MCI Expands And Enhances Managed Security Services Portfolio

New Comprehensive Offerings Provide Businesses of All Sizes with More Options and Greater Simplicity to Secure Information Assets

HostReview.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; 12:00 AM

ASHBURN, Va., April 27, 2004- MCI (MCIAV.PK) today announced a suite of new managed security solutions and enhancements to its security portfolio to help businesses of all sizes protect their information assets using a variety of security measures from the network to the desktop. With the introduction of intrusion protection, vulnerability scanning, an anti-virus/anti-spam offering, and new managed firewalls, MCI will complement its existing portfolio and "built-in" security capabilities to help customers better defend against cyber security attacks and ensure network resources are continuously available.

"The need to protect critical company information is a growing concern and focus for small, medium and large businesses worldwide," said Wayne Huyard, MCI president, U.S. sales and service. "MCI's managed security solutions provide a comprehensive, multi-layered approach to security that is essential to protecting the integrity of our customers' data, applications and networks."

According to the 2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, the risk of cyber attacks continues to be high. The report found 75 percent of the 530 firms surveyed acknowledged financial losses, but only 47 percent could quantify the losses, which totaled more than $201 million dollars in 2003. Losses were attributed to: proprietary information theft, data network sabotage, financial fraud, denial of service attacks, viruses, unauthorized insider access, and outsider system penetration among other computer crimes and security breaches. Industry analyst firm IDC estimates that companies will spend more than $12 billion dollars worldwide this year to protect themselves from security threats.

New Services for Small, Medium and Enterprise Businesses
Building upon its existing security portfolio, MCI will add a trio of offerings to address the primary reason customers outsource their security management-to improve their security posture. With the roll-out of MCI's Managed Intrusion Protection service in May 2004, companies can offload the burden of monitoring network traffic to MCI. MCI's Security Operations Center will provide around-the-clock monitoring and analysis of suspicious activity, giving customers high visibility into the real-time status of their networks. MCI works closely with customers to mitigate any threats and alleviate breaches of security and potential network downtime that may result. MCI's Managed Intrusion Protection service also will work in conjunction with a customer's current perimeter security measures.

To help businesses deal effectively and efficiently with Internet viruses and spam, in May MCI will roll-out a new Managed Email Content, which protects a customer's network by providing anti-virus and anti-spam email scanning to sanitize email before it reaches a company's network. The new service enables companies to offload the management of this tedious, labor-intensive function to MCI, while benefiting from improved worker productivity and lower network costs- including reduced bandwidth, storage and computation costs-associated with managing spam and destructive viruses.

MCI's Managed Email Content services will be powered by MessageLabs and help companies address the growing online annoyance of spam and viruses. The new service will help avert the potential of spam and/or viruses to bring down entire company networks, resulting in lost productivity and lost revenue among other adverse effects. According to industry analyst firm The Radicati Group, roughly 24 percent of corporate email traffic in 2003, nearly seven billion messages a day, can be categorized as spam. Virus incidents were one of the most cited forms of attack or abuse last year, according to 82 percent of those surveyed for the 2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey.

To further combat the alarming rate at which new threats are discovered, MCI will make available its Vulnerability Scanning service to all customers in May. Currently provided annually to MCI's existing managed security customers, this offering provides the essential oversight to ensure that network resources are properly configured and patched with the latest software upgrades. The service, now available on a one-time or subscription basis, offers all businesses an in-depth analysis to detect security holes or misconfigurations that can be used to compromise a corporate network.

MCI works closely with all-sized businesses to develop the right security solutions to meet their individual business and technical requirements, while providing the framework and flexibility to scale and/or migrate to new solutions as needed. With MCI, companies can utilize one provider to deliver comprehensive end-to-end security solutions, enabling a stronger defense and a less complex and more cost-effective way to secure their networks.

New Managed Firewall Offerings
Meeting accelerated customer demand, MCI will now offer managed firewall services for small, medium and large businesses supporting a wide variety of Cisco Systems, Inc., Juniper Networks' NetScreen and Check Point-Nokia solutions. Aimed at protecting the perimeter of a customer's network, MCI's managed firewalls help companies of all sizes to better manage their network resources and operate at optimal productivity. This is particularly beneficial to SMBs, who can now tap into affordable security protection, while alleviating the need for additional IT resources to secure their networks.

With features designed to meet the specific needs of small and mid-market customers, MCI will roll- out two new managed firewalls-Managed Firewall Solo and Managed Firewall Office. Both offer turnkey simplicity and access to around-the-clock security protection. Each will provide MCI customers with a fully integrated security solution, consisting of network, hardware, software, consulting, monitoring and management tools that are used to actively protect, scan, analyze and assess an organization's Internet network vulnerabilities and exposure risks.

Additionally, MCI will augment its existing Managed Firewall Enterprise offering with a new service level agreement for Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) that guarantees a four-hour window for in-region trouble-shooting and repair/availability, and a new Nokia platform for customers with higher traffic requirements than the current offering provides.

MCI's Security Services Portfolio
MCI Security Services provide strong data protection for businesses from the network to the server to the desktop. Partnering with the world's most recognized security leaders, MCI delivers a comprehensive range of solutions including managed network protection, intrusion detection, vulnerability assessment, remote scanning and anti-virus, anti-spam services. With MCI's managed solutions, IT staffs can offload the burden of managing their security solutions by outsourcing the consulting and design, configuration and installation, maintenance, software upgrades, 24/7 management and monitoring, backup and restoration services to MCI. Customers further benefit from the expertise of the MCI Security Operations Center, exclusively dedicated to developing, deploying and monitoring security solutions in 21 countries.

MCI works with industry security organizations such as CERT, SANS and ISC as well with governmental organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and the Network Security Information Exchange. These relationships function as a two-way street, allowing MCI to contribute to security mitigation and remediation on Internet issues at large, while staying abreast of current threats.

About MCI
MCI, Inc., (MCIAV.PK), is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. With the industry's most expansive global IP backbone, based on the number of company-owned points of presence, and wholly-owned data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market. For more information, go to www.mci.com.

Contact: Name: Janet Brumfield Role: MCI Public Relations Tel: 614.723.1060 Fax: 614.723.1643 Email: janet.brumfield@mci.com