Fila Blocks 20,000 Spam Messages Per Day with Tumbleweed's Email Firewall Appliance.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2004

Leading Footwear and Apparel Manufacturer Improves User Productivity

and Network Security with Integrated Spam Blocking,

Virus Scanning and Email Relay Capabilities

Tumbleweed(R) Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD), a leading provider of mission-critical Internet communications software for enterprises, financial services organizations and government, announced today that footwear and apparel designer and distributor Fila has selected and deployed the Tumbleweed Email Firewall(TM) to combat spam, detect and kill email-borne computer viruses, and relay email messages to and from the Internet. Tumbleweed's email firewall is now identifying and blocking over 20,000 spam email messages per day, which represents 50% of the company's inbound email.

"We evaluated a number of vendors to fight the company's growing spam problem," said Brian Quill, Project Leader/Network Systems at Fila. "We selected Tumbleweed because of its automatic spam update service as well as its turnkey appliance approach to providing email hygiene."

Fila is a leading designer and distributor of footwear and apparel for sport and leisurewear. Email is a mission-critical business resource for Fila, but the company's employees working at offices in Maryland and New York were each receiving as many as 200 spam messages a day. Frustrated, users turned to the IT organization for help in fighting the constant flood of spam entering their inboxes.

The Fila IT team tested the Tumbleweed Email Firewall and Tumbleweed Dynamic Anti-Spam Service(TM) along with products from three other vendors. After a thorough test of each spam solution, Fila selected Tumbleweed because of its ability to automatically provide spam protection updates based on new heuristic defenses as they are published, similar to the way anti-virus engines work. Fila also uses the Tumbleweed Email Firewall to scan inbound messages for viruses, and to route and deliver high volumes of inbound and outbound email messages using the SMTP relay capability built into the email firewall.

Using the Tumbleweed Email Firewall, Fila identifies and blocks over 50% of incoming email as spam with virtually no false positives, allowing employees to be more productive. Because the Dynamic Anti-spam Service automatically updates the company's spam defenses, IT staff can now spend their time on other critical projects.

About the Tumbleweed's Email Firewall

Tumbleweed Email Firewall has been recognized as the #1 enterprise software solution for fighting spam according to Network World (http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0915spam.html), and the #1 email firewall software for large enterprises by Information Security Magazine. Tumbleweed Email Firewall protects, filters and secures email traffic at the Internet gateway with an integrated set of anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-hacker, content filtering, email relay, and encrypted messaging capabilities -- minimizing email communications risks and reducing email management costs. Tumbleweed Email Firewall is used by over 400 of the largest, most demanding messaging infrastructures in the world, and is available in both appliance and software editions.

About Tumbleweed's Dynamic Anti-Spam Service

The Tumbleweed Dynamic Anti-Spam Service (DAS) is rated as the top anti-spam software and appliance for large enterprises by Network World magazine, and the product is currently used to block over 32 million spam messages per day on behalf of our customers. DAS is an Internet-based subscription service that updates the Tumbleweed email firewall with new heuristic defenses as they are published, similar to the way anti-virus engines work. The email firewall includes a highly effective Spam Analysis Engine, which automates the identification of spam using powerful heuristics-based analysis technology; typical customers see an immediate 90%+ capture rate with one-tenth of one percent false positive rate before tuning. Tumbleweed's Message Protection Lab develops and publishes the heuristic updates: the Lab is staffed by experts who continually analyze spam to identify new spammer trends and tactics, and create and publish new heuristics to stop them. The Lab analyzes both spam and legitimate email gathered internationally and provided by enterprise customers, to ensure that the Dynamic Anti-Spam Service minimizes false positives in a business environment.

"Firms like Fila are benefiting significantly from the anti-spam expertise and 24x7 coverage provided by our Message Protection Lab," said Dave Jevans, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Tumbleweed Communications. "This leveraged model of fighting email threats has been proven in the anti-virus marketplace, and is a critical requirement companies should look for when choosing an anti-spam or email hygiene vendor."

About Fila

Fila is a subsidiary of Sport Brands International. Fila is a leading designer and distributor of footwear and apparel for sport and leisurewear. It has developed strong brand recognition by marketing products with a high design and style content that are endorsed by professional athletes around the world, including tennis champions Jennifer Capriati and Kim Clijsters, NBA basketball star Grant Hill, perennial MLB All-Star Barry Bonds, 2001 LPGA rookie of the Year Hee-Won Han, and Olympic skiing champion Alberto Tomba.

About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.

Tumbleweed is a leading provider of mission-critical Internet communications software products for enterprises, financial services organizations and government. By making Internet communications secure, reliable and automated, Tumbleweed's email firewall, secure file transfer, secure email, and identity validation solutions help customers significantly reduce the cost of doing business. Tumbleweed products are used by millions of end-users and tens of thousands of corporations. Tumbleweed customers include ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the US Navy and Marine Corps. Tumbleweed Communications was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650-216-2000.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on current plans and expectations, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the features, performance, and reputation of Tumbleweed's Email Firewall products and Dynamic Anti-spam Service. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed June 4, 2003, Form 10-Q filed November 14, 2003, and Form S-3/A filed December 19, 2003.

Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, which represents the company's expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the company's expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on either company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that either company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.