Akonix Appoints Real-Time Communications Veteran Francis Costello as Chief Marketing Officer.

Business Editors

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2003

Akonix Creates New Position and Names Executive Responsible

for All Corporate Strategy and Global Marketing Efforts

Akonix Systems, Inc., the first company to make public Instant Messaging safe, secure and manageable for use in corporate networks, today announced the addition of Francis Costello to its executive management team. As Chief Marketing Officer, Costello will head the company's marketing and strategy efforts. He will report to Akonix President and CEO, Peter J. Shaw.

Most recently Mr. Costello was SVP, Strategy & Business Development at OneTouch Systems, a provider of live, interactive, video e-learning solutions. He also served as CEO of Infogate, leading the development of its desktop and mobile device alerting service. These services leveraged assets acquired from push technology pioneer PointCast, and were recently sold to America Online. Costello has also consulted to Fortune 1000 clients on strategic, market expansion and technology issues at McKinsey & Company, serving clients in financial services, technology, telecommunications and media.

"We are delighted to have attracted Francis to Akonix," said Peter J. Shaw. "His knowledge in applying real-time technology across diverse organizations from financial services to media will pay immediate dividends for our customers and partners, as they continue to leverage Instant Messaging and other applications enabled by Akonix's management solutions."

For more than a decade Mr. Costello has delivered technology solutions to industry leading customers including AOL Time Warner, General Motors, Safeway, Salomon Smith Barney, Citibank and CSFB Direct. Costello brings extensive management experience to Akonix, across a broad spectrum of disciplines including: strategic marketing, product management, corporate development and strategic alliances.

"I see tremendous potential in the market for Akonix's solutions," commented Costello. "Emerging real-time applications have the ability to empower business communications with the right management and control infrastructure. I look forward to building on Akonix's unique and comprehensive approach as well as their leading-edge customer base."

Mr. Costello holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

About Akonix

Akonix Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, California, is an award-winning provider of enterprise software that transforms public Instant Messaging (IM) into a safe, secure and manageable business-critical application. The company's offerings help corporations, public and private institutions and universities monitor, block and manage both public IM and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing. Backed by three premier venture capital firms, the company protects enterprise networks from the dangers of unmanaged public IM and P2P file sharing.

Akonix Rogue Aware is available for free download and monitors and reports on P2P and public IM use within an enterprise network. Akonix Enforcer protects organizations by preventing unauthorized use of P2P file sharing and public IM. Akonix L7 Enterprise enables corporations to secure, manage and report on IM usage, while satisfying Federal, industry and corporate compliance requirements. Free trials of all of the products are available for download at www.akonix.com/freetrial. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.akonix.com.

Akonix is a registered trademark of Akonix Systems, Inc. All other trademarks, tradenames, service marks, service names and images mentioned and/or used herein belong to their respective owners.