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Entrust Technologies and Check Point Software Agree to Broad Strategic Alliance and Sign Significant Cross-Licensing Agreements

Companies to Provide Best-of-Breed VPN Solutions Supported by a Public-Key Infrastructure

DALLAS - February 23, 1998 - Entrust Technologies, Inc. and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKPF) have agreed to a cross-licensing and distribution arrangement for their respective technologies. The agreement, announced today, will provide the first virtual private networking (VPN) solutions that offer scalable certificate management and centralized key backup and recovery. This announcement consists of two components: first, an alliance that will ensure the companies' products work together; and second, a cross-licensing and distribution agreement to allow the resulting products from both companies to be delivered seamlessly to customers.

By integrating their market-leading products, Entrust Technologies and Check Point will provide unified enterprise security solutions that include firewalls, VPNs and remote access with a single public-key infrastructure (PKI) for key management. Furthermore, the resulting solutions will support the seamless addition of applications developed with Entrust's open standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs).

To deliver these solutions, the companies have agreed to the following:

  • Check Point will license the EntrustIPSec Negotiator ToolkitTM and the EntrustCMS ToolkitTM which will be used to make the Check Point FireWall-1 enterprise security software and SecuRemote client remote access software Entrust-ReadyTM . Entrust IPSec Negotiator Toolkit will provide digital signatures and Entrust certificate validation for Internet Security Association Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) peer authentication as well as Entrust key management services to the FireWall-1 product suite. This overcomes the biggest weakness of current Internet remote access and VPN systems: the lack of standards-based key transfer mechanisms and certificate life-cycle management.
  • Entrust Technologies will license Check Point's SecuRemote remote access client and a version of the FireWall-1 VPN solution for distribution with its industry leading public-key infrastructure. This gives Entrust the ability to offer a secure remote and in-building access solution that meets the requirements of its customer base. Additionally, this solution is compatible with all Entrust-Ready applications so organizations can manage security for applications only once rather than separately for each application.
  • Check Point will license a version of the Entrust PKI software to bundle with the Entrust-Ready version of FireWall-1. This package will offer an easy-to-use and easy-to-install PKI combined with firewall, VPN and remote access capabilities. It will offer users access control, certificate-based authentication, encryption, network address translation, content security, and auditing with centralized and scalable key management. This combined product will be sold through Check Point's existing distribution channels.

Separately, Entrust Technologies and Check Point have issued announcements today further detailing the product delivery plans of each company.

‘‘It is widely recognized that the Internet needs strong data protection and authentication before it is fully utilized as a business tool,'' said John Ryan, president and chief executive officer, Entrust Technologies, Inc. ‘‘Entrust is excited to be working with Check Point because it offers best-of-breed solutions for high quality Internet access for both remote access and VPNs that will assist companies in conducting real-world electronic commerce."

‘‘As the boundaries of corporate networks continue to expand and span the globe, the access privileges of users on these networks are becoming more granular, enabling universal connectivity, " said Deborah Triant, president and CEO of Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. ‘‘Check Point is pleased to be working with Entrust Technologies to offer certificate-based user authentication to users of Check Point's market-leading VPN solution. "

Pricing and Availability

The Entrust-Ready version of the FireWall-1 suite of products will be available from Check Point in Q2 1998. A version of FireWall-1 bundled with the Entrust PKI software will be available from Check Point in Q3 1998. The Entrust remote access solution that includes Check Point's SecuRemote client and a version of FireWall-1 will be available from Entrust Technologies in Q2 1998. Pricing of products and product suites from both companies is to be determined.

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a leading provider of policy-based enterprise security and traffic management solutions. Through its patented Stateful Inspection technology, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver Secure Enterprise Connectivity solutions that protect information assets and enhance the performance of enterprise networks. Check Point offerings include the world's leading enterprise security suite, Check PointTM FireWall-1, and the industry's premier policy-based bandwidth management solution, Check Point FloodGate-1TM . The company has U.S. headquarters in Redwood City, California and international headquarters in Ramat-Gan, Israel. For product information, please visit the World Wide Web at http://www.checkpoint.com

About Entrust Technologies, Inc.

Entrust Technologies is dedicated to ensuring the privacy and authenticity of data communications enterprise-wide. Its award-winning public-key infrastructure technology combines encryption and digital signature capabilities with fully automated key management. Widely used by financial institutions, government agencies and high-tech corporations, the Entrust software family provides a complete security solution across multiple platforms for desktops, corporate networks, intranets and the Internet. Entrust Technologies is headquartered in Richardson, TX with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Raleigh, McLean, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. Entrust is a majority-owned subsidiary of Nortel (Northern Telecom). It was recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of the top 50 private technology companies of 1997.