SurfControl Warns This Year's Superbowl May Send Corporate Networks into Overtime.

Business/Technology Editors

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001

Cyberslacking Gets a Boost as Visits to Football Related Web Sites

from Work Could Tackle Corporate Productivity and Network Bandwidth

With the Superbowl less than three weeks away, an increasing number of fans are using their fast Internet connections at work to download the latest scores and highlights from such popular Web sites as "NFL.com" and "Sportsline.com." While these sports sites allow even the occasional football fan to get in the game, it also causes major headaches for corporate America - as the increase in non-business browsing affects worker productivity and constrains network bandwidth.

A recent survey of general Internet users conducted by SurfControl, the leader in Responsible Internet Usage, found that 52% of respondents openly admitted to using the Internet for personal reasons while at work -- with more than 20% of this traffic attributed to football-related Web sites.

"Superbowl Sunday is clearly one of the biggest sporting events held each year and the various Web sites are doing their best to get millions of visitors to take part in polls, read pre-game analyses, and so on," said Kevin Blakeman, President, SurfControl. "Unfortunately, many people are visiting these sites using company time and resources."

A recent study conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings indicates the opening of football season this past September caused traffic on "NFL.com" to grow a dramatic 46% in a period of one week (August 27 - September 3). In addition, during that same week, "Sportsline.com" became the 24th most visited Web site at work, with an estimated 1.5 million unique visitors. Nielsen//NetRatings has also shown these sites grow remarkably during big sporting events, such as the Superbowl and baseball's American and National League Divisional Championships- when traffic at "majorleaguebaseball.com" rose an outstanding 118% during work hours.

"When corporate Internet resources are overused for non-business purposes, companies are not only exposed to extreme bandwidth constraints - but declines in employee productivity as well," continued Blakeman. "By working to develop a manageable Acceptable Use Policy within each organization - and installing effective filtering solutions such as SuperScout - companies can teach their employees how to leverage all that the Internet has to offer, without hurting productivity."

Companies wanting more information on how to protect worker productivity through the installation of Internet monitoring and access control software can log onto www.surfcontrol.com.

About SurfControl plc

SurfControl plc (EASDAQ:SRFC/London:SRF), is a world leader in Responsible Internet Usage offering a complete line of Internet filtering solutions for use in the home, education and the corporation. The SurfControl family of products employs expert filtering, Pass-Through, and Pass-By technologies to create a productive Internet environment in the workplace and a child safe room on the Internet at home and at school.

This comprehensive line of Internet monitoring and policy management solutions includes SuperScout- the market leader in Internet productivity in the corporation; Cyber Patrol - the market leader in responsible Internet usage in the home and at school; and the SurfControl Software Developers Kit - the proven filtering solution for ISPs, Search Engines, Internet Appliances and ASPs.

SurfControl works with a variety of partners such as AltaVista, CheckPoint Software (NASDAQ:CHKP), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Google, Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HWP), IBM (NYSE:IBM), ICSA, Microsoft's Web TV (NASDAQ:MSFT), Netscape, WorldGate (NASDAQ:WGAT), and YAHOO! (NASDAQ:YHOO).

SurfControl employs over 300 people worldwide and has offices in the USA in California and Massachusetts; in the UK in Manchester and London; Rotterdam, Holland; Vienna, Austria; Frankfurt, Germany; Sydney, Australia.

For further information and news on SurfControl, please visit http://www.surfcontrol.com