GTE Expands Its Check Point Firewall-1-based Security Solutions, Supporting New and Pre-Existing Firewalls With Fully Managed and Shared Management Solutions.

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 1999--

GTE offers one of the broadest arrays of managed security

services in the industry

GTE Internetworking, a division of GTE Corporation (NYSE:GTE), today announced three new versions of its Site Patrol(SM) managed security services. These new services enable customers to choose between fully managed or shared management solutions, providing customers with the choice of installing entirely new firewall systems, or enabling the managed services on firewalls already purchased by the customer.

The new services are based on technology from Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq:CHKP) and are designed to address the growing need for protection against sophisticated hackers. Until today, companies had limited options when choosing a managed security service. With Site Patrol for FireWall-1, GTE enables large enterprises to leverage their extensive security expertise, while choosing the extent to which they want to be involved in managing their environment. GTE Internetworking's security experts have logged over seven million hours monitoring and providing managed firewall and intrusion detection.

"Our company recognizes the strategic value of the Internet as a tool to link customers, design chain partners and employees as part of the product development process," said Tim Howard, director of information technology at collaborative software vendor Matrix One, in Chelmsford, Mass. "We also realize the Internet's inherent security challenges, but our busy IT department lacks the dedicated, full-time resources to address these challenges. GTE Internetworking's Site Patrol for FireWall-1 gives us an effective Internet security solution without draining our resources."

By giving corporations more choices to fully outsource or share the management of their Internet security, GTE Internetworking now provides the security industry's broadest spectrum of options, based on Check Point Technologies' FireWall-1, for prevention of attacks and intrusions on a corporation's network perimeter.

"As a valued partner, GTE has listened to corporate customers by offering a variety of managed FireWall-1-based services to meet their individual security requirements" said Scott Steigerwald, vice president of Global Accounts for Check Point Software Technologies. "With a suite of services ranging from shared to fully outsourced, the new Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family provides a complete Internet security solution to a broad range of organizations."

In all scenarios, customers benefit from one of the world's largest and most experienced security staffs monitoring the corporate network against intrusion and theft. The four Check Point for FireWall-1 based security services now available as part of the Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family include:

-- Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Managed Plus - a fully managed solution that includes GTE owned and maintained firewall hardware and software.

-- Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Managed - a fully managed service allowing existing Check Point FireWall-1 customers or customers who prefer to own FireWall-1 themselves to upgrade to a managed service and use their current firewall hardware and software.

-- Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Shared Plus - a shared management service that gives the customer hands on control over security policy and firewall configuration changes with all hardware and software supplied by GTE.

-- Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Shared - a shared management service allowing existing Check Point FireWall-1 customers or customers who prefer to own FireWall-1 themselves to upgrade to a managed service and use their current firewall hardware and software.

Site Patrol for FireWall-1

GTE's Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family of services includes 24 x 7 proactive monitoring and an automatic event alert system, Security Incident Rapid Response (SIRR), which generates alerts that are sent to GTE security experts when suspicious activities occur. At the time of a potential security event, a GTE security representative follows a set of established and proven procedures to respond effectively to an attack. If necessary, GTE can isolate an attacker to prevent further intrusion, or in the case of a major security event, temporarily shut down the customer's Internet service from the global GTE Network Operations Center until the security incident is resolved.

Additionally, GTE's Site Patrol family includes firewall management and maintenance and automatic security updates so a Site Patrol customer's security policy is always up-to-date and properly configured. The Managed and Managed Plus services offer a comprehensive process Service Level Agreement (SLA) guaranteeing that authorized security policy and firewall configuration change requests are handled within 24 hours or the customer receives a refund.

"As more companies transform their businesses into e-businesses, security becomes more important than ever. We recognize that these companies have differing requirements for security implementation," says Robert McKinney, director of GTE's VPN and Internet Security Services division. "GTE's Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family offers one of the industry's most comprehensive suites of managed Internet security services, which allows our enterprise customers to address their unique concerns while safeguarding their networks with the highest level of perimeter protection."

The GTE Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family is available immediately in the U.S. through all GTE sales channels. International availability is scheduled for the October timeframe. Pricing starts at $1,600 per month for a shared management solution utilizing the customer's own hardware and FireWall-1 software (Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Shared), and $2,750 for a fully managed, complete turnkey solution with GTE-owned hardware and software (Site Patrol for FireWall-1 Managed Plus).

About GTE Internetworking

GTE Internetworking, a unit of GTE Corporation (NYSE: GTE), offers customers, from consumers to Fortune 500 companies, a full spectrum of integrated Internet services using IP networking technologies. GTE Internetworking delivers complete network solutions, including dial-up and dedicated Internet access, high-performance Web hosting, virtual private networks (VPNs), managed Internet security, network management, systems integration, and Web-based application development for integrating the Internet into business operations. Additional information about GTE Internetworking and GTE Corp. can be found on the Internet at http://www.gte.com.

GTE Site Patrol is a service mark of GTE Internetworking Inc. All other service marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.