Virgin.net Minimizes Spam and Introduces Email Virus Protection with Critical Path Hosted Messaging; Spam Reduced by 93%; Nearly 20,000 Email Viruses Blocked Each Day

Business Wire, July 13, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH) today announced that Virgin.net, the UK's fifth largest Internet service provider, has deployed Critical Path(TM) Hosted Messaging to provide email services -- with enhanced anti-spam and email virus protection -- to its subscriber base. As announced on Critical Path's first-quarter earnings conference call, more than one million Virgin.net mailboxes were migrated to Critical Path's hosted platform in April with no interruption to email services. Since the migration, subscribers have seen a 93% reduction in spam and the service is blocking nearly 20,000 email viruses each day -- a service enhancement that Virgin.net says has significantly improved customer satisfaction.

"The migration to Critical Path was seamless," said Debbie Phillips, operations director, Virgin.net. "Our customers now experience no change in the way they access and use their email apart from noticing the huge reduction in unsolicited mail. The positive response from our customers has been very encouraging, but that's not too surprising when you consider that every day we're preventing about 2.5 million junk emails and tens of thousands of email viruses from reaching the mailboxes of Virgin.net customers."

Virgin.net is one the few UK ISPs to offer anti-spam and email virus protection -- free of charge -- to all of its users.

Critical Path Hosted Messaging is designed to block spam and viruses -- without slowing down the delivery of legitimate email -- by coupling the advanced message protection capabilities of the Critical Path(TM) Messaging Server, which include more than one million custom filters, continuously updated black lists, stringent IP-blocking and flow control, with the advanced technology of Symantec AntiVirus(TM) Scan Engine and Brightmail Inc. Along with these integrated anti-virus and anti-spam features, Critical Path Hosted Messaging enables users to access email with any standard POP client, such as Microsoft(R) Outlook(R) or Outlook Express.

In addition to improving customer satisfaction, Critical Path Hosted Messaging enables Virgin.net to bring new services to market faster. For example, this summer Virgin.net plans to trial a Virgin-branded Webmail service with an integrated address book and other features. Critical Path's hosted platform also paves the way for future premium services, such as Web-based SMS, online photo albums, PIM synchronization, mobile email and alerts -- all of which can be offered on an a la carte basis with automated subscriber registration.

"Critical Path's hosted services make it easier for service providers to reduce costs and stay competitive," said Tracy Currie, general manager, hosted operations, Critical Path. "We enable service providers to accelerate time-to-market for new offerings. New features and services can be turned on with little to no development work, and anti-spam and email virus protection is built into our core offering, so service providers don't have to buy and implement additional security solutions on top of email."

Virgin.net was able to migrate to Critical Path's hosted solution without changing any email addresses, login details or passwords, so the change was virtually invisible to the end user. The Critical Path solution also integrated seamlessly with Virgin.net's existing provisioning and billing systems, allowing everyday business processes to remain the same.

About Critical Path, Inc.

Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq:CPTH) is a global provider of digital communications software and services, headquartered in San Francisco. More information is available at www.criticalpath.net.

About Virgin.net

Virgin.net (www.virgin.net) is the UK's fifth largest consumer ISP with over half a million customers and is one of the only UK ISPs to offer a range of Internet access options with no restrictive contracts:

--Virgin.net Broadband - No 12 month contract, GBP 24.99 a month, free activation

--Virgin.net 24seven (unmetered access) - No 12 month contract, GBP 12.49 a month, unlimited Internet access

--Virgin.net Pay As You Go: No subscription, Internet access from 1p per minute

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements by the Company and its executives regarding the performance, security, scalability and interoperability of our product and service offerings, the ability of our customers to achieve cost savings in the provision of services, industry trends, market and customer requirements, the ability of our products and services to meet the business needs of our customers, the market for products and services like ours and the performance of our senior management in achieving strategic goals. The words and expressions "look forward to," "will," "expect," "plan," "believe," "seek," "strive for," "anticipate," "hope," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify the Company's forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, our evolving business strategy and the emerging and changing nature of the market for our products and services, our ability to deliver on our sales objectives, the ability of our technology and our competitors' technologies to address customer demands, changes in economic and market conditions, unplanned system interruptions and capacity constraints, software and service design defects. These and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) made from time to time including Critical Path's Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003, its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2004, Current Reports on Form 8-K, as may be amended from time to time, and all subsequent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). The company makes no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date any such statement is made.