Sphere Communications Gets Approval from Department of Defense for Military IP-PBX Applications - Meets Demands for Security, Reliability and Performance.

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. -- Sphericall completes rigorous testing with Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for PBX2 Certification

Sphere Communications announces that the U.S. Department of Defense has completed interoperability and information assurance testing of Sphere's IP-PBX enterprise telecommunications system, including its newly released Sphericall 4 Call Manager and Desktop software.

This is the most rigorous security testing available today and is required for compliance with federal government requirements for use by the Department of Defense.

The Information Assurance testing process is a highly rigorous series of security testing that evaluates the capabilities and the resilience of an enterprise telecommunications solution. The Sphere configuration consisted of its Sphericall 4 software and VG3 media gateways. A free White Paper that covers these and other security considerations are available from the Sphere web site at www.spherecom.com.

"The quality of the Sphere architecture combined with their open standards approach and scalability will continue to put Sphere on the map." said Jeff Sinclair, Vice President of Pacific Star Communications.

Pacific Star Communications, ("PacStar"), provides advanced network equipment and services to Federal clients worldwide and was recently highlighted as one of the fastest growing VARBusiness 500 companies. PacStar is a Sphere Certified Partner and delivers Sphere products to United States military and civilian agency customers through its extensive GSA (General Services Administration) schedule.

"The number of IP-based telecommunications products with the ability to complete the stringent testing for the Department of Defense is limited." said Sinclair, "Sphere is the only software-based IP-PBX to successfully complete these tests. We are excited to be able to provide this technology to our customers."

The Sphere system completed the PBX2 certification, under which the DoD's Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) has determined that the Sphere system meets critical interoperability requirements and achieves 99.999% reliability as defined in its Generic Switching Center Requirements (GSCR).

The testing process follows standards defined in the National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Policy and is based on:

--International Common Criteria (CC) for Information Security Technology Evaluation Mutual Recognition Arrangement;

--National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) validation program;

--National Security Agency (NSA) and NIST National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) evaluation and validation program; and

--Department of Defense policy and guidance for the protection of voice signaling and bearer traffic.

The testing included a comprehensive vulnerability assessment following NIAP guidelines on Network Security Testing. The objective was to determine the resilience of a voice solution to common types of attacks such as denial of service, malformed packets, LAND-type attacks, etc. Several types of network security testing techniques employed include Network Mapping, Vulnerability Scanning, Penetration Testing, Security Test & Evaluation, Password Cracking, Log Reviews, File Integrity Checkers, Virus Detectors and War Dialing.

"There is not a more rigorous set of testing in the industry", said Chuck Pearson, CEO of Sphere Communications, "Sphere is pleased to be the only IP-based open system to meet this challenge, and this achievement clearly illustrates the degree of quality engineered into the Sphere system."

Security and resiliency is extremely important in enterprise telecommunications and the questions rose by enterprises regarding IP-based voice and open systems are warranted. Sphere has taken a significant step in providing validation of its Sphericall system by subjecting it to this stringent battery of tests.

About Sphere Communications

Sphere is the leading provider of enterprise telecommunications software technology, providing truly integrated voice, video and data communications solutions. Sphere Communications has hundreds of installed customer networks and was first to deliver IP PBX systems into the market. Founded in 1994 Sphere Communications headquarters is located in Lincolnshire, Illinois and provides its products to a variety of enterprise customer networks. For more information please see the Sphere Communications web site at www.spherecom.com.

About Industry References

NSTISSP #11 is national security policy governing the acquisition of information assurance (IA) and IA enabled information technology products (www.nstissc.gov/Assets/pdf/NSTISSP_11_revised_fst.pdf).

ICC is an alignment of the existing European, US and Canadian information technology security criteria; ITSEC, TCSEC and CTCPEC respectively (www.commoncriteriaportal.org).

FIPS are issued by NIST for federal government requirements including computer security and interoperability (www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs).

NIST is a federal technology agency that develops measurement, standards and technology (www.nist.gov).

NSA protects U.S. information systems including all classified and sensitive information that is stored or sent through U.S. government equipment (www.nsa.gov).

NIAP develops security requirements and evaluation measures for IT systems under the Computer Security Act of 1987 (http://niap.nist.gov).

JITC evaluates and certifies all information technology systems for the Department of Defense (http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil).

GSCR defines interconnection requirements for the Defense Switched Network, a worldwide private line telephone network (http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/tssi/certdocs.html).

All logos and markings are trademarks of the representative companies. All rights reserved.