Business Services Industry

Countrywide Enhances Security with TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems

Business Wire, April 17, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas -- TippingPoint, a division of 3Com and the leader in intrusion prevention, today announced that Countrywide Financial Corporation, America's No. 1 home loan lender(1), has chosen TippingPoint to help protect its enterprise through a national deployment of TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).

"The goal of the deployment was to move from reactive Intrusion Detection Systems to proactive Intrusion Prevention Systems with real time blocking capabilities to help achieve our goal of best practices for regulatory compliance," said Craig Froelich, first vice president of enterprise network services at Countrywide. "The platform's combination of outstanding security features, high performance, and blocking capabilities provide a means to near-term return-on-investment."

The TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems provide Application Protection, Performance Protection, and Infrastructure Protection at gigabit speeds through total packet inspection. Application Protection capabilities provide fast, accurate, reliable protection from internal and external cyber attacks. Through its Infrastructure Protection capabilities, the TippingPoint IPS is designed to protect VoIP infrastructure, routers, switches, DNS, and other critical infrastructure from targeted attacks and traffic anomalies. TippingPoint Performance Protection capabilities enable customers to throttle non-mission critical applications that hijack valuable bandwidth and IT resources, thereby aligning network resources and business-critical application performance.

In addition to blocking worms, viruses, Trojans, Denial of Service attacks, Spyware, Phishing, and VoIP threats, TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems also offer bandwidth management capabilities. The product is updated with preemptive and zero day threat protection through the Digital Vaccine(R) service.

"Countrywide has a comprehensive networking and security infrastructure," said TippingPoint Vice President of North American Sales Preston Lawhorne. "It was an honor to work with such an esteemed organization to achieve their security goals."

About Countrywide Financial Corporation

(1)Founded in 1969, Countrywide Financial Corporation - America's #1 home loan lender as ranked for 2005 by Inside Mortgage Finance (Jan. 27, 2006), Copyright 2006 - is a member of the S&P 500 and Fortune 500. Countrywide, through its subsidiaries, provides mortgage banking and diversified financial services in domestic and international markets. Mortgage banking businesses include loan production and servicing principally through Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., which originates, purchases, securitizes, sells, and services primarily prime-quality loans. The company is headquartered in Calabasas, California and has a workforce of more than 50,000 with over 800 offices. For more information about the company, visit Countrywide's Web site at www.countrywide.com.

About TippingPoint, a division of 3Com

TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, is the leading provider of network-based intrusion prevention systems. The TippingPoint IPS is the most decorated in its industry. For a full list of awards, visit http://www.tippingpoint.com/products_certifications.html. Our innovative approach offers customers unmatched network-based security with ultra-high performance, scalability, and reliability. TippingPoint is based in Austin, Texas, and can be contacted through its Web site at www.tippingpoint.com or by telephone at 1-888-TRUE-IPS.

About 3Com Corporation

3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS) is a leading provider of secure, converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. 3Com offers a broad line of innovative products backed by world class sales, service and support, which excel at delivering business value for its customers. Through its TippingPoint division, 3Com is the leading provider of network-based intrusion prevention systems that deliver in-depth application protection, infrastructure protection, and performance protection. 3Com also is the majority owner of Huawei-3Com Co., Ltd. (H-3C), a China-based joint venture formed by 3Com and Huawei in November 2003. H-3C brings innovative and cost-effective product development and manufacturing and a strong footprint in one of the world's most dynamic markets. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.> Copyright (C) 2006 3Com Corporation. 3Com, the 3Com logo, and Digital Vaccine are registered trademarks and TippingPoint is a trademark of 3Com Corporation or one of its subsidiaries. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders.