Symantec Gateway Security 5400 Series Protects West Virginia Schools; Security Appliances Block...

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 26, 2004

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC), the world leader in Internet security, today announced that public school authorities in Braxton County, W.Va., are deploying Symantec Gateway Security 5400 Series appliances

As school districts increasingly utilize technology to facilitate instruction, maintain records and archive sensitive information, district IT authorities are tasked with supporting the authorized sharing of information while preventing disclosure of data through co-opted or compromised computers. Braxton County is using multiple Symantec Gateway Security 5420 appliances to prevent campus network intrusions and block a wide range of cyber threats, in accordance with district policies and state and federal regulations. Complementing the school district's existing use of Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise Edition at all network tiers, Symantec Gateway Security 5420 appliances provide each school site with integrated protection from cyber attacks and undesired content by combining firewall, intrusion protection and custom Internet filtering technologies on a single appliance platform easily operated through a centralized management console.

"Our security strategy focuses on safeguarding students' well-being, which requires strong integrity assurances for our computers and network assets," said Sterling Beane, technology director for Braxton County Schools. "The Symantec Gateway Security 5420 appliances are easily managed, multi-function tools addressing the complete spectrum of requirements in our district; from providing an Internet experience free of offensive content to preventing exploits by today's sophisticated worms and hacker techniques."

"School officials demand powerful and manageable security solutions that prevent their computers from being abused or compromised, which jeopardizes sensitive information and trust in authorities," said Glenn Taylor, Symantec's director of state, local, academic and hospital programs. "Braxton County illustrates the advantages school districts gain by adopting security appliances with integrated, multi-function capabilities that offer superior protection and manageability, compared to fielding a host of point-product solutions with individual management and configuration burdens."

Symantec Gateway Security 5400 Series provides fully integrated network protection. As the industry's most comprehensive firewall appliance, it integrates full inspection firewall technology, protocol anomaly based intrusion prevention and intrusion detection engines, award-winning virus protection, URL-based content filtering, anti-spam, and IPsec-compliant virtual private networking technology with hardware-assisted high-speed encryption. To meet the requirements of any size enterprise, the series offers three models, all with an integrated high availability and load balancing option. With its centralized management and clustering capabilities, it can provide high-performance, scalable, and easily managed security for environments ranging from small offices to distributed campuses with tens of thousands of nodes.

About Symantec

Symantec, the world leader in Internet security technology, provides a broad range of content and network security software and appliance solutions to individuals, enterprises and service providers. The company is a leading provider of client, gateway and server security solutions for virus protection, firewall and virtual private network, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, Internet content and e-mail filtering, remote management technologies and security services to enterprises and service providers around the world. Symantec's Norton brand of consumer security products is a leader in worldwide retail sales and industry awards. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec has worldwide operations in 36 countries. For more information, please visit www.symantec.com.

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