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MURRAY HILL, N.J. (Dec. 2, 1997) -- Lucent Technologies today announced a new Internet firewall that it said was designed to be the industry's most secure, expandable and easy-to-use hardware and software platform for protecting customers' data networks. Called the Lucent Managed Firewall, it is backed by five patent-pending security technologies developed by Bell Labs, and can be expanded readily as the data networks of service providers and businesses grow.

"Network security is one of the biggest issues businesses face in using the Internet. With the Lucent Managed Firewall in their networks, customers can flexibly deploy security throughout their network without affecting network speed," said Howie Gittleson, director, Lucent Internet Security Products Group. "Businesses can place sensitive data on their intranet or extranet and access the information securely in a way not possible before. With today's announcement, Lucent has re-invented the firewall."

The company said the Lucent Managed Firewall is the latest product in the company's rapidly expanding Internet and data networking portfolio, which is designed to bring the reliability and manageability of voice networks to data networks. By separating the fundamental security function, performed on its firewall hardware, from the centralized management function, performed by its Security Management software, Lucent provides a scaleable approach to firewalls. It is this distributed network approach which enables users to easily administer security throughout their entire network. Users of the Lucent Managed Firewall can cost-effectively provide distributed security for Internet, intranet, and business-to-business communications such as Virtual Private Networks.

The Lucent Managed Firewall can replace or complement any Internet firewall now in use, and it can support a variety of applications without requiring any network reconfiguration. The company also said since a single Security Management Server can support multiple firewall appliances, corporate intranets can be segmented, and branch offices can be secured cost effectively.

Planet Access, an Internet service provider (ISP) with 3,000 regional users, recently completed testing of Lucent's new firewall, and plans to integrate the first release into its network by the end of 1997.

"We've been searching for a firewall that could give us the highest level of security protection for our customers that at the same time could grow with our needs and was easy to manage, " said Jeff Cartwright, director of Communications Technology, Planet Access. "Lucent has done it. Now our engineers can spend more time developing new service opportunities and less time managing the system."

The market for firewalls is growing rapidly. According to International Data Corporation market research, the market is expected to be $328 million in 1998 and grow to $729 million by the year 2001. Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Lucent plan to integrate Lucent's firewall technology with HP's OpenView network management system. Merisel and MicroAge already have agreed to distribute the product.

At the heart of Lucent's new firewall hardware is the Inferno^(TM) operating system, a networking software innovation from Bell Labs. The company said it has more than 60 original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and independent software vendors (ISV) customers for Inferno. The small size, high speed, robust capabilities and embedded security make Inferno the ideal platform for the firewall hardware, according to Lucent. The Security Management Server will run on NT or UNIX operating systems.

The Bell Labs scientists who developed the new Lucent Managed Firewall have more than a decade of experience in computer network security. Noted security pioneer Bill Cheswick served as an advisor to the Lucent project. He is co-author of the authoritative reference book, Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker.

Pricing for the Lucent Managed Firewall begins at $15,995. General availability is planned for late December with new releases and international rollouts throughout 1998. For more information about the Lucent Managed Firewall, customers may contact Lucent at 1-888-765-4325.

This information is based on a press release written by Bill Price and Delitha Morrow Coles of Lucent Technologies Media Relations.