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Vontu 6.0 prevents loss of both data in motion and data at rest

Vontu 6.0 automates protection of confidential data on servers and desktops; prevents data loss via HTTPS and FTP; provides industry-specific policy enforcement

RSA CONFERENCE - SAN JOSE, CA — February 13, 2006 — Vontu, Inc. announced today the industry's only Data Loss Prevention solution for both data in motion and data at rest. Unlike any other solution on the market, Vontu 6.0 enables Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies to discover and protect confidential data on servers and desktops, monitor and prevent confidential data from leaving the network, and automatically enforce data loss prevention and encryption policies. An enterprise-class solution, Vontu 6.0 sets a new standard for Data Loss Prevention, delivering the highest accuracy and scale available to meet the needs of Fortune 500 companies.

"To protect our customers' information, as well as our intellectual property, we must be able to stop confidential data, both at-rest and in-motion, from leaving our organization," said Gene Fredriksen, Vice President of Information Security, Raymond James Financial. "Vontu has been the cornerstone of this effort, and the new 6.0 release promises to extend our data loss prevention capability to address new threats and ensure policy compliance."

Until recently, Fortune 500 companies have focused primarily on network security against outside intrusion by hackers, viruses and spam. In 2005, a series of highly-publicized data breaches caused information security executives to shift their focus to protecting the data itself. With identity theft and trade secret violation incidents on the rise, both business and government are under significant pressure to protect sensitive information such as customer data and intellectual property. To date, 22 states have passed consumer data protection laws, and the U.S. Congress is expected to pass national consumer data security legislation this year.

At the same time, the urgent need to protect trade secrets is increasingly apparent, as businesses lose competitive advantage with every breach of intellectual property (IP). The threat of data loss caused by company insiders, whether malicious or inadvertent, is compounded by new threats such as the use of encrypted network traffic like Secure HTTP (HTTPS), since security teams have no insight into its use, or misuse. All of these factors, from regulatory compliance to competitive pressure to new threats, combine to make enforcement of data loss prevention policies a top priority for IT Security.

"As the first company founded to deliver Data Loss Prevention solutions, we continue to lead the industry in helping organizations answer three basic questions: Where is my confidential data? Where is it going? And how do I fix the data loss problem?" said Joseph Ansanelli, chairman and CEO of Vontu. "Our world class team, track record of innovation and customer success has led to the adoption of Vontu by some of the largest organizations in the Fortune 500."

The Vontu 6.0 suite enables business and government organizations to safeguard customer data, company information, intellectual property and sensitive or classified information, whether it is located on servers and desktops (data at rest) or exiting the network vial email, web mail or other Internet protocols (data in motion). Vontu 6.0 comprises four products, Vontu Discover and Vontu Protect for data at rest, and Vontu Monitor and Vontu Prevent for data in motion. All four products leverage the Vontu Enforce platform for automated enforcement of data loss prevention policies.

"Data breach and trade secret violations cost businesses millions in lost revenue, brand damage, lawsuits and fines," said Stacey Quandt, Research Director, Security Solutions and Services at AberdeenGroup. "Organizations need to be able to not only detect violations, even in encrypted transmissions, but also automatically prevent the inadvertent and intentional leakage of confidential data."

Vontu 6.0 adds power to address new threats

Vontu 6.0 sets a new industry standard for data loss prevention and uniquely addresses the changing requirements of Fortune 500 enterprises and government organizations with the following new capabilities:

