Leading North American Headwear Retailer Secures Distributed Network with Fortinet Security Solution

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - July 14, 2008 - Fortinet^® - the pioneer and leading provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions - today announced that Hat World, Inc., a specialty retail leader of officially licensed and branded athletic fashion headwear in North America, has deployed Fortinet's FortiGate^® multi-threat security appliances to help secure the network at its Indianapolis, Ind. headquarters and is currently rolling out FortiGate appliances to its more than 850 stores. FortiGate appliances will help to provide virtual private network (VPN) connectivity from the retail stores to Hat World headquarters and firewall protection at the individual stores. With the FortiGate deployment, Hat World has experienced the following key benefits: enhanced and consolidated security, the ability to manage networks remotely and centrally, and a 10X reduction in credit card processing time. Operating primarily under the LIDS and Hat World retail brands, stores offer a vast assortment of college, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams, as well as other specialty fashion categories all in the latest styles and colors.

With more than 850 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, Hat World was previously using a wired DSL network but found the cost to be too high. The company moved to an evolution data optimized (EVDO) solution provided by Sprint (EVDO is high speed Internet service via cellular technology). After making this change, Hat World realized it needed a new security solution that could support the new EVDO network, because the previous NetGear firewall solution wasn't allowing the company to efficiently manage hundreds of stores from a central location. The FortiGate appliances were selected because Fortinet is the only vendor that makes an enterprise class EVDO routing solution with an integrated 56K modem for dial fail-over for continuous point-of-sale (POS) operations.

"In looking for a network security vendor, it was very important for us to find one that would support our new EVDO network, one that we could manage remotely and one that had consolidated functionality so that we could easily and cost-effectively add network security functions on an as-needed basis," said Larry Havlik, senior director of information technology and facilities at Hat World. "Fortinet was the only vendor that met all these needs."

Located at the Hat World headquarters are two FortiGate-1000A multi-threat security systems deployed in high-availability mode and providing VPN termination from the retail stores to headquarters. When store employees need to view corporate information such as store inventory, the intranet or embroidery files, they access the data securely through the VPN.

Hat World is currently rolling out FortiWiFiTM-60B units to some of its 850 locations. The FortiGate appliances are helping to protect the in-store wired network which includes video surveillance camera protection, credit card machines, point of sale applications and the embroidery stations. Connecting via a Sprint EVDO wireless broadband connection, the FortiWifi-60B appliance and its native 3G wireless support is providing firewall protection and analog modem fail-over for continuous credit card processing and point of sale connectivity. Hat World is also using the wireless functionality of the FortiWifi-60B to protect the laptops of district managers, field auditors and trainers who come into the stores with their laptops to access corporate data.

"Since deploying the combined Sprint and Fortinet solution, Hat World has seen a reduction in time needed for credit card transactions. What used to take 45 seconds is now taking four to five seconds. As a retail store, improvements like that are huge," added Havlik.

To help manage and report on network usage for the more than 850 Fortinet appliances, Hat Word purchased a FortiManagerTM-3000B. The FortiManager system will be used as the centralized management platform for Hat World's Fortinet security infrastructure consisting of more than Fortinet 850 appliances.

"It's imperative for enterprises such as Hat World to be able to centrally manage appliances so that truck rolls aren't necessary and management is simple," said Karl Soderlund, vice president of Americas sales and business development for Fortinet. "Fortinet's combination of world-class network security and central management allows companies to have robust security for network resources no matter where data is stored or accessed."

Fortinet's FortiGate systems are ASIC-accelerated security appliances that integrate essential security applications and services such as antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention, Web filtering, anti-spam and traffic shaping. All FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard™ Network, which provides continuous updates that help ensure protection against the most damaging threats commonly found in email and Web traffic such as viruses, worms, vulnerability exploit attempts and other unwanted network traffic - around the clock and around the world.

About Hat World (www.lids.com)
Founded in 1995, Hat World, Inc. is comprised of more than 850 mall-based, airport, street level and factory outlet stores nationwide, and in Puerto Rico and Canada, operating primarily under the LIDS and HATWORLD retail brands. Indianapolis-based Hat World Inc. is recognized as a leading specialty retail leader of officially licensed and branded athletic fashion headwear. Hat World also operates smaller retail brands LIDS KIDS, HAT SHACK, HAT ZONE, HEAD QUARTERS and CAP CONNECTION. The stores offer a vast assortment of officially licensed and branded college, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams, as well as other specialty fashion categories all in the latest styles and colors. Select stores also offer licensed apparel and custom embroidery capability. The company serves the core sports fan and fashion-conscious, trend-savvy mid-teen to mid-20s customer. Hat World also sells products and promotes the stores through the Internet sites lids.com™ and lidskids.com™. In addition, licensed LIDS stores operate from premier street locations and kiosks within major department stores in Hong Kong and China. Hat World is a subsidiary of Genesco Inc.

About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the pioneer and leading provider of ASIC-accelerated unified threat management, or UTM, security systems, which are used by enterprises and service providers to increase their security while reducing total operating costs. Fortinet solutions were built from the ground up to integrate multiple levels of security protection--including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and anti-spam -- designed to help customers protect against network and content level threats. Leveraging a custom ASIC and unified interface, Fortinet solutions offer advanced security functionality that scales from remote office to chassis-based solutions with integrated management and reporting. Fortinet solutions have won multiple awards around the world and are the only security products that are certified in seven programs by ICSA Labs: firewall, antivirus, IPSec, SSL, network IPS and anti-Spyware. Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.

Copyright © 2008 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. Fortinet is a registered trademark of Fortinet, Inc. FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiAnalyzer, FortiASIC, FortiCare, FortiManager, FortiWiFi, FortiGuard, FortiClient, FortiReporter and other names are trademarks of Fortinet, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.