TMWD Tumbleweed Communications Corp (MM)

Tumbleweed� Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), providers of innovative messaging security solutions, today announced the five most pressing messaging security threats that will emerge or continue to plague IT security in 2007. As anticipated, data leakage concerns and continued growth of profit-driven spam will top the list in the coming year. �The spam problem will continue to grow and be increasingly profit-driven. Spammers will continue to exploit new ways to circumvent spam filters, such as using video and audio files to avoid detection. We will also see data leakage become the biggest issue in 2007,� said Dr. Taher Elgamal, chief technology officer at Tumbleweed. �Most organizations do not realize how much data is traveling outside the enterprise, usually via unsecured methods. As a result, desktop encryption will become a mainstream defense mechanism and content security will become more sophisticated to address this shift toward data protection, monitoring both inbound and outbound traffic for multiple protocols.� 1. Sensitive data leakage for public companies becomes a huge issue in 2007. Organizations will have to address the fact that sensitive data like intellectual property or customer information is traveling outside the enterprise, typically via unsecured methods. 2. Spam problems will continue to grow and be increasingly profit-driven. Most spam will be focused on a few categories with the most profit potential. For example, 60 percent of spam at end of 2006 was for stock tips or drugs � both areas where there is a clear profit motive and will continue to grow in 2007. 3. Spammers will continue to adapt to exploit new ways to circumvent spam filters. For example, spammers will seek to randomize images to evade spam filters to penetrate inboxes. The most recent example, that will gain more steam in 2007, is �logo gibberish� spam � legitimate graphics thrown into an email to confuse spam filters. 4. 2007 will see hackers and spammers look to take advantage of audio and video files in addition to standard email messages to deliver viruses, mask and deliver spam messages and generally avoid detection by conventional spam filters. 5. Botnets, armies of hijacked computers used to deliver spam, will remain an issue in the coming year. These botnets allow spammers to deliver thousands of messages while avoiding reputation filters that block known spammers. Tumbleweed is able to identify and track new messaging security and spam trends, such as the predictions for 2007, via Tumbleweed�s Message Protection Lab (MPL), a research facility established to analyze spam and study messaging security and protection. MPL�s continual research allows Tumbleweed to track messaging security trends while developing innovative techniques for blocking the latest spamming practices and email security threats. The lab analyzes email traffic and trends to identify email threats such as spam, image spam, phishing and other types of email threats. MPL is staffed by experts who continually monitor worldwide spam outbreaks to identify new trends and tactics, and create and publish new heuristics to stop them. About the Tumbleweed MailGate Product Suite The Tumbleweed MailGate� Product Suite is a family of products for protecting, filtering and monitoring corporate email, blocking more than 99 percent of inbound spam. These best-in-breed products enable businesses to manage inbound and outbound traffic, block threats, encrypt messages and optimize network performance. MailGate products include MailGate Appliance�, MailGate Email Firewall� software and MailGate Secure Messenger� software, each optimized for specific environments and security challenges. MailGate Appliance: A powerful and easy-to-deploy hardened Linux appliance, providing integrated network edge defense, anti-spam, anti-virus, content filtering, policy management, and outbound encryption. MailGate Email Firewall: A comprehensive email security software offering, with functionality ranging from inbound threat prevention to outbound content filtering, monitoring and encryption. MailGate Secure Messenger: A policy-based, secure message delivery solution that inspects incoming and outgoing mail and dynamically applies user-defined encryption and routing preferences. About Tumbleweed Tumbleweed provides world-class innovative messaging security solutions for organizations of all sizes. Organizations rely on Tumbleweed's solutions to securely manage their Internet communications, spanning email management to file transfers. Tumbleweed has more than 2,300 customers worldwide, representing industries such as Finance, Healthcare, and the U.S. Government. The world�s most security conscious organizations rely upon Tumbleweed technology including Bank of America Securities, JP Morgan Chase & Co., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Defense. The company�s award-winning products build on thirteen years of R&D and 25 security patents in the U.S. alone � many of which are licensed by other security vendors, http://www.tumbleweed.com/company/patents/patent_licenses.html. More information can be found at www.tumbleweed.com. 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. 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 accuracy of Tumbleweed�s messaging security threat predictions, as well the functionality and performance of Tumbleweed�s products and services in addressing messaging security threats. 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 November 9, 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.