Avatier Corporation Announces Password Station.NET 2.0 for Self-Service Password Reset

Business Wire, June 25, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

New Version Offers Enhanced Usability, Improved Functionality, and

Increased Security to Reduce Operational Costs

Avatier Corporation, a leading provider of award-winning Microsoft-centric enterprise, administration, security and productivity applications, announced today the immediate availability of Password Station.NET(TM) 2.0, the first self-service password reset solution built on Microsoft.NET technology. Password Station.NET 2.0 enables employees to securely and easily reset their forgotten passwords, set new passwords and unlock their accounts all without Help Desk intervention. The latest version offers end-users an enhanced Web-based interface for easier account management and additional password retrieval capabilities. Administrators are now provided with additional reporting and alerting functionality to improve security. Password Station.NET 2.0 also reduces Help Desk calls by 25% and operational costs associated with lost employee productivity. Password Station.NET 2.0 is compatible with Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000.

According to the META Group, password-related help desk calls can cost as much as $30 per call. Corporations also incur the expense of employee down-time while workers wait for their passwords to be reset. Off-shift workers and/or employees located internationally are often unable to access critical business resources and applications while their Help Desk or internal IT department is closed. Self-service password reset can effectively eliminate 25% of Help Desk calls and give employees the ability to take control of their own password account while ensuring that they have round-the-clock access to necessary network resources.

"Network security is everyone's responsibility," said Nelson Cicchitto, president and CEO of Avatier. "Password Station.NET 2.0 increases network security by identifying and verifying the user who is requesting the password reset and improves productivity by letting that employee reset their password themselves without having to wait for the Help Desk. In less than 15 minutes, Password Station.NET can be deployed and immediately start to give corporations a return on their investment."

Password Station.NET 2.0's strong security features include a challenge/response question and answer authentication, which confirms a user's identity prior to allowing them to reset, unlock or set their password and is actually more accountable and secure than having the employee call a Help Desk. Leveraging Microsoft's Crypto API, Password Station.NET 2.0 provides the highest level of security with Triple DES MD5 to secure encrypted answers stored natively in Microsoft directories. Administrators and end-users are alerted proactively of potential password break-ins through the system. The integration of Password Station.NET 2.0 with Avatier's password policy enforcement product, Password Bouncer Deluxe Edition(TM), enables organizations to effectively enforce strong password security policies while giving end-users the ability to find out why weak passwords are not passing their corporate security policies -- all through a Web browser.

Additional Key Features of Password Station.NET 2.0 include:

Enhanced User Functionality

Password Station.NET 2.0's account management/account information features allow employees to:

-- Receive/send proactive reports and email alerts on administrative changes, authorization failures, account configurations, password resets, reset failures and account unlocks to designated accounts or distribution lists on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in HTML and/or .XLS format

-- Capture a host computer's IP address and host name for the incoming connection to facilitate identification in alerts and reports

-- Customize end-user enrollment questions stored in XML format

Enhanced Network Administrator Functionality

Password Station.NET 2.0's reporting/alerting features allow administrators to:

-- Receive/send proactive reports and email alerts on administrative changes, authorization failures, account configurations, password resets, reset failures and account unlocks to designated accounts or distribution lists on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in HTML and/or .XLS format

-- Capture a host computer's IP address and host name for the incoming connection to facilitate identification in alerts and reports

-- Customize end-user enrollment questions stored in XML format

Pricing and Availability

The pricing for Password Station.NET 2.0 is $15.00 per user with a minimum of 100 users. The pricing for the Security Suite of Password Bouncer Deluxe Edition and Password Station.NET 2.0 starts at $3,000.00 per year for one domain of 100 users.

About Password Station.NET 2.0

Password Station.NET was built from the ground up using Microsoft.NET Developer Platform. A Web-based demo of the product as well as a download is available at www.passwordstation.net.

About Avatier

Avatier Corporation, with headquarters in San Ramon, California, provides software solutions that dramatically improve employee productivity by securing, simplifying, migrating and automating the management of distributed Microsoft environments. Avatier's products, Trusted Enterprise Manager (TEM)(TM), Password Bouncer and Password Station.NET, allow large distributed enterprises like NASA, Delta Airlines, Pitney Bowes, Rockwell and the U.S. Armed Forces to decrease internal security exposures, increase the quality of their IT service levels, and lower their total cost of ownership of network technology. For more information on the company and its products visit Avatier online at www.avatier.com or call or email at 800-609-8610, sales@avatier.com.