromuse and Netcool are registered trademarks of Micromuse Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks in this document are the properties of their respective owners. Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include the following: fluctuations in customer demand, the Company's ability to manage its growth (including the ability to hire sufficient sales and technical personnel), the risks associated with the expansion of the Company's distribution channels, the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the Company's markets, the risks associated with competition, the risks associated with international sales as the Company expands its markets, and the ability of the Company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings, including but not limited to those appearing under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and on Form 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Company's Web site.