TMWD Tumbleweed Communications Corp (MM)

Tumbleweed(R) Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of email security, file transfer security, and identity validation software and appliances, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has deployed Tumbleweed's MailGate(R) products to block spam, viruses, phishing attacks, and "Dark Traffic," including email-based threats such as directory harvest attacks (DHA) and email denial of service (DoS) attacks. The USPTO, a federal agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce, has more than 6,500 employees at its Alexandria, Virginia headquarters and other offices around the country. Through the issuance of patents and registration of trademarks, the USPTO encourages technological advancement, encourages disclosure of new technology, and assists businesses in protecting their investments, promoting goods and services, and safeguarding consumers against confusion and deception in the marketplace. In addition, by disseminating both patent and trademark information, the USPTO promotes an understanding of intellectual property protection worldwide. Facing a constantly growing flow of spam, viruses, DoS attacks, and other email based threats, the USPTO sought to deploy a solution that would protect, filter, and secure email traffic throughout the organization's network, increase productivity, and conserve IT resources. Agency IT staff were spending significant amounts of time and resources trying to control the influx of spam, and employees were experiencing lost hours of productivity from having to deal with the growing menace of daily spam messages in their inboxes. The USPTO chose the MailGate products for complete inbound protection, including defense against spam, viruses, hackers, and phishing attacks at the Internet gateway, as well as protection from threats from invalid Dark Traffic email at the edge of the network. "Dark Traffic" is a term describing invalid email messages that traditional anti-spam solutions often overlook. Representing up to two thirds of all inbound port 25 traffic, this "Dark Traffic" includes spam precursors like DHA, DoS attacks, malformed SMTP packets, messages to invalid or non-existent recipients, and other requests and communications unrelated to the delivery of valid email messages. MailGate products identify Dark Traffic based on the reputation of the sending IP address and local behavior analysis, and throttles suspect sources of invalid email. Since the agency completed the deployment of MailGate products in March 2006, time spent by IT staff on spam management has declined significantly. Eliminating the spam burden has allowed end-users to be much more productive, lightened network loads, and conserved resources throughout the agency's messaging network. "Ensuring the protection of intellectual property and sensitive patent and trademark information communicated via email is critical to the success of the USPTO's mission," said Tumbleweed's Director of Product Marketing, Dan Maier. "Tumbleweed's MailGate product suite provides the requisite level of assurance that the agency's email networks and users are secure, safe, and protected against a wide array of malicious traffic." About Tumbleweed's MailGate Product Suite Tumbleweed's MailGate Product Suite is a family of products for protecting, filtering and monitoring corporate email. These best-of-breed products enable businesses to manage inbound and outbound traffic, block threats, encrypt messages and optimize network performance. -0- *T -- MailGate Appliance(TM): A high performance Linux appliance, providing integrated network edge defense, antispam, antivirus, content filtering, policy management, and outbound encryption. -- MailGate Email Firewall(TM): Comprehensive email security software, with functionality ranging from inbound threat prevention to outbound content filtering, monitoring and encryption. -- MailGate Secure Messenger(TM): A policy-based email encryption solution that dynamically inspects messages and securely delivers them via the industry's broadest set of secure delivery channels, including TLS, S/MIME, PGP, and SSL. *T Tumbleweed's MailGate Product Suite has recently earned the highest possible performance ratings from West Coast Labs and VeriTest, with spam capture rates of over 99% out of the box. The full reports from these organizations are available from the following links: -0- *T -- West Coast Labs Anti-Spam Solutions Technology Report, www.tumbleweed.com/pdfs/spam_tumbleweed.pdf -- VeriTest Anti-Spam Benchmark Service Report for Autumn 2005, www.tumbleweed.com/pdfs/VeriTest_Anti-Spam_Report_Vol4_all_c.pdf *T SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on current plans and expectations as of the date of this 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 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's continued use of Tumbleweed's products, as well as the functionality and performance of Tumbleweed's products. 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, 2006 and Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2006. Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release. Although this release may remain available on Tumbleweed's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that Tumbleweed is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein. About Tumbleweed Communications Corp. 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(TM), and Validation Authority(TM). 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. Tumbleweed, the Arrows logo, MailGate, MailGate Appliance, MailGate Email Firewall, MailGate Secure Messenger, SecureTransport and Validation Authority are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Tumbleweed Communications Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.