Tumbleweed MailGate Edge Delivers Network-Level Protection from Dark T

Tumbleweed MailGate Edge Delivers Network-Level Protection from Dark Traffic

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2005--

New Secure Email Relay Appliance Offloads Processing From Expensive Email Servers, Reduces Management Costs and Extends Life of Existing Infrastructure
    Tumbleweed(R) Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:TMWD), a leading provider of e-mail and file transfer security solutions, today announced the release of Tumbleweed MailGate Edge, a high-performance secure email relay that delivers state-of-the-art network-based defenses in a simple-to-manage appliance. MailGate Edge improves the efficiency and effectiveness of corporate email by blocking up to 70% of unwanted inbound SMTP traffic at the edge of the network, improving the performance of email networks and reducing the costs associated with unnecessary email and hygiene server upgrades.
    "Dark Traffic" currently represents up to 70% of all inbound email traffic, and is comprised of a combination of spam, spam precursors like directory harvest attacks (DHA), email denial of service (DoS) attacks, malformed SMTP packets, invalid recipient addresses, and other requests and communications unrelated to the delivery of valid email messages. The approach of most email hygiene solutions is to examine the content of these communications, which is expensive in terms of processor overhead, storage, bandwidth, and additional servers to handle the additional volume. MailGate Edge takes a network-based approach to blocking dark traffic, freeing content-based solutions to process the remaining third of traffic.
    "As criminal hackers become more sophisticated, the industry needs to start addressing the entire ecology of the spam lifecycle," said John Thielens, CTO of Tumbleweed. "Organizations don't currently have the knowledge, or the technology, to defend themselves against email DoS and Directory Harvest attacks. In most cases, the IT administrators aren't even aware that they are under attack. They assume it's another slow day on the network while, in reality, a hacker is plagiarizing their LDAP directory and selling it to spammers worldwide."
    MailGate Edge looks at the sender IP-address, number of connections, message volume, recipients, and other attributes across SMTP connections to identify behavior patterns consistent with email security threats. For example, Directory Harvest Attacks generally come from one or a few IP addresses, and send a disproportionately high number of messages with invalid recipients. DoS attacks typically try to establish a very large number of connections, or to send a very large number of messages over a small number of connections. MailGate Edge's network-level Edge defenses are able to identify these patterns, and take appropriate action, first using traffic shaping to deter the attack, and blocking the connection completely if the attack continues.
    "DoS and DHA go way beyond the traditional anti-spam and anti-virus problem," said Brian Burke, Research Manager of Security Products, IDC. "These types of stealth attacks will continue to grow in scale and sophistication and, more importantly, are beginning to affect the bottom line for many companies. It's good to see a leading player, like Tumbleweed, addressing this newly recognized problem."
    In a recent study conducted by Ostermann Research, 42% of companies surveyed are aware that they have been hit by a Directory Harvest Attack (DHA) in the past 12 months, and 62.5% of those companies reported that email was delayed due to the attacks. In the same study, 36% of companies surveyed were aware that their email system had suffered a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, with 69.2% of those companies also reporting delays.
    "Email is mission-critical, and the primary method of communication for our bank. People take email for granted, but when it breaks, they realize how important it is to their ability to get their job done," said Pete Chiccino, SVP and Chief Security Officer at The Bancorp Bank. "MailGate Edge is invaluable because it addresses DoS and Directory Harvest Attacks -- threats that have taken our systems down in the past."

    MailGate Edge Blocks Email Denial of Service Attacks

    DoS attacks (also called "mail bombing" or "flooding") attempt to overwhelm an email relay or server with a huge volume of messages, causing the server to drop connections or refuse legitimate email. Distributed DoS attacks are often launched from armies of zombie computers that have been infected with simple email viruses or worms, which can then be targeted to attack one or several specific victims.

    MailGate Edge Blocks Directory Harvest Attacks

    The goal of a Directory Harvest Attacks (DHA) is to identify valid email addresses for future spam attacks. In a DHA, an attacker unleashes a program that guesses at possible email addresses within a domain and attempts to send messages to those addresses. The server rejects requests intended for addresses that don't exist. By process of elimination, the addresses not rejected are deemed valid, and the program can add them to a spammer's databases.

    About Tumbleweed MailGate Edge

    MailGate Edge is highly effective against network-based attacks such as Denial of Service (DoS) and Directory Harvest (DHA), as well as various malicious attacks utilizing malformed MIME messages. Edge defense typically relies on analysis of network-level SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol -- the standard protocol for Internet email) traffic and IP addresses to restrict or block harmful email messages. MailGate Edge uses intelligent behavior shaping to immediately place invalid email recipients on a black list, freeing up server space that would have been wasted on storing unwanted messages or sending a slew of network clogging Non-Delivery Notifications.
    MailGate Edge is a secure email relay that delivers state-of-the-art network-based email defense in a simple to-manage Linux-based appliance. The intuitive Web-based administrative user interface offers point and click configuration and graphical reporting, significantly reducing the time and costs associated with managing your relay. MailGate Edge can scale up to very high levels of throughput and can also be developed in a redundant configuration to improve the reliability of your overall email network.

    About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.

    Tumbleweed provides security solutions for email protection, file transfers, and identity validation that allow organizations to safely conduct business over the Internet. Tumbleweed offers these solutions in three comprehensive product suites: MailGate, SecureTransport and Valicert Validation Authority. MailGate provides protection against spam, viruses and attacks, and enables policy-based message filtering, encryption and routing. SecureTransport enables business to safely exchange large files and transactions without proprietary software. Valicert Validation Authority is the world-leading solution for determining the validity of digital certificates. Tumbleweed's enterprise and government customers include ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Defense, and all four branches of the US Armed Forces. Tumbleweed was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650-216-2000.

    SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

    Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on plans and expectations as of the date of the press release, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below.

    Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the performance and characteristics of Tumbleweed's MailGate Edge product. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 15, 2004, Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2004, Form 10-Q filed August 12, 2004, and Form 10-Q filed November 9, 2004.
    Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, which represents the Company's expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the Company's expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on the Company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.

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CONTACT: Atomic PR James Hannon, 415-402-0230 james@atomicpr.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE BANKING TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE NETWORKING PRODUCT SOURCE: Tumbleweed Communications Corp.

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