Astaro Security Gateway Receives Common Criteria Certification.

First UTM Appliance to Be Certified by German BSI 

BURLINGTON, Mass. and Karlsruhe, Germany -- Astaro Corporation (www.astaro.com) today announced that their Astaro Security Gateway Firewall series has received the coveted Common Criteria certification from the German Federal Office for Information Security BSI (Bundesamt fE-r Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik). This certification will serve to assure customers, including those within the government sector, that Astaro's systems and processes have been successfully tested by an independent and accredited evaluation laboratory, and conform to IT security standards sanctioned by the International Standards Organization.

Astaro is a leading developer of unified threat management (UTM) network security appliances. Astaro's family of Security Gateways protect computer networks from a variety of threats including viruses, hackers, spam, spyware, phishing, and unauthorized content.

Common Criteria for IT Security Evaluation (CC), also known as ISO standard 15408, was collectively developed by the national security organizations of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands. It is a standard for evaluating the security features and capabilities of information technology products and is accepted by many countries around the globe.

"Large enterprises, healthcare and government agencies demand the strictest of security standards," said Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro. "Astaro's products had already received firewall certification from ICSA Labs and we are very proud that our products are now the first and only UTM appliances to have received Common Criteria certification from the German BSI".

After the first BSI approval in November 2005, Astaro Security Gateway was then thoroughly scrutinized under a long and rigorous evaluation phase conducted by Atsec, an independent evaluation laboratory with many years of experience in Common Criteria validation. During this phase Atsec evaluated not only Astaro's firewall but also Astaro's internal processes for product development, testing, configuration, delivery, operation and documentation.

"We are pleased that Astaro has demonstrated a strategic commitment for developing high-quality products that conform to international IT security standards," said Thomas Borsch, team leader certification at BSI. "Customers who buy Astaro Security Gateway solutions are able to fully rely on the products, assured in the fact that the company will also provide professional support".

The Common Criteria certificate has been issued for Astaro Security Gateway V6.300, which runs on all Astaro appliances as well as on Intel-compatible servers.

More information about Astaro's Common Criteria certification can be found under http://www.bsi.bund.de/zertifiz/zert/report.htm#Firewalls

About Astaro Products

The Astaro Security Gateway, available as software or appliance, fully integrates all perimeter security applications required to protect a corporate network in one simple-to-manage solution:

Email Security

* Virus Protection for Email - catches viruses in conventional (SMTP and POP3) emails and attachments.

* Spam Protection - uses nine different techniques to filter out spam and without stopping legitimate emails.

* Phishing Protection -blocks emails from criminals trying to trick users into revealing confidential information.

Web Security

* Spyware Protection - detects and blocks spyware infection attempts as well as spyware communication from already infected systems

* Virus Protection for the Web - defends computers from virus infections from web downloads and web-based emails.

* Content Filtering (Surf Protection) - can block Internet access to 60 categories of web sites.

Network Security

* Firewall - guards Internet communications traffic in and out of the organization with stateful packet inspection and application-level proxies.

* Intrusion Protection - detects and blocks probes and application-based attacks using heuristics, anomaly detection, and pattern-based techniques.

* Virtual Private Network Gateway - assures secure communications with remote offices, "road warriors," and telecommuters.

About Astaro

Astaro Corporation is headquartered in Burlington, Mass. and Karlsruhe, Germany. The Astaro Security Gateway has won numerous industry awards and is protecting over 30,000 networks in 60 countries, including such companies as Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Los Alamos National Labs, Stanford University and Watsco, Inc. Astaro products are distributed by a worldwide network of 450 solutions partners who offer local support and services. Visit www.astaro.com.