3Com Email Firewall Helps Thwart Sophisticated Virus and Spam Attacks

3Com Email Firewall Helps Thwart Sophisticated Virus and Spam Attacks for Small and Medium Businesses

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2005--

New 3Com Email Firewall Powered by BorderWare Technologies, A Leader in Messaging Security
    3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today announced the new 3Com(R) Email Firewall "powered by BorderWare" to help small and medium businesses significantly reduce the growing problem of email-borne attacks such as viruses and spam. Installing this appliance provides small- and medium-sized businesses with an easy to install, easy to administer, advanced security solution comparable to that which was previously only available to the largest institutions.
    "Spam and email viruses are highly aggressive, opportunistic threats that represent a serious business problem. They attack any organization that has its own email server and have the potential to cause costly email outages and other network damage. Small and medium businesses are just as likely as large companies to be targeted by overwhelming spam or insidious email-borne viruses," said Neal Kaufman, Vice President, Product Management, 3Com. "The new Email Firewall is another example of how 3Com continues to deliver Enterprise Class solutions to the SMB market. It incorporates award-winning technology from BorderWare, a leader in large enterprise messaging security, and has been designed to provide the advanced features, reliability, and ease of use that our customers expect from 3Com."

    Email: Friend or Foe?

    While email has become an indispensable business tool, email has also become the number one source of virus attacks. Traditional perimeter software and hardware firewalls simply pass all inbound and outbound email traffic to internal email servers and do not have the capability to analyze this traffic for viruses or spam. Neither are perimeter firewalls capable of inspecting outbound traffic. Without a product like the 3Com Email Firewall, a virus could come into the email server undetected and then could rapidly spread both internally and externally.
    According to Sean McEvoy, AimNet Solutions: "The 3Com Email Firewall is very impressive. Out of the box, it took only minutes to set up, the interface is clear and intuitive, and I like that it provides protection for both inbound and outbound messages. Until now, small and medium businesses have only taken a tactical approach to securing email with desktop-based solutions that provide limited protection. The 3Com Email Firewall is a perimeter solution that delivers defense-in-depth security at a very compelling price point. I think 3Com has hit one out of the ball park with this product."
    "The need for enterprise-grade email security for small and medium-sized businesses is very apparent, and we are excited and committed to work with 3Com to deliver this to the broader market," said Tim Leisman, President and CEO, BorderWare.
    The 3Com Email Firewall is a 1U rack mountable or standalone appliance with a hardened operating system that sits in front of the email server and analyzes all inbound and outbound email traffic to help prevent spam, viruses and other attacks from paralyzing email communications. Because both inbound and outbound traffic are scanned, small and medium businesses can better enforce corporate policies that prohibit sharing confidential information, prevent intellectual property from being sent via email or prevent sending or receiving certain file types (like MP3s or VB scripts). This level of control also affords customers another way to enforce compliance with regulations such as HIPAA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

    Features

    Designed with small and medium businesses in mind, the 3Com Email Firewall is easy to deploy and use. It requires minimal administration while maintaining maximum security levels. Features include:

--	A wizard-driven configuration that enables a user with a general knowledge of office networking to be up and running within minutes
--	Integrated Anti-Spam
--	Integrated Anti-Virus from Kaspersky that protects against virtually all Polymorphic or self-encoding viruses
--	Stealth or invisible viruses
--	Viruses for Windows 9x, Windows NT, UNIX, OS/2
--	New viruses for Java applets
--	Macro-viruses infecting Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Help files etc.
--	Network worms
--	Trojans
--	Content and Attachment Controls
--	Advanced firewall security with protection against blended threats
--	Denial-of-Service
--	Buffer Overflow
--	Directory Harvest
--	Malformed Messages
--	Comprehensive Reporting and Audit
--	Advanced administration capabilities
--	SecurityConnection(TM) service providing on-going, up-to-the-minute security with regular anti-spam, anti-virus and software updates

    Pricing, Availability and Support

    The 3Com Email Firewall hardware along with a license for up to 100 users lists for $2799 combined. Additional licenses are available for up to 250 and 500 end users. 3Com channel partners are currently taking orders for the 3Com Email Firewall, which is expected to begin shipping in two to three weeks.

    About 3Com

    3Com is a tier-one provider of innovative, practical and high-value voice and data networking products and solutions for enterprises of all sizes and public sector organizations. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

    3Com and the 3Com logo are registered trademarks of 3Com Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders.

--30--JO/bo*

CONTACT: 3Com Corporation Kevin Petschow , 847-262-7262 kevin_petschow@3com.com or Coltrin & Associates for 3Com Eric Anderson, 212-221-1616 eric_anderson@coltrin.com

KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS NETWORKING INTERNET E-COMMERCE PRODUCT SOURCE: 3Com Corporation

Copyright Business Wire 2005