Business Services Industry

Tumbleweed Releases Free FTP Audit Tool to Identify Rogue Servers and Unsecure Traffic; Tumbleweed FTP Analyzer™ Gives Enterprises Unique Visibility Into Their FTP Usage and Data Risk

Business Wire, June 5, 2006

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Tumbleweed(R) Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of email security, managed file transfer, and identity validation appliance and software products, today announced the availability of the Tumbleweed FTP Analyzer(TM), a free diagnostic tool that helps organizations identify unsecured and rogue File Transfer Protocol (FTP) traffic within their IT environments.

The Tumbleweed FTP Analyzer is a Java-based network sniffer application that allows organizations to capture and analyze secure vs. unsecure file transfers and sessions taking place within an organization. The new free tool helps organizations find the FTP servers that pose a security risk to the organization, generating a two-page executive-level report as well as a detailed log. The executive report identifies:

--Overall volume of secure and unsecure file transfer traffic

--Secure and unsecure file transfer traffic over time

--Top 10 largest unsecured files transferred

--Top 10 busiest FTP servers

"Regulatory compliance mandates, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), require companies to document business processes," said L. Frank Kenney, Research Director for Gartner. "One frequently overlooked process is data movement -- specifically data movement using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP by itself does not provide mechanisms for management, monitoring, security or process control. Any device that can detect, monitor and analyze FTP usage can help organizations identify their unmanaged FTP -- an important first step in securing and managing file transmissions."

According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, over 82 million Americans have had their personal identities put at risk by data loss incidents since February 2005. But companies are not required to report loss which compromises company secrets, insider information or other corporate assets unrelated to personal identities. The use of unmanaged FTP to share sensitive data continues to put organizations at risk. Internet FTP usage is widespread, often insecure, and leaves company data exposed and vulnerable. In many instances, organizations are unaware of the FTP traffic taking place within their IT environments. Without a monitoring system in place, organizations have no visibility into the volume and type of FTP traffic traversing their networks. Over time, many organizations find that they have fostered an environment with a large number of "rogue" FTP servers.

"Organizations are discovering that they are at significant risk from departmental FTP servers that are often deployed outside of IT by different business units, in most cases for legitimate use but with little to no security in place," said John Thielens, CTO of Tumbleweed Communications. "The Tumbleweed FTP Analyzer helps identify these rogue FTP servers, and monitors the volume of unsecure traffic sent in and out of the organization."

The new FTP Analyzer delivers features including:

--Monitoring of Port 21 FTP traffic to analyze the flow of secure and unsecure FTP traffic

--Scheduling functionality allows users to create a 'set and forget it' schedule of monitoring

--Reporting and analysis provide users with easy-to-read, non-technical executive level reports

--30-day license provides users with ample time to analyze their network traffic

The free Tumbleweed FTP Analyzer is downloadable and can be found at: http://www.tumbleweed.com/products/securetransport/ftpanalyzer/

Safe Harbor Statement

Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on current plans and expectations as of the date of this press release, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the functionality and performance of Tumbleweed's products. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 16, 2006 and Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2006.

Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release. Although this release may remain available on Tumbleweed's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that Tumbleweed is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.

 

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