Micromuse's Netcool Solution Earns OPSEC Certification from Check Point

Netcool® Integration with Check Point OPSEC Security Framework Helps Organizations Simplify Security Management

SAN FRANCISCO - Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE), the leading provider of business and service assurance software, today announced that its Netcool® family of products has achieved OPSEC™ (Open Platform for Security) certification from Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet. The OPSEC certification verifies that Micromuse's Netcool solutions seamlessly integrate with Check Point's market-leading VPN-1®/FireWall-1® Next Generation™ software.

When using the integrated solution, customers are able to monitor events from Check Point's VPN-1/FireWall-1 solution using the Netcool Probe for FireWall-1™. The Netcool solution consolidates alarms from security devices to identify critical events in realtime. The information gathered by the Netcool Probe for FireWall-1 is displayed to staff in security operations centers via Netcool's centralized console, which provides an end-to-end view of both network and security related events.

Additionally, the Netcool solution provides correlation capabilities to help operations personnel see the relationship between Check Point products and other network and security events. This includes events from security intrusion detection systems, authentication systems, and physical surveillance systems as well as IT data collected from network devices, servers, and applications.

"To meet emerging security requirements, organizations have deployed a wide range of security tools such as the Check Point Next Generation solution, making it increasingly important to have centralized management and correlation of events across the networked infrastructure," commented Craig Farrell, Micromuse's CTO. "The Netcool solution is ideally suited to provide organizations with realtime security monitoring for their Check Point protected networks through its ability to reduce and correlate security events from large, heterogeneous environments."

"Providing real-time event correlation and analysis are necessary steps to identify and prevent security breaches," said Upesh Patel, Director of business development, at Check Point Software Technologies. "Netcool's ability to consolidate and correlate events and alarms across the entire security infrastructure helps organizations further reduce the risk and impact of security threats."

Availability
The Netcool Probe for FireWall-1™ is certified for Check Point FireWall-1 NG and is available from Micromuse. The solution supports Netcool/OMNIbus on Sun Solaris, Linux and Windows platforms.

About Micromuse
Micromuse Inc. (Nasdaq: MUSE) is the leading provider of business and service assurance software solutions. The Netcool® software suite provides organizations with the assurance that their IT systems are supporting and driving profits 24 hours a day. Unlike traditional infrastructure management systems, Netcool solutions provide realtime end-to-end visibility and accurate troubleshooting from a business perspective. Such business intelligence allows organizations to respond to problems quickly, streamline workflow processes and improve business uptime. Micromuse customers include AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Telekom, Digex, EarthLink, GE Appliances, ITC^DeltaCom, J.P. Morgan Chase, T-Mobile and Verizon. Headquarters are located at 139 Townsend Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94107. Tel: (415) 538-9090. The Web site is at www.micromuse.com.

About Check Point's OPSEC®
OPSEC (Open Platform for Security) is the industry's open, multi-vendor security framework. With over 350 partners, OPSEC guarantees customers the broadest choice of best-of-breed integrated applications and deployment platforms that support Check Point's Secure Virtual Network Architecture. Products that carry the OPSEC Certified seal have been tested to guarantee integration and interoperability. For complete OPSEC Alliance program information, including partner and product listings, the freely available OPSEC SDK (software development kit) and evaluation versions of OPSEC Certified products, visit http://www.opsec.com.

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Micromuse and Netcool are registered trademarks of Micromuse Ltd. All other trademarks and registered trademarks in this document are the properties of their respective owners. Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

The factors that could cause actual future results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include the following: fluctuations in customer demand, the Company's ability to manage its growth (including the ability to hire sufficient sales and technical personnel), the risks associated with the expansion of the Company's distribution channels, the risk of new product introductions and customer acceptance of new products; the rapid technological change which characterizes the Company's markets, the risks associated with competition, the risks associated with international sales as the Company expands its markets, and the ability of the Company to compete successfully in the future, as well as other risks identified in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission Filings, including but not limited to those appearing under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and on Form 10-K on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Company's Web site.