News

SSH Communications Security (SSH) and Information Resource Engineering, Inc. (IRE) (Nasdaq:IREG) today announced a partnership that will guarantee multi-platform interoperability between the SSH IPSEC Express(TM) and SSH IKE Toolkit(TM) family of products and IRE's SafeNet DSP hardware-based accelerator chip. This strategic agreement increases the breadth of security product offerings for both SSH and IRE customers, creating a full VPN solution for enterprises that need to add VPN functionality to their products without compromising on speed or quality of service. The combination of these leading technologies gives OEM and enterprise customers the means to streamline the implementation of uncompromised Internet security.

The SSH IPSEC Express and SSH IKE Toolkit family of products brings customers key benefits such as multi-platform flexibility, interoperability and robust VPN functionality, enabling them to dramatically reduce time-to-market for their security products. IRE's SafeNet DSP chip is one of the highest performing, most fully integrated VPN encryption accelerator chips on the market, providing customers with the unsurpassed security of its SafeNet encryption technology in a hardware-based solution. SafeNet DSP accelerates cryptographic operations so that large amounts of data can be easily transferred for secure virtual private networking. According to George Adams, president and CEO of SSH, Inc., "SSH is committed to adding value to our IPSec products by giving our customers the ability to increase the functionality of their VPN solutions, while making them as easy to implement and cost-effective as possible. SSH and IRE bring advanced technologies together to give our customers more choice in their security products, making any VPN solution provider's or IT manager's security decisions significantly less complicated and time consuming."

According to Mike Kaplan, IRE's senior vice president of technology, this alliance demonstrates IRE's commitment to providing the best products and services in the communications security industry. "This synergistic relationship will enable our customers to bring their VPN-enabled products to market quickly, while maintaining focus on their core business."

About SSH IPSEC Express, SSH IKE Toolkit, and IRE's SafeNet DSP

SSH's IPSec technology adds scaleable, strong security to IP networks, without limiting its flexibility to enable new types of business opportunities, such as secure local and global communications between companies, e-commerce and e-banking. SSH IKE products, the world's leading IKE implementation, are designed to negotiate the terms of the communication before the actual encryption and secure session can begin.

IRE's SafeNet DSP is a hardware encryption acceleration device embedded into networking equipment that combines industry-leading performance with the strongest encryption and authentication schemes for tunneling data securely across the Internet or private TCP/IP networks. All encryption processes take place securely within a single chip, offering unparalleled security. The SafeNet DSP provides hardware acceleration of all cryptographic operations including DES and triple-DES encryption, SHA-1 and MD5 secure hash and HMAC, Diffie-Hellman, RSA, and DSA public key acceleration, and true random number generation. The SafeNet DSP also incorporates a comprehensive security model and an embedded crypto library that facilitates designing a truly secure VPN product.

About IRE

IRE (Nasdaq: IREG) delivers cost-effective Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions that enable organizations to use the Internet and other shared networks for private communications. IRE, the developer of the first commercial VPN in 1989 and the first Internet VPN solution in 1995, specializes in offering integrated, standards-based VPN technology and products as part of its SafeNet(TM) product family. The SafeNet DSP(TM) "Internet Security System on a Chip," with over ten patents pending, is a breakthrough addition, not only to IRE's family of SafeNet products, but for all network and telecommunications equipment manufacturers who have been searching for a way to increase the performance and decrease the cost of implementing and embedding a VPN solution. A publicly held company since 1989, IRE has been providing industry-leading network security solutions around the world for over 15 years. Our global client list includes the leading Fortune 1000 companies, financial institutions, and governments. Our commitment to providing leading-edge technology, quality design and manufacture, and around-the-clock customer support is unsurpassed in the network security industry. For more information, please visit us at www.ire.com.

SafeNet is a registered trademark of IRE.
All other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective companies.

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