Fortinet's FortiGate Systems Are the First Unified Threat Management (UTM) Systems to Achieve Coveted NSS Certification

SUNNYVALE, Calif., February 10, 2005 - Fortinet - the confirmed market leader in Unified Threat Management (UTM) and only provider of ASIC-accelerated, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection - today announced that its FortiGate™-800 systems have passed rigorous intrusion prevention system (IPS) testing by The NSS Group. The FortiGate-800 system, an enterprise-class integrated network security system, running with Fortinet's FortiOS 2.8 firmware, achieved the NSS Approved certification based on the high performance and reliability of its content-based IPS functionality. With this certification, the FortiGate-800 system becomes the first unified threat management (UTM) system and one of only eight IPS products on the market that is "NSS Approved".

Bob Walder, Director of The NSS Group said: "Fortinet's FortiGate system impressed NSS with its IPS capabilities and its ability to couple good performance with low latency when under load. We found the FortiGate-800 to be very stable and reliable and excellent value for the money."

NSS, recognized worldwide as one of the foremost independent security testing group, created a challenging environment that mixed elements of traditional switch testing, application level stress testing and elements of real world use to determine IPS capabilities. Out of nine products tested, only four, including the Fortinet FortiGate-800 system, passed this demanding test. NSS test report findings can be found at: http://www.nss.co.uk/ips

Thwarting Attacks with Unified Threat Management
Noting that IPS alone cannot adequately protect networks against attacks, The NSS Group found Fortinet's FortiGate systems noteworthy in part because they seamlessly combine strong IPS features with other security applications, like firewall, antivirus and others, to make a complete security solution. This approach is also endorsed by leading industry experts such as market research firm IDC, who predicts that the Unified Threat Management (UTM) market, of which Fortinet is the confirmed leader, will be among the fastest-growing markets in the security sector because UTM systems offer substantial advantages in individual application security performance and cost-efficiencies.

Like all of Fortinet's award winning ASIC-accelerated FortiGate systems, the NSS-certified FortiGate-800 system delivers real-time complete content protection through the integration of a broad range of security functions -- including antivirus, firewall, virtual private networking (VPN), intrusion detection and prevention, content filtering, traffic shaping, and anti-spam. Additionally, the FortiGate-800 system includes four 10/100/1000 tri-speed Ethernet ports for networks running at gigabit speeds and four user-definable 10/100 ports that provide granular security inside the network through multi-zone network segmentation. All of Fortinet's FortiGate systems are ICSA-certified, easy to manage and provide cost-effective network-level and content-level protection at the network edge. Additionally, FortiGate systems are kept up to date through Fortinet's FortiGuard-Antivirus and FortiGuard-Intrusion Services, which deliver continuous and automatic "push" updates that ensure protection against the latest viruses, worms, Trojans, Spyware and other threats - around the clock, and around the world.

"This prestigious NSS certification adds to the growing list of endorsements and accolades Fortinet and its products have received - including four ICSA certifications and more than 50 industry awards," said Richard Hanke, vice president of product management at Fortinet. "This recognition is a testament to the commitment Fortinet makes to develop and deliver high-quality, comprehensive solutions that address the security requirements of enterprises of all sizes."

About The NSS Group (www.nss.co.uk)
The NSS Group is the world's foremost independent security testing facility. With British headquarters, and security and network infrastructure testing facilities in the South of France, The NSS Group offers a range of specialist IT, networking and security related services to vendors and end-user organizations world-wide. About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the confirmed leader of Unified Threat Management market. The company's award-winning FortiGate™ series of ASIC-accelerated antivirus firewalls, winner of the 2004 Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing Magazine and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, are the new generation of real-time network protection systems. They detect and eliminate the most damaging, content-based threats from e-mail and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, intrusions, inappropriate Web content and more in real time - without degrading network performance. FortiGate systems are the only security products that are quadruple-certified by the ICSA (antivirus, firewall, IPSec, NIDS), and deliver a full range of network-level and application-level services in integrated, easily managed platforms. Named to the Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies, Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.