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Press Release

FaceTime Provides Industry-first Worm Free Guarantee

IMAuditor 6.5 Sets New Standard for Comprehensive Security of Public and Enterprise IM

FOSTER CITY, CALIF - November 1, 2005 - FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions for securing IM, P2P and spyware, today announced the immediate availability of IMAuditor 6.5, the industry's premier IM security solution, along with guaranteed protection against worms propagating through all major public IM systems. The "Worm Free Guarantee" represents the security industry's first explicit program to offer compensation upon a single instance of an IM worm propagating in the customer's environment. The new program is made possible through patent-pending technology within IMAuditor 6.5 that protects organizations at a level unmatched by conventional, signature-based products.

"IM security is no longer a luxury, it's a must have," says Michael Osterman of Osterman Research. "Companies like FaceTime clearly recognize the need for visibility and protection of greynet applications like IM, and FaceTime's worm-free guarantee is a significant benefit to organizations that need to protect against new threats that can harm an enterprise."

A new IM threat has the greatest propensity to spread and infect organizations immediately after it is released by the creator. IM threats are extremely challenging for corporate IT because they utilize real-time communications channels and proven social engineering techniques to propagate significantly faster than email-based attacks. Products that rely on signatures alone and require organizations to wait hours or even days for a new signature to be created, tested and distributed are virtually ineffective in defending against IM threats. The FaceTime IMAuditor 6.5 utilizes behavioral attributes such as message frequency, content matching, and URL identification - in addition to traditional signatures - to detect malicious activity and stop infections before they occur.

"IM is an incredibly powerful tool, but also presents an incredibly real threat to the enterprise, said Kailash Ambwani, CEO of FaceTime Communications. "Even a short 'window of vulnerability' for IM based attacks is unacceptable. Enterprise organizations require a solution that prevents new infections before they start. With our patent-pending technology and our 'Worm-Free Guarantee' customers can be confident that their network is protected."

FaceTime's IMAuditor is used by the world's largest organizations to secure and manage the use of both enterprise and public IM, and ensure IM communications comply with corporate policy and regulatory requirements. The new IMAuditor 6.5 features include:

  • Expanded spIM blocking - Create explicit rules that eliminate spIM in your organization through the ability to block, allow, or challenge messages meeting identified criteria. Utilizes a combination of white/black lists, custom rules, and patent-pending challenge/response mechanism to enable administrators and security officers to manage external solicitations (spIM), while allowing legitimate IM
  • Robust reporting - Provide thorough visibility into IM usage across the enterprise and deliver actionable data for the business executive and the security administrator. Through pre-configured or custom reports and new scheduling features, comprehensive data on IM usage, infections, top users and more can be easily identified and communicated to multiple audiences within the organization
  • Day Zero Defense System - Protect against worms delivered over public and enterprise IM systems using anomaly detection techniques to analyze multiple characteristics of IM conversations against normal behavior
  • File Transfer Security - Allow or restrict attachments to incoming and outgoing communications by file type, source domain or transfer method
  • Granular Disclaimer Policies - In addition to configuring legal disclosure notices at the company, group, and user levels, administrators can now enable or disable disclaimers for any licensed IM network
IM, P2P and spyware applications are part of a category of networked applications that FaceTime calls 'greynets.' Greynets are network-enabled applications that are installed on an end user's system without permission from IT and are highly evasive to existing security infrastructure.

The "Worm Free Guarantee" and IMAuditor 6.5 are available as of October 28, 2005. To learn more contact your FaceTime representative.

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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