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To: Mark Oliver who wrote (786)	9/3/1998 1:11:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) of 2025

Acceptable Risks? Here's an interesting article on the number of reported security breaches and the various types of sites that are under attack. informationweek.com There was a time when a company wouldn't admit they had had an intrusion. If this is still true? When a figure like 57% is reported, should we assume there are many more situations go unreported? Very interesting article on security. I've found like many companies, security software stocks are down a lot now. I recently sold Axent at 31 5/8 and it's trading now for about $16. Checkpoint is a leading firewall company which is also down by 50%. Both companies increased earnings of over +70% this last quarter also beating estimates. Still, they sold off on good news only to see prices decline again with this recent sell off. Is growth slowing? Network Associates has been buying up various pieces of the security pie. Virus, encryption, firewall. NETA is probably the first line of defense most users see with Virus protection. There has been a big fear of Microsoft getting into the business with their next version of NT, but they seem to have stayed these fears by renegotiating with Checkpoint. Threats from the other side of the house comes from Cisco and the router. Can they build security into the switch? So far, no. I like Checkpoint as they seem to have the best OEM agreements and highest installed base. They have been faced with these concerns from the start and keep on getting more and more proprietary strength as their system becomes an industry standard. There is a big trend to go to the VPN, or Virtual Private Network. This allows companies to dump those high cost dedicated lines and use much cheaper and versatile pubilc networks. It also opens up services to customers and improves telecommuting for employee. The growth in this sector is huge. Could be that Axent has a good offering, but they will have to win where maybe Checkpoint has to loose if you know what I mean. You can see from this article, there are great risks to implementing these systems without a strong security plan. Funny thing is these stories indicate companies start with low security projects and they quickly grow into more important systems as users demand more and more from the great results they get. It's an important trend. Maybe one of the great growth areas still available to make money? Have you all got any plans on how to use this trend? Regards, Mark

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