Sourcefire Awards Two Scholarships Recognizing the Use of Snort(R) as an Educational Tool; As the Leading IPS Teaching Tool, Snort Enables Next Generation of Security Professionals to Build Real-World Expertise.

COLUMBIA, Md. -- Open source innovator, Sourcefire, Inc., the world leader in network intrusion prevention and creators of Snort(R), today announced the winners of its second annual Snort Scholarship Program. Sourcefire awarded two $5,000 scholarships to university students who are using Snort to further their research and real-world experience.

"With more than 3 million downloads to date, Snort not only protects the assets of some of the world's leading organizations, but it is also the leading training tool for providing practical intrusion detection and prevention experience to professionals and students worldwide," said Tom McDonough, Sourcefire President and COO. "Our goal with this scholarship program is to reward the next generation of Snort users while ensuring that the open source community is continually infused with new ideas and innovations."

To qualify for this award, participants needed to be enrolled in a Snort-certified University that uses Snort or Sourcefire products to protect their network or use Snort as part of the curriculum in a security class. After receiving hundreds of applications, Sourcefire choose the two winners:

--Christian Seifert, who is working on a PhD in Computer Security at Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand. As part of Christian's research, he is using Snort to evaluate how honeynets can be used as intrusion prevention systems.

--Randy Smith, who is working on a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin. Randy is using Snort as a platform for performing research into high performance intrusion detection and prevention.

Explaining the value of Snort as a teaching tool, Cristian Estan, Student Advisor at the University of Wisconsin, stated: "We use Snort as part of our research program in network security. The fact that the source and the signatures are openly available allows us to freely explore and evaluate novel alternatives that advance the state of the art in network intrusion prevention. Such progress helps make the Internet a more secure place for users in general, with those protected by Snort being among the first to benefit."

As the de facto standard for intrusion prevention, Snort has been downloaded more than 3 million times and has over 100,000 active users. Sourcefire's award-winning Vulnerability Research Team works closely with the open source community to develop the official VRT Certified Snort Rules that are distributed on Snort.org. This partnership results in a much faster response to new threats while maintaining unparalleled quality and performance. Snort Rules continue to be the industry standard with download rates for rule updates tripling over the last year alone. The Sourcefire VRT Certified Rules represent the pinnacle of Snort Rules development and the best detection rule sets for Snort.

About Sourcefire

Sourcefire, Inc., the world leader in intrusion prevention, is transforming the way organizations manage and minimize network security risks with its 3D Approach - Discover, Determine, Defend - to securing real networks in real time. The company's ground-breaking network defense system unifies intrusion and vulnerability management technologies to provide customers with the most effective network security available. Founded in 2001 by the creator of Snort(R), Sourcefire is headquartered in Columbia, MD, and has been consistently recognized for its innovation and industry leadership by customers, media, and industry analysts alike - with more than 16 awards and accolades since January 2005 alone. Most recently, the company was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner's "Magic Quadrant for Network Intrusion Prevention System Appliances" report, and the Sourcefire 3D System was named "Best Security Solution" at the 2006 SC Magazine Awards. At work in leading Fortune 1000 and government agencies, the names Sourcefire and founder Martin Roesch have grown synonymous with innovation and intelligence in network security.

For more information about Sourcefire, please visit http://www.sourcefire.com.