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Press Release
FaceTime Announces the World's First Dedicated IM and P2P Research Group and
Free Vulnerability Assessment Program
FaceTime Instant Response Security Team (FIRST) and Vulnerability Assessment
Survey and Test (VAST) Launched with Release of RTGuardianTM 2.0
Washington, D.C. - November 8, 2004 - FaceTime Communications, the leading provider
of solutions that secure, manage, and extend instant messaging (IM) and
peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, today announced two key security initiatives
aimed at mitigating the growing risks of unmanaged IM and P2P use: the FaceTime
Instant Response Security Team (FIRST) and a free process for enterprise
customers called VAST (Vulnerability Assessment Survey and Test). In addition,
the Company announced the immediate availability of the industry's only IM and
P2P security gateway appliance, RTGuardianTM 2.0. The announcements were made
at the CSI Computer Security Conference and Exposition being held this week in
Washington, D.C.
IM and P2P networks are quickly emerging as the delivery vehicles of choice for
malicious programmers. Last month, the System Administration, Networking, and
Security Institute (SANS) listed IM and P2P as two of the top ten most critical
Internet security vulnerabilities for Windows systems. Security experts have
noted that over the last year, eight of the 10 most common viruses used IM
and/or P2P as their propagation methods. A survey conducted by AssetMatrix
showed 40% of business users have downloaded files using a P2P file sharing
application, with ISPs reporting that P2P-related traffic represents as much as
70% of the IP traffic on their networks. Such unchecked P2P use creates
substantial security and legal risks.
FIRST is the only singularly focused and specialized intelligence and response
organization addressing the rapid proliferation of new IM and P2P protocols and
the growing frequency of IM and P2P-related information security attacks. FIRST
is comprised of FaceTime's experienced team of IM and P2P protocol analysis and
security experts working from the Company's U.S. and Indian locations to
monitor, analyze and report on all malicious IM and P2P-related activity on a
global scale. The team will deliver documented countermeasures to the IT
community at large while providing FaceTime customers with automated product
updates to instantly defend against the latest attacks.
The second of FaceTime's security initiatives is the VAST service, designed to
help FaceTime customers and prospects identify and resolve network weaknesses
that may render them particularly vulnerable to external IM and P2P attacks as
well as employee misuse of IM and P2P behind the firewall. The free FaceTime
service, available to current and prospective customers, is driven by a
consultative discovery process that evaluates an organization's existing
policies, procedures and products. The evaluation is followed by specialized
testing for real-time communication based vulnerabilities, the results of which
are compiled by FaceTime's team of security specialists into a detailed,
customized report and a set of recommendations. To request a free VAST
assessment, prospects and existing FaceTime customers can visit
http://www.facetime.com.
"Effectively securing and managing IM and P2P in the enterprise requires
specialized expertise," said Michael Osterman, president and founder of
Osterman Research. "FaceTime is going the extra mile by educating and alerting
the IT community on the latest security threats and what can be done to defend
against them. The company is clearly embracing its leadership role in IM and
P2P security with these new initiatives."
FaceTime also announced the immediate availability of RTGuardian 2.0.
RTGuardian 2.0 doubles the security capabilities previously provided by
FaceTime's RTG500TM by detecting and blocking over 40 IM and P2P protocols and
applications for the broadest level of protocol support in the industry. Among
the 20 new protocols added are Azureus, BitTorrent, eMule and Koala DC.
Competitive offerings provide a false sense of security with support that
extends to only a handful of protocols, allowing users to easily switch from a
P2P file-sharing application that has been blocked to another one that hasn't.
With the formation of FIRST, the launch of VAST, and the availability of
RTGuardian 2.0, FaceTime is working to resolve the risks associated with IM and
P2P by blending its industry-leading solutions with global, real-time
intelligence.
"FIRST and VAST represent FaceTime's commitment to leadership in the field of
messaging management and security," said Kailash Ambwani, CEO at FaceTime.
"Because IM and P2P do not need to be proactively deployed to pose a threat to
corporate networks, this is an urgent, present-day dilemma for all businesses.
FaceTime is proud to provide these new services, which are immediately
available to customers and the rest of the IT community, so they can protect
their businesses as well as the value they derive from IM."
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant
messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by
IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by
more than 900 customers – including nine of the 10 largest U.S. banks – for
security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime
supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise
IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM,
Reuters and Jabber.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE.
The FaceForward blog, at http://blog.facetime.com,
offers thoughts and opinions about the changing nature of Internet communications.
PR Contact:
Emily Chamberlin
650-762-2945
echamberlin@ar-edelman.com
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