Microsoft Helps Secure Department of Defense E-Mail With Exchange and Outlook

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 22, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft® Exchange Server and the Outlook®
messaging and collaboration client are being deployed as part of Defense Message System (DMS) 3.0. Microsoft collaborated with several companies, including SPYRUS Inc. and Protek, to deliver DMS, one of the world’s largest public key messaging and e-mail systems, which helps provide secure, writer-to-reader authenticated messaging to Department of Defense (DoD) users at hundreds of sites worldwide.

“Microsoft is pleased that DMS 3.0 has successfully and rapidly passed final testing by the Joint Interoperability Test Command and is being deployed worldwide today,” said Mohsen Al-Ghosein, vice president of the Exchange Server business unit at Microsoft. “This latest version of DMS provides increased security technologies for critical communications and messaging, which are particularly important in today’s environment.”

DMS is the designated messaging system for the DoD and supporting agencies and is replacing the legacy messaging system AUTODIN, as well as more than 45 disparate e-mail systems used in the DoD. This new version, which includes the latest in Microsoft and SPYRUS security technology, gives users exceptional messaging capability, whether they are at their home base, traveling or tactically deployed. While greatly improving capabilities, efficiency and speed, the new version also provides a substantially lower total cost of ownership to the DoD. Deployment of DMS 3.0 began in July 2002, with full deployment expected in March 2003.

The DMS 3.0 client extends Outlook functionality through integration with SPYRUS, a leading provider of security products for DMS since 1994 with more than 600,000 seats of DMS products and technologies sold. The SPYRUS software is used in DMS to help secure the contents of messages from unauthorized access through the use of message encryption, and it authenticates both the originator of the message and the message’s contents through the use of digital signatures. Microsoft also worked extensively with Protek, a leading developer of secure business applications.

“SPYRUS has supported Microsoft to pioneer and provide a secure solution for the first and largest public key identity management system, DMS, which supports digital certificates and high assurance smart tokens for secure messaging since 1994,” said Sue Pontius, president and CEO of SPYRUS. “The release of DMS 3.0 not only upgrades the security performance through the use of SPYRUS middleware with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange for DMS, but adds significant enhancements for end users.”

DMS 3.0 uses the built-in security features of Exchange Server to help deliver e-mail reliably and securely. The application of the latest updates combined with organizational best practices and procedures helps customers feel confident that their messaging infrastructure is secure. As part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative, Microsoft is creating a messaging infrastructure with the goal of being secure by design, secure by default and secure in deployment. The Exchange team, working with other product teams in Microsoft and with industry partners, will continue to provide high security for the products and prescribe guidance on secure deployment and operations for messaging.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

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