Australian Corporations Rolling the Dice by Allowing Employee Access to Online Gambling Sites; Number of Internet Gambling Sites Grows 80 Percent, According to Websense Inc.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2001

Forget about the local TAB down the road and pubs with pokies around the corner. A recent explosion in online gambling sites means Australians don't even have to set foot outside their offices to have a quick flutter.

In fact, the number of gambling sites on the Web has spiked to more than 31,000, an 80 percent increase in one year, according to Websense Inc., the world's leading employee Internet management (EIM) company.

The surge in Web sites means that Internet gambling is booming. However, corporations won't be cashing in their chips. Because 67 percent of all Internet access occurs at work, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, thousands of employees have the opportunity to gamble daily, on company time. In fact, according to some research, more than 1 million people gamble regularly online, and one in four percent are considered pathological.

With an estimated 290,000 chronic gamblers in Australia and hoards of international gambling sites setting up shop, the problem is growing increasingly bothersome for corporations.

"With the Federal Government Internet Gambling Ban, network administrators simply won't be able to keep up with the banned site listings -- even if they made it their full-time job," said Andrew Spence, product and marketing manager for Digital Network Australia. "DNA recommends organizations install an employee Internet management (EIM) product to automate employee access to illegal gambling sites."

Gambling sites currently pull in more than $3 billion a year, a figure that could double in the next two years according to Bear Stearns. Perhaps more shocking is gambling generates more revenue than movies, spectator sports, theme parks, cruise ships and recorded music combined.

"Websense tracks the online gambling category very carefully for our customers," said Harold Kester, chief technology officer for Websense. "Many of our clients, including half of the Fortune 500 and 42 of the FTSE 100, are becoming increasingly aware of the productivity and legal issues surrounding online gambling at work. Our Websense Digital Fingerprinting system, featuring highly proprietary classification techniques, enables us to stay on top of this worldwide phenomenon."

About Digital Network Australia

Digital Networks Australia (DNA) provides its business partners with the best quality products through first class distribution services. Specialising in software and hardware connectivity products for Local and Wide Area Systems Networking, DNA began providing solutions to network requirements in 1993. It supports a broad range of products that provide connectivity across all mainstream local area network technologies, including Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI and ATM, and across wide area connections utilizing such technologies as ISDN. DNA is an ISO 9002 quality certified company.

About Websense Inc.

Websense Inc. (NASDAQ:WBSN) is the worldwide leader of employee Internet management (EIM) solutions. Websense Enterprise software enables businesses to manage how their employees use the Internet. This supports an organization's efforts to improve employee productivity, conserve network bandwidth and storage costs, and mitigate legal liability. Founded in 1994, the company serves more than 14,000 customers worldwide, ranging in size from 100-person firms to global-sized corporations. These include 250 of the Fortune 500, 69 of the Nikkei 225 and 42 of the FTSE 100, encompassing more than 8.9 million customer seats, pre-paid on a subscription basis.

Websense is listed on the year 2001 Software 500 ranking and has been honored by the Deloitte & Touche "Technology Fast 50" program. The company also has strategic technology relationships with CacheFlow (NASDAQ: CFLO), Check Point (NASDAQ: CHKP), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Inktomi, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Network Appliance (NASDAQ: NTAP) and others. For more information, visit www.websense.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "planned," "expects," "believes," "strategy," "opportunity," "anticipates" and similar words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors that may cause the company's actual results to be materially different from historical results or any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date hereof. The potential risks and uncertainties which could cause actual growth and results to differ materially include but are not limited to, customer acceptance of the company's services, products and fee structures, the success of the company's brand development efforts, the volatile and competitive nature of the Internet industry, and changes in domestic and international market conditions, and foreign exchange rates. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect Websense's business, financial condition and results of operations are included under the "Risk Factors" or "Factors Affecting our Operating Results" sections of Websense's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at (http://www.sec.gov).