SUNNYVALE, Calif., December 20, 2004 - Fortinet - the confirmed market leader in Unified Threat Management (UTM) and only provider of ASIC-accelerated, network-based antivirus firewall systems for real-time network protection -today announced that Caritas Christi Health Care, the second largest health care system in New England, has deployed a network security platform from Fortinet to secure computer network traffic for its corporate data center, hospitals and extended association of doctor's offices. Caritas Christi chose Fortinet's FortiGate systems to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). FortiGate's unique ability to protect patient data privacy and safeguard electronic healthcare transactions is critical to the roughly 250,000 patients that Caritas Christi serves annually.

Faced with a growing number of Internet viruses such as the latest MyDoom and Bagle outbreaks, Caritas Christi sought an ASIC-accelerated network security platform to protect its corporate Webmail application and Internet connections for a distributed network of more than 5,500 medical employee users located at headquarters, hospitals and remote doctor's offices. The healthcare system needed antivirus technology capable of scanning network traffic without slowing its Gigabit speed network performance. In addition to safeguarding against Internet virus outbreaks, Caritas Christi needed a healthy network perimeter to curtail its users from downloading malicious content via the Web, protect distribution of internal content and control site access permitted from the internal network.

"As a major health care system provider running Webmail applications amid a dangerous and malicious Internet attack environment, it is imperative that we comply with HIPAA and protect our users from viruses, worms and other unwanted network traffic to ensure that our critical business and patient data is always secure" said Tavares Marsh, security engineer for Caritas Christi Health Care Systems. "During our thorough search for an antivirus solution to thwart network attacks, Fortinet's FortiGate systems stood out as the clear winner because none of the other security vendors provide the system-based pricing, real-time performance and comprehensive feature set that Fortinet offers in an integrated network security platform. We are now keeping our thousands of patients, medical users and network free of physical and network infections."

Network Securely Transmits Critical Data, Online Updates Ensure Optimum Health
Caritas Christi's Fortinet deployment includes two FortiGate-800 enterprise-class systems, one at the core in the corporate data center running antivirus scanning on all of its Internet traffic. The companion platform resides inside a hospital and connects back to the datacenter to control Internet traffic for all of its virtual local area networks (VLANs) for essential Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and vendor device communications. In addition to antivirus, the FortiGate-800 installed inside the hospital also runs intrusion detection and prevention, and provides policy enforcement to protect users from downloading malicious content via the Web and control what is allowed to reach the internal network. The company also installed a FortiGate-60 for its backup Internet connection and eight FortiGate-50As at remote doctor's medical offices to protect VPN connections back to the datacenter.

Caritas Christi's FortiGate systems receive automatic updates for antivirus signatures from Fortinet's global FortiProtect™ Network. The FortiGate platform helps the health care provider maintain HIPAA compliance and deliver Complete Content Protection™ through the integration of a broad range of cost-effective security functions in real-time -- including antivirus, firewall, VPN, IDP, content filtering, traffic shaping, spyware blocking, and anti-spam.

Fortinet's FortiGate systems address a wide range of HIPAA compliance requirements, in addition to improving overall network protection as healthcare organizations increasingly deliver and share protected health information (PHI) through Web services. Fortinet's products are ideal for medical firms and health care institutions of all sizes who share confidential patient and customer data via intra- and extra-enterprise VPN connections. These systems also help health service providers who are delivering information services to their patients using the Web.

"In light of HIPAA compliance requirements and constantly evolving Internet threats, including recent Internet threats such as the latest MyDoom variant, health care system providers that run critical business applications on-line must provide their patients and medical professionals with complete network and content protection," said ichard Hanke, vice president of product management for Fortinet. "Caritas Christi Health Care's investment in Fortinet's network security platform provides them with a cost-effective, best-in-class integrated solution to secure its Webmail applications, including critical patient data, at the gateway without slowing network performance."

About Caritas Christi Health Care (http://www.caritaschristi.org)
Established in 1995, Caritas Christi is currently the second largest healthcare system in New England, providing community-based medicine and tertiary care in eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and hode Island. Each Caritas Christi system member carries its own history of outstanding health services and compassionate patient care, contributing to the tradition of excellence that defines Caritas Christi. Caritas Christi Network Services is the contracting organization for over 1,200 physicians in the Caritas Christi Health Care System.