Lake Forest Hospital Deploys F5's FirePass® SSL VPN for Secure Remote Access and HIPAA Compliance

Business Wire, July 25, 2006

SEATTLE -- Hospital lowers overhead and improves medical care with "best practice" security policies

F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced that Lake Forest Hospital (LFH) has deployed F5's FirePass(R) SSL VPN product to provide hospital physicians, nurses, engineers, and administrative employees secure remote access to its state-of-the-art medical and administrative network applications. Through FirePass, physicians are now able to consult with nurses when working from their homes, offices, or traveling -- enabling medical professionals to deliver more flexible, higher-quality healthcare around the clock.

The hospital's staff is granted application access through FirePass based on policy, user identification, and privileges, helping network administrators keep patient information secure while allowing the hospital to comply with government regulations and maintain HIPAA compliance. Network Engineers at LFH have configured the FirePass product with their existing Microsoft Active Directory directory service, expediting the user authentication setup and configuration process. Deploying the FirePass appliance has also lowered operating costs by reducing medical transcriptionists' need for valuable office space by providing access to key applications from home.

"We continue to leverage premium, cutting-edge technology to deliver high-quality, people-centered healthcare at Lake Forest Hospital," said Jay Manfred, Network Engineer at Lake Forest Hospital. "The security, flexibility, and functionality afforded by F5's FirePass product allows us to support the surrounding community with an unrivaled suite of healthcare services."

"Lake Forest Hospital has set high standards in the healthcare industry and constantly strives to improve its operational efficiency, security, and patient services," said Ameet Dhillon, Director of Product Management at F5. "FirePass supports the hospital's stringent standards and delivers superior value by heightening employee productivity, mitigating operating costs, and reducing business risk."

About Lake Forest Hospital

The Lake Forest Hospital Foundation, Lake Forest, IL, is the umbrella organization for Lake Forest Hospital, Dearhaven Child Care and Learning Center, Lake Forest Health & Fitness Centers, Westmoreland Nursing Center and Women's Auxiliary of Lake Forest Hospital. Lake Forest Hospital (LFH) is a fully licensed and accredited 215-bed community hospital that provides healthcare, community education, prevention, and wellness programs. With a medical staff of nearly 600 physicians, LFH offers a full range of healthcare services. Lake Forest Hospital has been named the number-one Consumer Choice hospital in Lake County, II, and Kenosha County, WI, by the independent National Research Corporation for 2005-06. LFH earned the honor for having the best doctors, best nurses, best overall image and reputation and best overall quality. For more information, visit http://www.lakeforesthospital.com.

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking. F5 provides solutions that make applications secure, fast, and available for everyone, helping organizations get the most out of their investment. By adding intelligence and manageability into the network to offload applications, F5 optimizes applications and allows them to work faster and consume fewer resources. F5's extensible architecture intelligently integrates application optimization, protects the application and the network, and delivers application reliability -- all on one universal platform. Over 10,000 organizations and service providers worldwide trust F5 to keep their applications running. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices worldwide. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

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