  • Vontu Protect: A new product in Vontu 6.0, Vontu Protect adds automated enforcement to the capabilities of Vontu Discover, which scans servers and desktops to locate exposed confidential data at rest. Vontu Protect enables organizations to automatically quarantine and delete sensitive files, enforce workforce-compliance, access-control and encryption policies, as well as enforce data retention policies by removing outdated content. Vontu benchmark data demonstrates that one out of 50 files on open network shares contains confidential data. Unprotected data at rest is data at risk
  • HTTPS monitoring and prevention: According to industry research, as much as 20 percent of web traffic occurred over Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocols in 2005, and that number is expected to rise to 30 percent in 2006. This trend presents a challenge to IT Security, which has until now been blind to confidential data transmitted via HTTPS. To provide visibility into encrypted Secure HTTP traffic (HTTPS), Vontu 6.0 integrates with Blue Coat ProxySG, the industry's leading secure proxy appliance, to monitor HTTPS content for sensitive information and block communications that violate policy. Vontu 6.0 can inspect content in secure communications such as secure web mail, bulletin boards or Instant Messaging, as well as anonymizing services that circumvent controls. With the addition of this capability, Vontu 6.0 is the only data loss prevention solution to provide 100 percent coverage of web traffic
  • FTP monitoring and prevention: Due to their typically large file sizes, data loss incidents via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) generally constitute very high risk. FTP is often the mechanism to communicate sensitive customer and employee data to third-party business partners and outsourced operations. Unfortunately, FTP transmissions often contain unencrypted data. In previous releases, Vontu has provided the ability to monitor both active and passive FTP transmissions. With Vontu 6.0, organizations can now proactively block FTP transmissions that contain exposed confidential data
  • People aware detection: Accuracy is often the number one requirement in evaluations of Data Loss Prevention solutions. Vontu provides the highest degree of detection accuracy for both documents and database information with its patent-pending detection algorithms Exact Data Matching, Indexed Document Matching and Described Content Matching. With Vontu 6.0, Vontu has delivered an innovative new detection solution that enables organizations to fine-tune policies to either target or exclude specific groups of employees. For example, policies may be tuned to increase scrutiny for contractors or high-risk employees, or varied based on country or authorization level. The new Directory Group Matching (DGM) detection technology uses corporate directory data to specify policy based on sender and receiver information. This innovation is critical for monitoring inter-department, broker-dealer, cross-border and other multi-party communications, as well as managing export control scenarios. With 6.0, Vontu is the only solution to provide accurate detection across all content types and groups
  • Automated enforcement and response workflow: By leveraging the company's expertise in developing data loss prevention practices for Fortune 500 customers across multiple industries, Vontu 6.0 provides a set of solution packs, including industry-specific policies, roles, incident response rules, workflow definitions and risk reporting options. Vontu 6.0 includes solution packs for the Financial Services, Insurance, Retail, High Tech, Telecommunications, Pharmaceutical, Entertainment and Media, and Healthcare industries, as well for the U.S. Federal Government and companies with operations in the European Union. These industry best practices enable organizations to rapidly deploy data loss prevention, optimize the effectiveness of their incident response teams, and dramatically reduce risk, while providing a low cost of ownership. Whereas other solutions merely provide policy templates, Vontu has provided a comprehensive enforcement automation solution for risk reduction
  • Security infrastructure integration: Vontu 6.0 leverages existing security infrastructure investments by integrating with best-in-class solutions to provide advanced monitoring, prevention, investigation and encryption capabilities. Through standards-based architecture, Vontu 6.0 integrates with solutions from leading forensics, web proxy, mail transport and encryption providers, including Blue Coat, Cisco, IronPort, PGP and Symantec.

Why Fortune 500 companies choose Vontu

Today, based on the proven global enterprise scale of the Vontu solution, the majority of Vontu customers are Fortune 500 companies. As of end of 2005, Vontu customers in North America include:

  • 2 of the top 3 commercial banks
  • 2 of the top 3 credit reporting agencies
  • 4 of the top 9 insurance companies.

Vontu Data Loss Prevention was chosen in 90 percent of competitive evaluations in 2005. According to Vontu customers, the following differentiators led to the selection of Vontu:

  • Discover and Protect Confidential Data at Rest. Only Vontu 6.0 enables organizations to accurately locate exposed confidential data at rest stored on their networks and automatically enforces policies, including the ability to quarantine, copy or delete sensitive files
  • Monitor and Prevent Confidential Data in Motion. Only Vontu 6.0 provides the ability to monitor and prevent data loss across multiple network protocols including email, web mail and web postings, as well as encrypted web traffic (HTTPS) and secure file transfers (FTP)
  • Accurate Detection Across All Content and Groups of People. Only Vontu 6.0 combines advanced detection technologies to accurately detect confidential data across all content, including structured and unstructured data, as well as groups of people
  • Automate Policy Enforcement. Vontu 6.0 is the only solution to automate policy enforcement, including remediation, notification and prevention, in order to drive down resource requirements and reduce risk
  • Encryption Visibility and Control. Only Vontu 6.0 enables organizations to automate encryption policies, prevent information being sent over encrypted channels and detect unauthorized use of desktop encryption
  • Safeguard Employee Privacy. Only Vontu 6.0 protects the privacy of employees to allow companies to comply with international law
  • Proven Global Scale and Architecture. Only the Vontu two-tier architecture enables centralized policy management and incident reporting, coverage of multiple network exit points, including partner data centers, and enterprise scale at a minimum Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Vontu has consistently proven its ability to scale well beyond the limits of competing products.

Vontu 6.0 will be generally available on March 31, 2006. Pricing starts at $100,000, and is based on the number of users and the products purchased.

About Vontu

Vontu is the leading provider of Data Loss Prevention solutions for both data at rest and data in motion. Vontu allows organizations to discover and protect exposed confidential information, monitor all network traffic, block select email, FTP and web communications, and automatically enforce data loss prevention policies. By reducing the frequency and severity of both inadvertent and malicious data loss incidents, Vontu helps organizations ensure public confidence, reduce compliance risk and protect competitive advantage. Vontu customers include Fortune 500 companies in financial services, insurance, high technology, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, media, and healthcare, as well as local and state government agencies. Vontu was awarded IDG's InfoWorld 2006 Technology of the Year Award for Best Insider Threat Defense application. For more information, please visit www.vontu.com.