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NeoScale And Hifn Partner On Strong Stored Data Protection

NeoScale Systems Inc, a provider of enterprise storage security solutions for the burgeoning network storage market, and Hifn, a network security and flow classification market leader, have announced a strategic alliance to apply the combined resources of both organizations to address the risk of unauthorized access to stored data for both primary and secondary storage infrastructures. The joint marketing and development support efforts will advance enterprise awareness, requirements, and adoption of dedicated and integrated data encryption solutions which extend and protect storage infrastructures. Hifn's industry-proven cryptographic processing engine is incorporated within NeoScale's CryptoStor product-line to be released later this year.

Corporate and government storage infrastructures are changing dramatically. According to the Meta Group, 70% of enterprise storage will be fabric-attached by 2008; with predicted progress of IP-based storage connecting to these storage area networks. As enterprises evolve their storage consolidation, accessibility, recovery and management strategies, so too must policies and solutions be adapted to protect storage resources and distributed information. Greater storage accessibility, the overall growth of stored sensitive data, increased focus on privacy legislation compliance, and recent publicity concerning security break-ins and stored data theft have ignited IT storage and security professionals to examine storage-centric risks.

"Companies have spent millions on perimeter and network defenses and have relied on more physical security and access controls for storage at the data center. This will not adequately scale to address greater storage connectivity, more geographically dispersed storage, outsourced services and portable media," said Farid Neema, president of Peripheral Concepts market analyst. "Clearly storage data encryption may offer a more cost-effective, scalable approach to best defend against unauthorized access, corruption or theft of stored data."

Alliance Benefits

NeoScale has developed a storage frame processing system and an extensive security management architecture, which are the cornerstone for high-speed, transparent, intelligent and scalable storage data protection. The incorporation of Hifn's industry-proven cryptographic processing engine is integral to NeoScale's development efforts. The strategic relationship between NeoScale and Hifn spans joint marketing, sales and development. Both companies anticipate producing technical marketing collateral, providing combined support to respective sales channels, and exploring new technologies relating to market requirements for cryptographic and compression advancements.

"Enterprises are expanding their storage infrastructure to achieve greater availability, integrity and economies. These processes, while reducing operational risks, may increase the unauthorized exposure to business critical data," said Chris Kenber, Hifn's Chairman and CEO. "NeoScale overcomes these challenges with a uniquely high-performance, transparent, and scalable storage data protection product line incorporating proven Hifn technology."

"In a storage security product, providing the customer with industry-accepted, reliable, proven core technologies is paramount," said Aseem Vaid, CEO of NeoScale. "From the very beginning, NeoScale recognized the benefits of using Hifn's encryption and compression processing technologies which continues to be chosen by network and storage industry leaders, as well as used by government and civilian security and storage applications worldwide."

About NeoScale

Founded in June 2000, NeoScale Systems Inc is a leading provider of enterprise storage security solutions, which provide robust, cost-effective data protection for networked and distributed storage. NeoScale CryptoStor is a family of wire-speed, policy-based storage security appliances that delivers network storage and media privacy. Our solutions lower the cost of protecting highly accessible, distributed storage infrastructures, while also enabling greater efficiencies for the management of storage capacity, consolidation, continuity and availability. For more information, visit www.neoscale.com.

About Hifn

Hifn, of Los Gatos, California makes integrated circuits and software for network infrastructure developers. Hifn's integrated data flow technology enables intelligent secure networks with compression, encryption and application-aware classification. This is central to the growth of the Internet, helping to make electronic mail, web browsing, Internet shopping and multimedia communications better, faster and more secure. Most of the major network equipment manufacturers use Hifn's patented technology to improve packet processing.

Hifn was founded in 1996 and is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the HIFN symbol. For more information, contact: Hifn, 750 University Avenue, Los Gatos, CA 95032. Phone: 408-399-3500. Fax: 408-399-3501. Web: www.hifn.com.

Contact: Jennifer Leggio of NeoScale Systems Inc, 408-395-3600, jennifer@dovetailpr.com.