Facetime Release Unified Security Gateway For Web 2.0 Applications

PRESS RELEASE

BELMONT, Calif. (September 30, 2009) " FaceTime Communications (www.facetime.com) today announced the release of the Unified Security Gateway (USG) 3.0, the first secure Web gateway to combine content monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking, instant messaging, and Unified Communications, with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus protection.

USG 3.0 provides granular control of not only Web sites and applications but also the content posted to blogs, wikis, webmail and social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Such content can be monitored, secured and recorded " reducing outbound data leakage and enabling compliance with industry regulations, legal discovery requirements, and corporate policy standards.

Increasingly, corporations, financial institutions, government agencies, schools, and other organizations are finding that Web 2.0 platforms are an important medium for communicating with employees, partners and customers, but their traditional security solutions do not combat the risks associated with these collaborative technologies.

Additionally, Web 2.0 platforms introduce new compliance and policy challenges. For instance, financial advisors already using IM now also use Twitter and other channels to communicate with clients; yet regulatory bodies such as FINRA require that these communications be monitored and archived. Schools are required to comply with the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA), but also need to find a way to allow access to educational sites and even YouTube videos without enabling access to harmful content. Government agencies and corporations worry about sensitive information leaking out over Twitter or Facebook.

"Users will continue to bring Web 2.0 applications into enterprise networks and IT managers can either try to lock down the network, or they can secure these applications and reap the benefits of social media collaboration while regaining control," said Kailash Ambwani, president and CEO of FaceTime Communications. "USG 3.0 delivers unique capabilities in not just monitoring and securing inbound and outbound content over Web 2.0 and Internet applications, but also in our innovative reporting, providing a birds-eye view of user behavior across all the modalities of Web, social networks, IM and Unified Communications platforms " providing a clear understanding of a user's complete activity."

Organizations are now faced with the challenge of managing and securing the converging worlds of enterprise communications and collaboration on the one hand and publicly available social networks and Web 2.0 applications on the other.

FaceTime's survey of 1,100 worldwide IT Managers, in June 2009, revealed that social network usage in the enterprise is widely accepted by IT professionals, however, two-thirds of respondents placed high-importance on controlling which groups or individuals can use social networking on the enterprise network and for how long. Eighty percent of the over 1,100 IT Managers surveyed saw information leakage as a primary concern, with malware propagation over such networks seen as a key issue by 90 percent of respondents.

According to the "Hype Cycle for Infrastructure Protection, 2009" published by the Gartner Group: "The Web is simultaneously becoming more important and more dangerous to modern business. Web 2.0-based applications and services, such as Skype and salesforce.com, have the ability to cut costs and improve productivity. Organizations are increasingly interested in opening up Web access to Web 2.0 applications, such as social networking and IM, but are concerned about security risks. Concurrently, the Internet is also the primary source of malware infection and the primary channel for data loss due to external hacking. Yet fewer than 20% of organizations have adequate solutions to effectively protect their endpoints from Web-based attack and effectively manage Web participation"

Traditional security tools, such as firewalls and URL filters are bypassed by the thousands of applications, such as streaming audio and video, file sharing and collaboration tools, which are capable of hopping from port to port, using encryption and non-standard protocols, and tunneling over HTTP.

We knew that some degree of Web 2.0 application usage was happening in our network, but our initial evaluation of USG, gave us the full picture", says Ted Hickman, Global Network and Telecommunications Manager, Cook Group Incorporated. "USG now gives us granular control over what our users can do, we've shut down a host of unauthorized P2P usage and we're now monitoring and reporting on our users behaviour across the whole Web 2.0 spectrum.

About USG 3.0

USG 3.0 is the first secure Web gateway to combine content monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications, such as social networks, instant messaging and Unified Communications, with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus protection. A highly visual reporting engine gives an innovative birds-eye view of user behavior across Web, IM, P2P and social networks. New integration of on-board antivirus scanning technology in combination with USG's URL filtering and malware engine reduces the risk of Internet-borne malware and viruses.

USG 3.0 may be integrated with a Web/FTP proxy server, such as Blue Coat, through an ICAP-based connector or deployed in simple pass-by mode -- a plug and play deployment which requires no change to existing network configurations.

New and enhanced features include:

* Monitoring, control and recording of content posted to social networks, Twitter, blogs and sent via webmail * Inbound Web content controls " block elements of Web content or media that fall outside of policy * Market-leading application coverage for over 3,000 native and Web-based applications. * Insight Reporting Engine aggregates data from multiple USGs and provides a "birds-eye" view of user traffic across all Internet channels " including IM, P2P, Social Networks, Blogs & more * Onboard antivirus engine scans content received over HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, IM and UC channels * ICAP-based Web proxy connector to augment existing security infrastructures * Fully customizable modular dashboard * Custom URL filtering categories with import capabilities from existing URL filtering solutions

Pricing and Availability Unified Security Gateway 3.0 is available immediately through FaceTime's authorized partners from $9,200. Please call (888) 349-FACE (3223) for pricing, or logon to www.facetime.com.

About FaceTime Communications FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0, including social networks, blogs, and instant messaging. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and IM network and Unified Communications providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Cisco.

FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit http://www.facetime.com.

Media Contact:

Sarah Carter FaceTime Communications 650-631-6452 [email protected]

Tom Woolf Woolf Media 415-259-5638 [email protected]