(EMAILWIRE.COM, September 11, 2003 ) Seattle, WA -- CSOinformer, a monthly research newsletter focused on emerging information security trends, has announced the winners of its inaugural "Ahead of the Curve" Customer Success Story award program. The award was open to any solution provider willing to submit a verifiable customer success story, and was judged by an independent group of industry experts.

Oblix, with headquarters in Cupertino Calif., was the overall winner with its NetPoint identity management solution. Oblix received the most votes based upon its State of North Carolina customer success story.

"I appreciate the effort that all the solution providers put into their submissions. I am very pleased to announce that Oblix has received this award based on creating an enormous ROI for their customer, rather than winning an abstract technology bakeoff," said Jim Reavis, editor of CSOinformer.

"We are honored that CSOinformer recognized our efforts to build a secure Web infrastructure for our employees," said Brent Roberts at the Office of Information Technical Services for the State of North Carolina. "Our identity management and Web access control solution from Oblix continues to deliver cost and productivity benefits. We're now moving ahead with the next stage of our e-government initiative and getting ready to bring state services online for the businesses and citizens of North Carolina--with the utmost ease and security."

"The State of North Carolina realized that identity management was about more than simply managing or reducing the number of passwords," said Prakash Ramamurthy, vice president of products and technology, Oblix. "By using Oblix NetPoint to manage identities and track users' privileges, they have increased network security and saved money while opening up more opportunities for state employees, businesses and citizens to work together over the Web. The State of North Carolina is a deserving recipient of this award."

The judges agreed with these assessments. "The State of North Carolina has done well to place itself in the early adopters of IM technology by choosing one of the best solutions available: NetPoint by Oblix," said Ric Steinberger, one of the contest judges and Director of IT Security at Oracle. According to Lars Neupart, a noted European security consultant, "In managing users and associated authorizations to applications, the larger
an organization, the greater the challenge. The case of North Carolina is a good example of both increased security and value add."

CSOinformer would also like to recognize the other four top vote getters who attained "Ahead of the Curve" Finalist status:

ConfigureSoft, for its Enterprise Configuration Manager and its companion Security Update Manager solution. ConfigureSoft customer Halcrow uses these products to manage configurations and security policies within its global distributed network of 61 sites. According to judge Pat Gilmore, board member of (ISC)2 and recently named one of the 25 "Women of Vision" by Information Security Magazine, the success story provided "excellent analysis of the business positive impacts that deployment of their software has achieved for Halcrow."

Foundstone, for its enterprise vulnerability management software Foundstone Enterprise and its customer success with the University of California at Irvine. "This capability gives UC Irvine just what it needs to reduce its exposure to network threats and continuously identify and patch vulnerable systems," said Steinberger.

Communicator Inc., for its Hub ID extranet authorization solution. SecuritiesHub, a leading provider of financial information to the fixed income online community, uses Hub ID to provide 24,000 investors worldwide simplified access to the extranets of eight large Wall Street securities firms. According to Neupart, Hub ID is "a good example of SSO and digital ID management that works well across different entities."


Cyber-Ark Software, for its Inter-Business Vault product. Lehman Brothers is using this product to enable secure collaboration with extremely sensitive documents. "Vaulting seems to be a new approach to deal with some of the challenges that inevitably come with a perimeter security strategy," said Neupart.

More information about the "Ahead of the Curve" awards can be found online
at http://CSOinformer.com/award2003.shtml



About CSOinformer and Reavis Consulting Group
CSOinformer, a month research newsletter focused on emerging information security trends, is a service of Reavis Consulting Group. Based in Ferndale, Wash., RCG is an industry leader in providing information security research and analysis to solution providers, investor groups and end users. Founded in 2002 by industry veteran Jim Reavis, RCG leverages a global team of analysts and a proprietary security think tank to provide unique insights and deliver "Security Wisdom Ahead of the Curve".

For more information, contact, Jim Reavis, Reavis Consulting Group, (360) 739-9629
www.csoinformer.com or jim@csoinformer.com

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