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Press Release

Survey Shows How IT Perceives & Responds To Constantly Changing Security Threats

Responses to VanDyke Software-Commissioned Survey Reveal IT Coping With Wide Range of Threats—From External Attacks to Insider Access

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., March 4, 2003 — VanDyke Software™, a developer of customer-driven software solutions for secure data communications, and Saurage Research, an independent research/survey firm, today announced findings from a recent survey of 710 small and medium size organizations that identify enterprise IT security managers' priorities in protecting their enterprise. In one of the key findings in the survey, IT security professionals identified individuals within the enterprise as being among the top 10 perceived security threats. Analysis shows that insiders were involved in a significant number of the top 10 actual security breaches suffered in 2002. Another key finding of the survey was that while most organizations have addressed external threats to security by deploying firewall and antivirus solutions, a tremendous amount of work remains to be done to protect data from both external and internal threats.

According to the survey, which was conducted in Q4 2002 with IT professionals in companies with less than 100 employees, the top eight security threats experienced were:

• Viruses (78 percent);
• System penetration (50 percent);
• Denial of service (40 percent);
• Insider abuse (29 percent);
• Spoofing (28 percent);
• Laptop theft (22 percent);
• Data/network sabotage (20 percent);
• Unauthorized insider access (16 percent).

Eighty of the 710 surveyed said they had experienced zero occurrences of security threats in 2002.

The top eight perceived security threats expressed by the survey respondents included:

• System penetration (66 percent);
• Sabotage of data networks (45 percent);
• Theft of proprietary information (40 percent);
• Denial of service (34 percent);
• Viruses (23 percent);
• Unauthorized insider access (18 percent);
• Laptop theft (13 percent);
• Insider abuse of the Internet (11 percent).

Other findings from the survey show five percent of the respondents have a concern about telecom eavesdropping, with three percent viewing wiretapping as a threat.

The survey respondents said the following eight types of security software were used in their business:

• Anti-virus (90 percent);
• Firewall (86 percent);
• File Transfer (75 percent);
• Terminal emulation (71 percent);
• Remote access (67 percent);
• Encryption (67 percent);
• Virtual Private Networks (59 percent);
• Intrusion detection (42 percent).

Eighty-three percent of those surveyed said that preferred solutions came from recommendations, 57 percent cited price as a significant factor, and 35 percent noted they expect performance guarantees from vendors.

"IT professionals within small- or medium-sized businesses face a multitude of external and internal security threats, and usually don't have a lot of money or people at their disposal," said Jeff P. Van Dyke, president of VanDyke Software. "The challenge at hand is to cost-effectively confront multiple security threats while maintaining access to data and services."

For more information about the survey, contact Marc Orchant at VanDyke Software (Marc.Orchant@vandyke.com).

ABOUT SAURAGE RESEARCH

Saurage Research is a full service marketing research firm providing answers that drive successful business strategies. Located in Houston, Texas, the company was founded in 1987 and works with companies in many industries.

ABOUT VANDYKE SOFTWARE
VanDyke Software develops quality data access, file transfer, and communications software for Internet and intranet use by corporations, government, and education. VanDyke sells and distributes its software over the Internet, offering 30-day evaluation of its products prior to purchase, and has more than 650,000 registered users in 103 countries. VanDyke products include the VShell™ server, SecureCRT® for remote access and data tunneling, SecureFX® for secure file transfer, Entunnel for data tunneling, the CRT™ terminal emulator, and the AbsoluteFTP® file transfer client.