TOKYO, Japan - July 14, 2008 - Fortinet^® - the pioneer and leading provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions, today announced that Studio Alice (TYO: 2305), a leading photo studio company specializing in the photography of children, has deployed Fortinet's FortiGate ^® multi-threat security appliances in all 365 of its photo studios nationwide.

Studio Alice, the pioneer and market leader in the photography of children, has huge coverage with its innovative chain of stores referred to as "Photo Castles for Children," with 365 outlets (as of May, 2008) nationwide under the motto of "Photographs are the Treasures of the Future".

Conventional security measures for photo studios mainly involved physical security, such as controlling entries and exits from facilities. However, as photography methods have shifted from conventional photo film to digital, data security within the studios has become increasingly important. Not only should order data containing personal information be treated as personal information, but so should photo image data taken at the studios. Accordingly, a higher level of security, including the encryption and decryption of data when it is transmitted or received, is required. Moreover, Studio Alice decided to enhance all of its internal security in view of internal control requirements and J-SOX (Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Law).

Consequently, Studio Alice established a preparatory office for internal control to drive specific security measures such as the prevention of data leakage and blocking external access. The company selected Fortinet's FortiGate series of appliances, thinking highly of its ability to provide various security functions within one appliance, as well as its clear fee structure based on the number of appliances, rather than the number of users. Studio Alice has now installed FortiGate-50A or FortiGate-50B appliances at all of its outlets. In addition, the company introduced a FortiGate-300A mid-range model in its data center where the main office servers are housed and installed a VPN to encrypt the data exchanged between the data center and each outlet.

"We think highly of the FortiGate appliances ability to provide various security functions within one appliance, rather than forcing us to implement specific security software one by one," said Koichi Inatani of the Information Systems Department at Studio Alice's Operations Head Office. "In addition, we liked its clear fee structure for initial licensing based on an annual per store cost. The deployment of FortiGate appliances enabled us to share a huge amount of data in a secure manner. We plan to drive further development, including a management system to understand all aspects of our outlets, such as photo shooting status, the delivery of commercial messages to our customers to highlight our outlets and the delivery of streaming images to our employees as part of training. Furthermore, we will consider developing a dedicated store system tailored for digital photography, rather than use a common POS system for retail outlets modified for photo studios."

As with all FortiGate systems, the FortiGate-50A and the FortiGate-50B appliances deliver comprehensive network and content protection through the integration of nine essential security applications and services - antivirus, firewall, IPsec-VPN, SSL-VPN, IPS, anti-spam, antispyware, Web filtering, P2P and IM countermeasures. The systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard^® subscription services, which provide updates to help protect against the latest viruses, worms, trojans and other threats, around the clock and around the world.

"Although outlets in the service and retail industries require the same level of data protection as head offices, they face challenges such as an insufficient number of on-site IT personnel to manage and maintain their IT infrastructure," said Yoshimitsu Okamoto, president of Fortinet Japan. "The FortiGate security appliance provides comprehensive security against network- and content-level threats, excellent manageability and flexible connection options. It is especially suitable for the typical network structures of the service and retail industries, which are characterized by a large number of outlets. We believe that we will see further major deployments like Studio Alice as the need for enhanced security in the service and retail industries increases."

About Studio Alice (http://www.studio-alice.co.jp/)
STUDIO ALICE (listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, TYO: 2305) offers "photo studios exclusively for children" that are available whenever customers want to have a photo shooting session. Under the motto of "Photographs are the Treasures of the Future," Studio Alice offers its innovative outlets described as "Photo Castles for Children" to help customers record beautiful memories. The company operates open photo studios that can be seen from outside the shop and offers as many as 400 costumes at no additional cost. Studio Alice is the pioneer and market leader for photo studios exclusively for children, offering outstanding services including its unique "VTR Photo Select System," with which customers can check and select photos on the spot. The company has chain outlets nationwide, with a focus on shopping centers from Hokkaido to Okinawa, as well as outlets overseas.