Fortinet Technology Takes Virus Protection to New Level

Fortinet -- the pioneer andmarket leader in Unified Threat Management and only provider ofASIC-accelerated, network-based multi-threat security systems for real-timenetwork protection -- today announced a groundbreaking new technology thatincreases protection against damaging "Zero-Day" virus attacks and raises thebar on security system performance. Fortinet's new antivirus engine is contained in th(Nasdaq: ANAD)e latest version ofFortinet's FortiOS v2.8 firmware, which is deployed on all FortiGate securityappliances. It enhances the superior security and performance that customershave come to expect from the company's world-class antivirus functionalityprovided in its FortiGate multi-function security appliances. This isachieved through the implementation of a dual-pass scanning technique thatadds an additional layer of security to all traffic and an object-scanningapproach that significantly increases antivirus and overall systemperformance. A patent application for Fortinet's enhanced antivirus enginehas been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to delivering improvements in antivirus processing andsecurity, Fortinet's new antivirus engine has been carefully designed to avoidU.S. Patent No. 5,623,600, assigned to Trend Micro ('600 Patent). The '600Patent is the subject of an ongoing International Trade Commission (ITC)enforcement action instigated by Trend Micro. Fortinet's new antivirus enginehas undergone external legal and industry expert analysis, both of whichdetermined it did not infringe the patent claims at issue in the relatedAug. 8, 2005 ITC orders. "We took a fresh look at an old problem and challenged ourselves to bettera patented technology more than a decade old," said Ken Xie, founder,president and CEO of Fortinet. "The result is innovative technology thatrevolutionizes antivirus security and performance within our flagshipFortiGate security appliances. While we stand firmly in our position that ourtechnology did not infringe on Trend's patent, we are following ITC orders andhave already resumed business as usual." "Hotlist" Scanning Improves Security & Zero-Day Attack Protection Traditional antivirus approaches group files by type and scan typicallyonly the traffic deemed threatening against a virus signature database. Thisapproach leaves security gaps that can allow hidden threats to bypasstraditional antivirus solutions. Fortinet's enhanced antivirus engine goesbeyond this, employing a new dual-pass signature scanning approach by whichall traffic that passes through the FortiGate systems is checked against asignature database, and then again against a "hotlist" database of the mostactive viruses currently in the wild. Providing this additional granularityand scanning technique delivers increased security against masqueradingviruses that can morph into damaging "Zero-Day" attacks by proactivelydetecting and preventing viruses before they occur. ICSA Labs Observes Performance Gain of 110% Fortinet's enhanced antivirus engine raises the bar on antivirus contentinspection and increases performance by optimizing the way traffic isprocessed, analyzed, buffered and stored. Whereas conventional antivirusapproaches utilize significant processing power and memory to buffer andexamine the content of entire email messages, Fortinet's new antivirus engineutilizes an object-oriented approach by which email content is divided intodiscrete sections or "objects." The objects are then scanned in parallelusing multiple, simultaneous security engines, thus increasing overall systemperformance. This innovative object-based scanning approach, coupled withimprovements in packet processing in the FortiGate devices, deliverssignificant performance advantages over traditional antivirus implementations. In a recent test conducted in conjunction with ICSA Labs -- the securityindustry's central authority for research, intelligence, and certificationtesting of products -- Fortinet's FortiGate-3600 systems running the newantivirus engine and other software enhancements showed a significant increasein performance over the same systems utilizing Fortinet's previous antivirussoftware, which was already recognized for delivering industry-leadingperformance. Additional testing will be presented in a report authored byICSA, which will be publicly available in November. "We observed Fortinet's new antivirus technology under real-worldconditions -- with a mix of traffic running across the FortiGate enterprisesecurity appliances," said George P. Japak, vice president of ICSA Labs. "Weobserved the hotlist functionality in action, and the tests we observeddemonstrated that the FortiGate systems delivered an impressive performanceincrease of more than 110 percent." "We are very enthusiastic about Fortinet's new antivirus engine andalready see demand for it from our customer base of all sizes," said MikeBramm, chief technology officer of CompuNet International, a Fortinet PlatinumPartner. "Fortinet's FortiGate systems continue to provide value to ourcustomers by integrating the essential security functionality they require inan ASIC-accelerated security appliance -- we look forward to furtheraddressing our customers' enterprise security needs with the increasedperformance and security functionality that Fortinet unveiled today."CompuNET International, Inc. provides secure, powerful, and intelligentinformation technology solutions exclusively tailored to help enterprisesachieve business success. For more information on CompuNet, please visithttp://www.compunetinc.com. Fortinet's FortiGate systems provide the industry's broadest suite ofsecurity protections in a single platform, spanning firewall, VPN, antivirus,intrusion detection/prevention, Web filtering, antispam, antispyware andtraffic shaping functionality. Deployed as an integrated or standalonesolution, FortiGate systems detect and eliminate today's threats as well asemerging blended threats that cannot be detected and eliminated by competitivesolutions. For more information on Fortinet products, please visit:http://www.fortinet.com/products. Distribution and availability Fortinet's antivirus enhancements are contained in Fortinet's FortiOS 2.8MR11-D. The software is available now to existing customers free of charge aspart of a routine upgrade, and is currently being deployed on all FortiGatesystems shipped from Fortinet to the U.S. domestic market. About Fortinet (http://www.fortinet.com) Fortinet is the confirmed leader of the Unified Threat Management securityappliance market. The company's award-winning FortiGate(TM) series ofASIC-accelerated multi-threat security appliances, winner of the 2004 SecurityProduct of the Year Award from Network Computing magazine and the 2003Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, are the newgeneration of real-time network protection systems. They detect and eliminatethe most damaging, content-based threats from e-mail and Web traffic such asviruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more in real time --without degrading network performance. Fortinet's solutions are the onlysecurity products that are certified six times over by the ICSA (serverantivirus, client antivirus, firewall, NIDS, and IPSec and SSL VPN), anddeliver a full range of network-level and application-level services inintegrated, easily managed platforms. Named to the Red Herring Top 100Private Companies and Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal "Fast 50"lists, Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.

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