TMWD Tumbleweed Communications Corp (MM)

Tumbleweed(R) Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of secure messaging, secure file transfer, and identity validation products, today announced the establishment of a Federal Advisory Board and the appointment of advisors Steven T. Schanzer, former senior executive in the intelligence community and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and president of S2 and Associates, and Brian D. Dilley, senior technical consultant on Federal public key infrastructure (PKI) policy to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and president/CEO of eValid8 Corporation. Tumbleweed will look to its Federal Advisory Board members to help refine strategies for continued provision of market-centric, government-focused secure Internet communications solutions. Schanzer and Dilley bring more than 55 combined years of government and industry experience to Tumbleweed's accomplished Federal team, led by Ann Smith, vice president, Federal sales. Tumbleweed recently announced the Federal team's establishment in response to increasing demand for its secure communications solutions. More than 40 Federal government organizations are already using Tumbleweed's e-mail, file transfer, and PKI validation security solutions, including the intelligence community, the DoD and all branches of the armed forces, as well as the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture. "Leveraging the expertise of qualified leaders with extensive public/private sector experience directly supports the Tumbleweed Federal team's commitment to meeting the information security challenges Federal intelligence, defense, and civilian agencies face every day, such as blocking security threats, protecting mission critical information assets, and ensuring the safe exchange of data, messages and files," said Smith. "We are delighted to partner with Steven and Brian to continue delivering solutions that protect government communications infrastructure from existing threats and emerging vulnerabilities." Dilley joined the board in April 2005, while Schanzer has served in an advisory capacity since January 2004. "The government's ability to achieve the utmost trust in communications and network protection depends on defending e-mail infrastructure at the Internet gateway, filtering content to prevent leaks of classified information, and dynamically encrypting and digitally signing confidential messages to protect sensitive information," said Dilley. "Tumbleweed's technology enables this high degree of assurance, empowering Federal agencies and departments with the innovative encryption, authentication, policy enforcement, and tracking capabilities the government requires for securing online communications channels." About Brian D. Dilley Brian D. Dilley is founder and president/CEO of eValid8 Corporation, a government technology consulting practice established in 2003 to focus on the Federal identity market. Mr. Dilley has more than 18 years technical and project management experience in the PKI field and more than 25 years of experience working with public and private sector clients on system acquisition, analysis, IT architectural design, and configuration management. He has served in various advisory capacities to the DoD, Treasury, the Social Security Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), and the U.S. Navy. As a senior consultant on Federal PKI policy and standards to the Treasury Department, Dilley serves as the technical liaison for the Treasury Certificate Authority. He also represents the agency to the Federal PKI Policy Authority, Federal Certificate Policy Working Group, Federal Bridge Certification Authority Technical Working Group, and as an Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) bureau liaison. Prior to eValid8 Corporation, Dilley was the senior technical PKI lead for Booz Allen Hamilton's National Security Team, where he led initiatives involving the creation and review of overlying certificate policies, architectural design and review of PKI applications, and the definition of X509.v3 extensions for interoperability profiles for the USPS, the NSA, and Treasury, among others. As the senior PKI architect for TidePoint Corporation, Dilley led the design of a scalable enterprise/Internet PKI infrastructure for the company, which involved testing, evaluation, and technical analysis of competing vendor applications. Earlier in his career, Dilley held senior project and engineering positions with FC Business Systems, Inc., DK Industrial Services, Lockheed Martin, Inc., and served as a cryptographer on a fast attack submarine in the U.S. Navy. About Steven T. Schanzer Steven T. Schanzer is president of S2 and Associates, and brings more than 30 years of experience in advising Federal government civilian, defense, and intelligence organizations on the strategic application of information systems. Previously, he served as vice president for business development at Veridian Information Solutions, now a General Dynamics Line of Business. Following his retirement from government work in September 2000, Schanzer served as director, strategic applications, at Compaq Computer Corporation before joining Veridian in March 2003. Schanzer had a long and distinguished career in various departments with the U.S. government before moving to the commercial sector. He joined the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 1980 as chief of the command, control, communications and force analysis branch in the Soviet/Warsaw Pact Division. In 1984, he was promoted to the senior executive service as the special assistant for targets intelligence, designated as the special assistant for Soviet/Warsaw Pact Military/Political Affairs in 1985, and rose to the position of director, information services in 1987. Schanzer became the acquisition director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in 1992 prior to his appointment as the director, Intelligence Systems Secretariat on the Director of Central Intelligence's Community Management Staff in 1993. He returned to DoD in 1996 as deputy director, Defense Security Service, and became director in 1998. Throughout his career, Schanzer has received many notable awards, including the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) Award for Distinguished Service to the Intelligence Community, and the Senior Executive Association's Executive Achievement Award. Schanzer earned a BS degree with honors in physics from the University of Missouri, an MS degree in computer science from the University of Kansas, an MS degree in operations research from George Mason University, and attended the National War College. About Tumbleweed Tumbleweed provides security solutions for email protection, file transfers, and identity validation that allow organizations to safely conduct business over the Internet. Tumbleweed offers these solutions in three comprehensive product suites: MailGate, SecureTransport, and Validation Authority. MailGate provides protection against spam, viruses, and attacks, and enables policy-based message filtering, encryption, and routing. SecureTransport enables business to safely exchange large files and transactions without proprietary software. Validation Authority is the world-leading solution for determining the validity of digital certificates. Tumbleweed's enterprise and government customers include ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense, and all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Tumbleweed was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650-216-2000. SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on plans and expectations as of the date of the press release, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to Tumbleweed products and Tumbleweed's Federal Government business. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 16, 2005 and Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2005. Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, which represents the Company's expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the Company's expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on the Company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.