IRE's SafeNet/Soft-PK VPN Client Receives Top Recommendations in Product Reviews

Business Wire, Sept 25, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2000

InfoWorld and SC Magazine Identify SafeNet/Soft-PK As Market

Leading Client, Noting High-Level

Interoperability, Flexibility, and Ease-of-Use

Information Resource Engineering, Inc. (IRE) (Nasdaq:IREG), a leading provider of Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology and solutions for secure business communications, today announced that its SafeNet/Soft-PK VPN client received accolades for its technology offering in product reviews from two leading technical publications, InfoWorld and SC Magazine.

InfoWorld, a leading publication providing in-depth technical analysis on key products, solutions, and technologies for enterprise IT buyers, gave SafeNet/Soft-PK a rating of Very Good. The review highlighted the product's interoperability with all VPN solutions on the market, its Windows 2000 compatibility, and advanced features such as L2TP and support of multiple tunnel configurations, which make SafeNet/Soft-PK "one of the most technically versatile VPN clients available." The review also identified SafeNet/Soft-PK's strong support of authentication methods, such as RADIUS, SecureID, and digital certificates, and noted that built-in support of several certificate authorities provided a more simplified process for integrating the client into existing PKI (public key infrastructure).

InfoWorld reviewer Mandy Andress wrote, "SafeNet/Soft-PK provides market leading VPN client software for secure remote access at an affordable price...IRE's client provides a great means of connecting to a VPN gateway."

SC Magazine, a global information magazine for computer security professionals, gave SafeNet/Soft-PK its Recommended Award in a review of twelve VPN solutions for demonstrating outstanding performance, rich features, and ease-of-use. SafeNet/Soft-PK was identified as featuring robust security alongside interoperability and ease-of-use. The reviewer stated that SafeNet/Soft-PK was "proven software from a leading player in the VPN industry." Scoring the highest ratings in virtually all six categories of evaluation, the review placed particular emphasis on SafeNet/Soft-PK's extended authentication support, indicating that it "gives you all the tools you need to implement public key for secure communications."

"These outstanding reviews validate SafeNet/Soft-PK's success as a leading-edge VPN client and reflect the feedback we are receiving from customers," said Phil Saunders, IRE's vice president of marketing and business development. "We have succeeded in delivering a VPN client that offers the advanced features our customers need today, such as L2TP functionality, and we are already looking forward to engaging our client in the sophisticated technologies of tomorrow's e-business."

SafeNet/Soft-PK is currently being licensed by leading suppliers and security vendors, such as Cisco, Nokia, Lucent, Internet Dynamics, NetScreen, RapidStream, Borderware, Furukawa, and 3Com.

About SafeNet/Soft-PK

SafeNet/Soft-PK is an IPSec-certified, interoperable VPN software product for Windows 95, 98, 2000, and NT 4.0 that allows secure client-to-client or client-to-gateway communication over TCP/IP networks, including the Internet. The security services offered by SafeNet/Soft-PK include confidentiality via encryption, packet integrity and authentication via keyed hash, and identity authentication via Digital Signatures and X.509 certificates, exchanged during key negotiation. SafeNet/Soft-PK is one of only two client software products to be awarded IPSec certification from the International Computer Security Association (ICSA). It is approved for deployment by the AIAG ANX(R) initiative and is being private-labeled by major communications and security vendors. Infonetics Research, Inc. recently identified SafeNet/Soft-PK as one of the two leading players in the rapidly growing remote access VPN market. SafeNet/Soft-PK was also named "Best Security Solution" by Solutions Integrator's SI Impact Awards and "Product of the Year" in the VPN category by Internet Telephony Magazine.

About IRE

IRE (Nasdaq:IREG) delivers cost-effective Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions that enable organizations to use the Internet and other shared networks for private communications. IRE, the developer of the first commercial VPN in 1989 and the first Internet VPN solution in 1995, specializes in offering integrated, standards-based VPN technology and products as part of its SafeNet(tm) product family. The SafeNet DSP(tm) "Internet Security System on a Chip," with over ten patents pending, is a breakthrough addition, not only to IRE's family of SafeNet products, but for all network and telecommunications equipment manufacturers who have been searching for a way to increase the performance and decrease the cost of implementing and embedding a VPN solution. A publicly held company since 1989, IRE has been providing industry-leading network security solutions around the world for over 15 years. Our global client list includes the leading Fortune 1000 companies, financial institutions, and governments. Our commitment to providing leading-edge technology, quality design and manufacture, and around-the-clock customer support is unsurpassed in the network security industry.