Symantec Leads Industry With First Integrated Gateway Security Appliance

Symantec Leads Industry With First Integrated Gateway Security Appliance

SYDNEY --NSW - April 23, 2002 -- Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world leader in Internet security, today announced the launch of its Symantec Gateway Security appliance in the Australian enterprise market. Symantec Gateway Security is a first-of-its-kind security appliance that integrates firewall, gateway-level antivirus, intrusion detection, content filtering and VPN capabilities in a single solution.

Symantec Gateway Security is designed to provide medium businesses and branch offices of large corporations with cost-effective, secure protection against security breaches at the network perimeter.

"Today's Internet threats are non-discriminating - they can significantly impact both medium and large organisations that don't have the necessary security measures in place," said Leigh Costin, Symantec's Group Product Manager, Asia Pacific. "The capabilities offered by Symantec Gateway Security make it an integral component of the total security strategy for businesses. For the first time in the local market, customers have an all-in-one, easy-to-use network security appliance designed to protect against all types of malicious threats, including new blended threats such as Code Red and Nimda."

The release of Symantec Gateway Security addresses an increasing demand by organisations for ready-to-deploy and cost-effective network security appliances.

"The appliance market is estimated to grow explosively. We expect the firewall appliance market to increase at 38 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2000 and 2005 with the total revenue reaching US$523 million in Asia Pacific (including Japan) by 2005," said Natasha David, Asia Pacific security software analyst, IDC.

"Symantec is positioning itself to take advantage of this growth by releasing all-in-one security appliances in the defense against today's complex Internet threats."

Combining industry leading and proven application-level firewall, antivirus, intrusion detection, content filtering and virtual private networking technologies into one platform under a single management console, Symantec Gateway Security offers improved efficiencies in cost, maintenance time and training. It is also flexible enough to operate within current network environments as part of an overall multi-tier, multi-platform security plan.

"Organisations can invest many hours acquiring, installing, configuring and managing multiple security products from numerous vendors," said Mr Costin. Symantec Gateway Security eliminates the need for IT staff to familiarise themselves with products from various vendors and maintain several service contracts. It simply offers faster deployment, easier local or remote management, and more stringent and effective monitoring."

Performance and Scalability
The Symantec Gateway Security appliance can support some of the most demanding branch office bandwidth needs with a standard throughput in excess of 50 broadband connections (calculation based on typical xDSL connection providing 512Kbps per connection). With the optional integrated high availability and load balancing (HA/LB) feature, customers can cluster up to eight appliances to handle even higher loads. When appliances are clustered together, each node continuously monitors the other nodes and if an appliance should fail, the other appliances in the cluster pick up the failed nodes workload to continue to provide round-the-clock protection to the network.

"In the event of an outbreak, customers will benefit from security response capabilities that deliver timely, integrated updates across all necessary technologies. It delivers the peace of mind that organisations of all sizes are looking for with an integrated security solution," said Mr Costin.

Key Product Features
Symantec Gateway Security is a highly integrated network security solution that provides comprehensive protection by combining five essential security functions:

Firewall Security - The integrated firewall component is based on the Symantec Enterprise Firewall 7.0. This hybrid firewall provides full-inspection application proxy technology and automated system hardening to protect corporate networks from today's blended Internet attacks.
Symantec's award-winning antivirus technology - The integrated antivirus is based on Symantec's award winning NAVEX engine and detects malicious viruses, worms and Trojan horses by protecting e-mail, file and Web traffic (SMTP, HTTP and FTP) at vulnerable network gateways.
Internet Content Filtering - Provides integrated URL filtering that restricts access to Web sites deemed not applicable to the organisation's use of the Internet.
Intrusion Detection - Integrated intrusion detection detects network attacks, drops offending packets and automatically notifies the firewall of an attack so that appropriate action can be taken (IP black listing) with no human intervention required.
IPSec Compliant VPN - The integrated VPN component is based on the Symantec Enterprise VPN 7.0. This VPN is uniquely secure through its integrated proxy secured VPN technology that ensures administrators can monitor traffic at the application level, not just at the network level, which helps to ensure that a customer's VPN does not become a backdoor security hole.
Automated Updates - Symantec's patented LiveUpdate technology automatically downloads the latest virus definitions and intrusion detection attack signatures, improving security while easing the administrative workload.

Symantec Security Response ensures customers are protected with the latest updates and information available by proactively providing integrated response specifically matched to the technology offered in Symantec Gateway Security. Symantec Security Response is a team of Internet security experts who deliver solutions, services and response capabilities to Symantec customers worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The research centres are focused on collecting and analysing the latest malware threats such as viruses and worms, as well as network security threats and vulnerabilities. Symantec's technical support experts provide customers with information on product implementation and usage, as well as countermeasures and identification tools for new threats. Symantec Security Response also provides time-sensitive security advisories using Web updates, alerting services, technical support and media alerts.

Availability and Pricing
The Symantec Gateway Security appliance will be offered in three different models to accommodate varying license and performance needs.

Symantec Gateway Security 5110 will provide a max throughput of up to 40 Mbps and a 50-node license. Symantec Gateway Security 5200 will provide a max throughput of up to 80 Mbps and a 250-node license. Symantec Gateway Security 5300 will provide a max throughput of up to 80 Mbps and an unlimited node license. The estimated retail pricing for Symantec Gateway Security 5110, 5200 and 5300 models is Symantec Gateway $25,938, $51, 898 and $114,378 respectively (incl. GST).

Symantec Gateway Security will be available through Symantec's worldwide network of value-added resellers, distributors and systems integrators. For more information, please visit Symantec's Enterprise Security Web site at http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com or call the Customer Service Line at 1-800-680-026.

About Symantec
Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 38 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

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