SSH, HIFN BROADEN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FOR HIGH-SPEED SECURITY SOLUTIONS.

SSH Communications Security (HEX:SSH1V), a developer of Internet security technologies, and world-leading network security and flow classification specialist Hifn (Nasdaq:HIFN), has expanded their long-term strategic partnership to provide interoperability between SSH's award-winning SSH IPSEC Express and IPSEC ApplianceO toolkits and Hifn's HSP (Hifn Security Platform), a unique collection of hardware and software that provide a full security reference solution.

HSP presents a uniform software interface to host computers, routers and other high-performance networking equipment, regardless of the capabilities of the underlying hardware. With HSP, manufacturers can benefit from advances in security processor performance, without investing significant software engineering resources. HSP includes a variety of protocol modules, covering the most widely used VPN (Virtual Private Network) protocols -- IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) and PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol). An easily programmable asynchronous API (Application Program Interface) simplifies HSP's integration into customers' network access products.

SSH's IPSec technology will interface with a broader range of Hifn's security processors via Hifn's HSP API, including the 7851 HIPP (Hifn Intelligent Packet Processing) Security Processor. The 7851, high-performance hardware, completes packet processing with less host CPU interaction, boosting speeds up to 500Mbps. Hifn's latest HIPP products include the 7851, 7814, 7854, and 8154.

"Hifn's new HSP is the key to providing cutting-edge, high-speed security solutions. Through this software, customers are able to update and strengthen their existing security measures with little downtime and without the costly development of new software," said Chris Kenber, president and CEO of Hifn. "The increased compatibility that HSP provides allows us to interoperate with best-of-breed solutions, such as SSH's IPSec technology."

SSH's IPSec toolkits enable faster time-to-market for vendors of network products and operating systems to add scalable, easily supportable, strong security across the Internet and other IP networks, without limiting their flexibility to enable new types of business opportunities, such as secure local and global communications for e-commerce and e-banking. SSH is the leading supplier of toolkits for implementation of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) based on the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) IPSec protocol -- the primary open standard for creation of secure and interoperable VPN products.

"Customer demand has brought SSH and Hifn closer together over this past year. As a result, SSH will now include software support options for a wider range of Hifn's hardware solutions for accelerating critical network security functions, including Hifn's latest HIPP products," said George Adams, president and CEO of SSH Communications Security, Inc. "SSH's IPSec software technology, combined with Hifn's packet processing chip products for multiple performance ranges, will provide customers with powerful network security for the widest range of product applications."

Founded in 1995, SSH Communications Security is a supplier of Internet security software for demanding network security solutions. SSH provides cryptography and authentication technologies for secure Internet communications. SSH IPSEC Express is the world-leading, award-winning toolkit for IPSec (Internet Protocol Security), IKE (Internet Key Exchange) and X.509 certificate management system solutions. Since 1997, numerous Internet infrastructure providers, OEMs, and system integrators have licensed SSH IPSEC Express to incorporate high security into their products. These customers include many IT market leaders such as Compaq, Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Nokia, and Sun Microsystems, among others. The company's award-winning SSH Secure Shell application has become the de-facto standard for secure logins with millions of users in over 80 countries.