NetScreen Sets Another SSL VPN Industry Benchmark with Powerful New Dynamic Access Management Feature Sets

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 9, 2004 – NetScreen Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NSCN) today announced the next-generation release of its Secure Access product family, built upon the new Neoteris* Instant Virtual Extranet (IVE) 4.0 platform, which includes sophisticated, enterprise-class access management capabilities. NetScreen today also announced the new NetScreen-SA Central Manager product for unified administration of globally distributed SSL VPN gateway deployments (see related press release issued today titled “NetScreen Introduces Unified Policy and Configuration Management Product for Globally Distributed SSL VPNs”). With these introductions, NetScreen continues to set SSL VPN industry standards for innovation by delivering products that serve the secure remote access, partner extranet and intranet needs of enterprises. The NetScreen Secure Access appliances (formerly known as the Neoteris Access Series) running on the IVE 4.0 platform are the first among SSL VPN solutions that can address the advanced security needs of customers deploying partner extranets and intranets with unique dynamic access privilege management, rich user self-service, granular role-based delegation, and centralized management. These new comprehensive access management capabilities give network administrators a robust solution to deploy and control access privileges for large and diverse end-user populations, such as employees, corporate partners and customers.

The new access privilege management features in the NetScreen Secure Access appliances can provide IT personnel flexibility in defining rich authentication and authorization policies for diverse user groups. Highly expressive parameters make dynamic access provisioning possible, since administrators can define diverse access privileges on the fly and map to various session roles depending on factors such as user identity; network trust level; device control/security (managed or unmanaged); dynamic device state (based on recurring end point checks); device type (PC or wireless); session parameters (time of day, login time); and security level, such as dual-factor authentication or certificates.

By combining these new variables in dynamic authentication policies, expressive role definition and mapping rules, and resource-based authorization policies, administrators can provision access by need or purpose to ensure compliance with enterprise security policies and business requirements. “We require advanced access management capabilities like these to assign appropriate resource access privileges to law enforcement and criminal intelligence personnel connecting from trusted and untrusted networks to their centralized applications from remote locations across their state,” said John Wandelt, senior research scientist and secure information-sharing program manager at Georgia Tech Research Institute, which is consulting on several secure information sharing initiatives serving intelligence analysts and criminal investigators. “Support for several standards-based authentication and privilege management mechanisms provides for flexible integration into existing infrastructure and can minimize impact, complexity, and total cost of ownership.”

The NetScreen Secure Access product family also includes features that enable user self-service, customization, and delegation for enhanced end-user productivity and reduced total cost of ownership. The NetScreen Secure Access appliance’s new customizable user interface and support for multiple hostnames enable a transparent user experience by providing differing user groups with customized entry and domains. Granular role-based delegation can alleviate IT bottlenecks by distributing the workload among qualified personnel. Enterprises can also delegate administrative control based upon business, geography, and functional needs.

“Many organizations are interested in a complete remote access solution for their constituents and partners, including the ability to protect web-based resources without requiring the deployment of a full-fledged Extranet Access Management (EAM) system,” said Ray Wagner, research director, Gartner, Inc. “An appliance-based remote access solution with EAM capabilities provides an appealing mix of functionality, and may help enterprises looking for a way to provision EAM functionality more cost effectively.”

The NetScreen Secure Access product family has set SSL VPN industry benchmarks for security, access, and scalability since their introduction in 2001. Unlike traditional distributed software-based extranet/intranet security solutions, the NetScreen Secure Access product family provides a cost-effective and scalable secure access management solution in an appliance form factor. The NetScreen Secure Access appliances deliver this rich feature set without requiring enterprises to make network infrastructure changes, deploy distributed software agents onto Web and application servers, or maintain the security of numerous and diverse public facing application servers. The appliances can eliminate expensive and time-consuming extranet application integration, which can lower deployment and on-going operational and maintenance costs.

“We believe the cost-effectiveness of our solution has helped drive rapid adoption of SSL VPN solutions for employee access, and has sparked demand for expanded use to other business applications, such as partner extranets and corporate intranets,” said Krishna “Kittu” Kolluri, general manager of NetScreen’s secure access products. “With our new accessmanagement capabilities, we are uniquely positioned with a cost-effective solution that addresses extranet, intranet, and remote access security needs. NetScreen has once again redefined the SSL VPN space with this new release of the IVE 4.0 platform.”

NetScreen’s Secure Access Appliances
The NetScreen Secure Access (SA) appliances, which have earned the most awards and industry accolades in the SSL VPN market since first shipping in 2001, represent the market’s leading SSL VPN product line. Enterprises worldwide have selected the NetScreen-SA 1000, -SA 3000 and -SA 5000 products because they enable cost-effective deployment of secure access to remote employees, corporate partners and intranet users.

Availability
This new IVE 4.0 functionality is expected to be available worldwide Feb. 16 from registered NetScreen channel partners. Available IVE 4.0 functionality and feature sets may vary based upon purchase and deployment options. For more information on where to buy, see http://www.netscreen.com/partners/channel/locate/.

About NetScreen Technologies
NetScreen Technologies, Inc. is a leading developer of network security and access solutions for enterprises and carriers worldwide. NetScreen’s solutions offer multiple layers of network and application-level protection in purpose-built appliances and systems that meet customers’ security, performance and total cost of ownership objectives. NetScreen is located at 805 11th Ave., Sunnyvale, CA, 94089. More information on NetScreen’s products can be found at http://www.netscreen.com or by calling toll free at 1-800-638-8296.

NetScreen, Neoteris, Neoteris Access Series and the NetScreen logo are trademarks of NetScreen Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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