F5 Partners With Secure Computing to Launch First Reputation-Based Message Security Module for BIG-IP(R).

Leveraging Secure Computing's TrustedSource, New BIG-IP Message Security Module Filters Spam and Other Message Security Threats at the Network Edge

SEATTLE -- F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, and Secure Computing Corporation (NASDAQ:SCUR), a leading enterprise gateway security company, today jointly announced the industry's first reputation-based network edge security module. The new BIG-IP([R]) Message Security Module (MSM), leveraging reputation data from Secure Computing's TrustedSource[TM] multi-identity reputation engine, extends protection for enterprise message applications to the edge of the corporate network and provides businesses with a more powerful and efficient tool for dealing with the growing volume of unwanted email.

BIG-IP MSM can eliminate up to 70 percent of unwanted email at the edge of the network utilizing TrustedSource Co before it gets through the firewall Co significantly increasing the scaling capacity of existing enterprise anti-spam solutions.

"BIG-IP MSM gives organizations a cost-effective way to scale their anti-spam and mail infrastructure by identifying and rejecting or quarantining email at the network edge," said Jason Needham, Director of Product Management at F5 Networks. "Now, customers can leverage the power and flexibility of their existing BIG-IP deployments to perform a real-time lookup of sender reputation from the most advanced reputation engine in the world, Secure Computing's TrustedSource. BIG-IP MSM is a powerful proof point of the TMOS architecture's modularity and flexibility, further demonstrating its value to customers. This is the first step toward F5's unique vision of creating an open and integrated application delivery network utilizing our own best-of-breed technology as well as other vendors' like Secure Computing."

"With spam volume doubling every six months, enterprise message infrastructures are being pummeled by increased email and spam loads," said Farzad Tari, Vice President of Business Development at Secure Computing. "Enterprises constantly should be reviewing their security initiatives to not only identify and block unwanted mail from reaching the desktop, but also to push this capability as far out as possible to realize maximum cost savings in bandwidth and management. Secure Computing and F5 are leading the charge with the first announcement of such an initiative to take reputation filtering to the edge, and enterprises worldwide will benefit."

TrustedSource Critical Component

TrustedSource analyzes global real-time data to filter messages based on reputations assigned for multiple identities (IP, domain, URL and Message), adding a necessary layer of security that content-based inspection cannot provide, such as protection against image-based spam and an exploding zombie population. Because BIG-IP MSM runs on F5's unique TMOS architecture, it is easy to install as an add-on module to existing BIG-IP version 9.x systems. Best of all, customers can benefit from this BIG-IP capability to reduce the load on any type of second tier anti-spam inspection, providing more diversity for filtering and reducing the number of devices required.

"The TrustedSource reputation engine cuts the amount of junk email reaching our end users. That helps us save a significant amount of bandwidth and prevents us from having to add more servers to handle all that load," said Franklin Warlick, Internet Postmaster at Cox Communications. "The Secure Computing and F5 partnership will give the F5 BIG-IP product line this valuable functionality that will be a big benefit to customers."

According to Gartner, up to 70 percent of organizations' incoming email is spam1. Such unwanted email can include security risks like viruses, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, Trojans, and other malicious threats Co often sent by one of the more than 250,000 new zombies that Secure Computing's TrustedSource system typically identifies every day. According to Secure Computing, the global volume of spam sent each day has more than doubled in the last nine months and shows no signs of slowing down.

TrustedSource is the most advanced reputation system on the market and provides a sophisticated view into multiple identities (IP Reputation, URL Reputation, Domain Reputation, Message Reputation). The engine enables automated tuning and intelligent datamining in real time, critical as threats dynamically evolve. The end result is proactive reputation filtering to block spam, viruses, phishing or other malware; identify zombies and fraud; provide forensic information across trends and suspicious activity; and safeguard legitimate mail. TrustedSource receives data from a variety of sources, including billions of consumer/ISP messages as well as enterprise messages collected from Secure Computing's network of more than 6,500 sensors located in enterprises and government institutions globally.

BIG-IP MSM Offers Reliable and Secure Access

BIG-IP MSM incorporates reputation-based message management, which goes far beyond blocking the known 'bad' emails by giving customers the ability to set up sophisticated message distribution policies, based on sender reputation. This allows enterprises to intelligently filter or divide messages among multiple message scanning infrastructure tiers for a faster and more cost-effective approach. The solution works in conjunction with any anti-spam solution or email server.

BIG-IP MSM is a critical component of the F5 family of security solutions for Message infrastructure. These solutions provide reliable and secure access to legitimate business messages and ensure that email is delivered efficiently, with minimal latency and a dramatic improvement in performance. F5 security solutions for Message systems also enable organizations to reduce their bandwidth expenditures, use fewer server resources, reduce their business continuity risks, and lower their overall infrastructure costs.

1 "Hype Cycle for Cyberthreats, 2006," Amrit Williams, Gartner, Inc. September 2006

Availability

General availability of the BIG-IP MSM is in January 2007. For more information on F5's partnership with Secure Computing, please visit http://www.f5.com/solutions/partners/tech/.

About Secure Computing

Secure Computing (NASDAQ:SCUR), a leading provider of enterprise gateway security, delivers a comprehensive set of solutions that help customers protect their critical Web, email and network assets. Over half the Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 are part of our more than 19,000 global customers in 106 countries, supported by a worldwide network of more than 1,900 partners. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and has offices worldwide. For more information, see http://www.securecomputing.com.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast and available for everyone, helping organizations get the most out of their investment. By adding intelligence and manageability into the network to offload applications, F5 optimizes applications and allows them to work faster and consume fewer resources. F5's extensible architecture intelligently integrates application optimization, protects the application and the network, and delivers application reliability Co all on one universal platform. Over 10,000 organizations and service providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their applications running. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

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