New CipherOptics Encryptors Improve Encryption Performance and Flexibility

--New platform delivers wire-speed Layer 2, Layer 3, and Layer 4 encryption in a single box--

Raleigh, NC, October 6, 2009 - CipherOptics today announces the general availability of the TrustNet Manager Enforcement Point (CEP) family of encryptors. The CEPs are flexible encryption appliances designed for the Carrier Ethernet and MPLS markets. The CEP family offers full-duplex, wire-speed performance from 10Mbps to 10Gbps using AES-256 bit encryption.

CipherOptics CEPs enable organizations to standardize on one platform for large campus, data center and remote branch office networks. The CEPs integrate easily into any existing network, operating transparently to the network and ensuring all data transmissions are encrypted.

"The new CEP line represents CipherOptics' continued commitment to make data encryption scalable and affordable." says Tom Gill, CipherOptics' CEO. "With the new CEP line, customers can now protect their data with scalable high-speed, low-latency encryption for any Layer 2, Layer 3 or Layer 4 network, without impacting network or application performance."

Ethernet Frame Encryption
The CEPs are compatible with all multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet, point-to-point Ethernet, Layer 2 multicast and Layer 2 unicast topologies. As part of the encryption process with the CEPs, the data payload is encrypted and the Ethernet frame is authenticated. The CEPs can encrypt using VLAN IDs or they can simply encrypt all Ethernet payloads.

IP Packet Encryption
Using IP Security protocol (IPsec), the CEPs provide full data encryption for Layer 3 IP networks. The CEP family preserves the original IP address of each packet to encrypt data over load-balanced, redundant and resilient networks.

Payload Only Encryption
The CEPs also offer a Layer 4 "payload-only" encryption option for backbone MPLS networks. This unique capability preserves the original port and protocol header information allowing services that utilize information in the Layer 4 header, such as NetFlow, Policy-Based Routing and Network Address Translation (NAT), to continue to operate after the data is encrypted.

œ"The Layer 4 capability of the CEP line is a welcomed breakthrough," says Ron Pass, Senior Network Engineer for 1st Franklin Financial. "With this feature, we can protect our data while maintaining traffic shaping and other network services that require access to the Layer 4 header. This eliminates what used to be a tradeoff between security and performance."

Global Policy Management
Configuring and managing the CEPs is easy with CipherOptics TrustNet Manager. With TrustNet Manager, the CEPs can be fully configured and assigned to groups where every member of the group uses the same key material. This grouping capability greatly reduces the complexity of large-scale encryption deployments and enables fully meshed, any-to-any encryption for all network traffic. TrustNet Manager provides granular policy control over what traffic gets encrypted on the network.

The new CEP family includes the CEP10-D; a 10Mbps desktop unit designed for branch offices, the CEP10-R; a rack mountable 10Mbps encryptor, the CEP100; a 100Mbps encryptor, the CEP100-XSA; a 100Mbps encryptor with expanded policy look-up capabilities for large deployments, and the CEP1000; a 1Gpbs encryptor. These new encryptors are immediately available and integrate easily into any existing network. The CEP10G, a 10Gbps encryptor, will be available in the second half of 2010.

About CipherOptics
CipherOptics is the leader in multi-layer encryption solutions for high performance networks. The Company provides advanced IPsec VPN and encryption solutions for wide area networks, and enables secure connectivity to private and public clouds. CipherOptics helps organizations improve security, decrease risk, and reduce the cost of compliance while enabling high performance and secure connectivity to critical infrastructures.