Whale Communications' e-Gap Technology Enables Corporations to Securely Share Internal Applications on the Web.

FORT LEE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 22, 1999--

Introduces "Virtual Private Application" Concept

Whale Communications, a provider of unique secure communication solutions for electronic business, announced that its new e-Gap(tm) system enables organizations to share their internal applications securely on the Internet.

"With e-Gap, any Internet cafe can serve as an entry-point for employees and partners to access authorized areas such as e-mail, contact database, technical support, and other corporate back office applications," said Elad Baron, CEO of Whale. "The e-Gap system acts as a messenger to transfer information and applications between the corporation's back office and external partners. e-Gap accesses the internal applications on behalf of the external partner, keeping an impenetrable air gap between outsiders and the organization's internal systems."

VPA: Bringing the Application Out, Instead of Outsiders In

Typically, end-users are required to have dedicated hardware or software on their client machines to achieve secure access from outside the organization, using a technology known as "Virtual Private Network" or VPN. VPN ordinarily requires an on-going trust relationship between the involved parties, a condition which does not necessarily exist in today's e-business environment. Now, with Whale's e-Gap system in place at the server side, any client on the Internet can safely interact with back office applications using standard commercial browsers such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer.

Whale calls this configuration "Virtual Private Application," or VPA. While VPN technology allows network-level access to external end-users -- i.e. allowing trusted users into the back office network -- VPA technology virtually brings the application outside to the end-user, thus enabling organizations to share internal applications with partners, extended supply chain, customers and travelling employees.

"In today's collaborative environment, you want customers and partners to have access to critical back office applications, without them logging into your internal network," added Baron. "e-Gap gives granular access capability to applications without giving network level access."

Non-Secured Internal Apps become Secured External Apps

Whale's e-Gap supports internal applications such as Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, and other standard, Web-based Intranet applications. The e-Gap system encapsulates these non-secured internal applications within SSL protocol, the same protocol that is used for secure e-commerce transactions on the Internet. End-users can perform legitimate on-line transactions with the corporation's internal systems, even though they are an air gap away from the internal network. The e-Gap system provides its own authentication, and it can also interface with the organization's existing systems, such as authentication servers and physical tokens.

"Applications that were designed without security in mind can become instantly secured, since e-Gap translates the plain HTTP to Secured HTTPS," said Baron. "Even a company's prototype application - designed for internal use only - can be immediately published for external use since e-Gap can take care of the encryption and authentication."

Business-to-business applications that could benefit from the e-Gap system include corporate extranets, which are often used to exchange vital information such as CAD/CAM drawings, graphic designs and database entries. Applications designed for internal information-sharing can be published or "externalized" immediately and securely via the e-Gap.

The e-Gap system is based on Whale's patent-pending Air Gap technology, and it provides a solid-state data shuttle between the "De-Militarized Zone" and the company's internal network, thus eliminating potential attacks based on network protocols or operating system vulnerabilities. e-Gap keeps a physical air gap between the outside and internal networks, and makes reliable internal application sharing possibly without having to open any holes in a corporation's firewall.

About Whale Communications

Whale Communications Ltd. (http://www.whalecommunications.com) is a pioneering private company that specializes in unique security solutions for electronic business applications. Whale's e-Gap(tm) solutions enable on-line transactions to occur while maintaining a physical disconnection between the external, unsafe network (the Internet), and the internal, highly secured corporate back office. The BRM Group, one of the founders of Check Point Software Technologies, is a strategic investor in Whale.