The Tolly Group Validates Speed and Scalability of Cylink's NetHawk VPN

Business Wire, Sept 18, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2000

Cylink Corporation (Nasdaq:CYLK) today announced that independent testing results by The Tolly Group confirm that NetHawk, Cylink's site-to-site virtual private network (VPN), performs at 99 percent throughput speeds in Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) environments while supporting strong Triple-DES encryption. The tests also validated that NetHawk, designed to meet the scalable demands of today's enterprise-level networks, supports thousands of simultaneous TCP connections -- nearly 20,000 on average -- through a single IPSec tunnel.

"These tests demonstrate that NetHawk delivers enterprise-scale performance, in both throughput and session capacity, even while supporting DES-3 encryption and DESMAC integrity checking," said John Curtis, vice president of engineering for The Tolly Group, which conducted the tests at its lab in Manasquan, New Jersey.

"NetHawk continues Cylink's success in developing world-class secure e-business solutions that meet our customers' needs," said George Sullivan, Cylink's general manager of Internet Products. "With NetHawk and PrivaCy Manager(TM), Cylink has overcome the major stumbling blocks of IPSec-based VPNs -- poor performance coupled with weak manageability. Companies can now focus their complete attention on maximizing their e-business opportunities."

NetHawk performed at 99 percent of wire speed (100 Mbps) in zero-loss throughput performance tests that corrected for the overhead associated with adding IPSec headers. This benchmark was based on testing with 168-bit Triple DES (DES-3) and DESMAC across a single Security Association (IPSec tunnel). The tests showed NetHawk sustaining this throughput rate with frame sizes of 768 bytes, 1024 bytes, and 1440 bytes -- performance that approaches Cylink's design goal of full-duplex wire speed of 200 Mbps (100 Mbps in each direction).

About NetHawk

NetHawk is Cylink's new high-speed VPN appliance for secure, site-to-site Internet communications. The Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) solution transparently integrates into the network to provide enterprise-strength performance and manageability.

NetHawk enables companies to leverage business opportunities, reduce costs, and communicate with employees and business partners. The VPN handles multiple protocols and complies with IPSec standards to maximize interoperability and ease integration with a wide range of Internet products that are now essential to global e-business.

By increasing security and allowing customers to proactively establish, manage, audit and update their security policies, NetHawk also provides a compelling high-performance alternative for companies that rely on routers to secure their networks. It also enables companies to separate network security and management so customers can expand their networks to meet their changing needs without bringing communications traffic to a halt.

PrivaCy Manager Adds Powerful Centralized Security Management

All Cylink security solutions, including NetHawk, can be centrally managed through PrivaCy Manager, which enables a network administrator to control all NetHawk appliances from a single location. PrivaCy Manager's simple point-and-click interface also allows administrators to create and modify policy definitions quickly and easily.

Pricing and Availability

NetHawk is offered in four models, from an ethernet (10 Mbps) model supporting 5,000 simultaneous connections to a high-performance ethernet (100 Mbps) that supports up to 20,000 simultaneous connections. Pricing for NetHawk begins at $3,500 (U.S. only). Contact Cylink at 800/533-3958 for more information on pricing and specifications.

About The Tolly Group

The Tolly Group, a leading independent testing and strategic consulting organization based in Manasquan, New Jersey, offers a full range of services designed to furnish both the vendor and end-user communities with authoritative and unbiased information. The Tolly Group's Web site address is www.tolly.com.

About Cylink Corporation

Cylink Corporation develops, markets and supports a comprehensive family of secure e-business solutions. Founded in 1983, the Company was the first created to market security solutions that protect communications with public key cryptography. Cylink and its wholly owned subsidiaries serve Fortune 500 companies, multinational financial institutions, and government agencies worldwide. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at http://www.cylink.com.