ProSecure STM by NETGEAR Stops Up to 50 Percent More Threats Than Competing Spam and Firewall Products

Independent Testing Confirms Abilities of ProSecure STM Family of Appliances to Stop More Threats than Competing Mid-Market Business Solutions

SAN JOSE, Calif. - ProSecure™, the specialist network security brand by NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced the superior position of their products in the preliminary findings of an in-depth, independent industry assessment of spam filtering products conducted by Miercom. The ProSecure™ STM family of Web/Email Threat Management Appliances for medium-sized businesses proved in testing to stop over 50 percent more threats than competitive products tested. Testing focused on the ability of the solution to stop a variety of threats, including spam, email threats, URL filtering, and Miercom’s Offensive Security Testing Suite. Preliminary testing is complete considering products from Cisco, NETGEAR and Barracuda Networks. Complete test findings for all products submitted for testing will publish on the Miercom website, http://www.miercom.com, in November 2009.

“This Spam Filtering Industry Assessment allows each vendor to submit best-of-breed products to compete in this independent test review. The test results provide customers with honest, objective and meaningful data by way of a competitive comparison matrix. We are impressed with the NETGEAR ProSecure product and its ability to thwart over 50 percent more threats than products tested to date. This superior security effectiveness score is a testament to the relative security the appliance provides compared to products from well established security vendors,” said Robert Smithers, CEO of Miercom.

The preliminary findings by Miercom compared the ProSecure STM600 against the Cisco Spam & Virus Blocker, the Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall, and the Barracuda Web Filter, and reveal that:

* Miercom’s Security Testing Suite, which measured Barracuda and ProSecure resistance against viruses, worms, trojans, vulnerability exploits and malware attacks over web protocols, showed ProSecure STM to outperform Barracuda in the assessment by a margin of at least 50 percent.
* Miercom’s Email Threat Test, which measured Barracuda and ProSecure resistance against email threats, showed ProSecure STM successfully thwarted 99.4 percent of threats over email, including threats in the wild, outperforming Barracuda by a margin of 20 percent.
* Miercom’s Anti-Spam Test, which measured Barracuda, Cisco, and ProSecure in resistance to spam, showed ProSecure to stop 99.8 percent of all spam, which was on par with both Cisco and Barracuda.

Detailed results of the Miercom testing are forthcoming in November 2009 and will be published on the Miercom website at http://www.miercom.com.

ProSecure customers fully appreciate the effectiveness with which STM appliances stop threats. “Implementing the ProSecure STM security appliance at the network’s gateway has allowed us to establish a multi-layered IT security model. We found this to be an exceptionally easy security upgrade to implement,” says John Pompay, CFO of Financial Services Volunteer Corps. “Since its deployment, the ProSecure STM Web/Email Threat Management Appliance has significantly reduced the number of malware and spyware infestations in our network. We are no longer spending hours every day troubleshooting malware-related issues on our systems. This has allowed Financial Services Volunteer Corps to focus on doing what it does best: building strong financial systems in emerging market countries, not mitigating IT security threats.”

The STM300 and the STM600 are designed for networks hosting up to 300 and 600 users respectively. The STM appliance family is designed to sit in-line and filter all potential threats via email and the Web, as well as give administrators control over which sites can be visited. In addition to a wide range of security functions - including an enterprise-class anti-malware engine, zero-hour threat protection, the industry-leading anti-spam engine and an enterprise-class URL filter - the STM series now incorporates the following features:

Active Directory Integration – This feature enables network administrators to use active directory groups and users to create levels of URL filtering. In some cases, administrators may wish to deny access to particular websites for some employees, while enabling others to view them for specific purposes.

Email Quarantine – This feature enables administrators to store emails identified by the STM as spam on the appliance. Users may then retrieve these emails from the appliance when it is convenient to do so.

“Mid-sized businesses are an enormous opportunity for our channel partners and the STM solves a pressing need for their customers’ networks,” said Jason Leung, NETGEAR’s senior product line manager for SMB Security. “The test results speak for themselves. ProSecure is serious about security. The fact that we can beat the established players at their own game shows that we bring performance, effectiveness, and value to the medium business space.”

Pricing and Availability
With full 24/7 technical support that connects SMBs directly with experienced security experts, the ProSecure STM Series of Security Appliances are changing the face of business security. The STM300 and STM600 are available now through CDW and ProSecure authorized value added resellers with a street price starting at $2,599. More information on the STM product line can be found at http://prosecure.netgear.com.