The Planet launched new security packages which include F-Secure Anti-Virus, Check Point Firewall and DiskSync™ Backup to Protect Data for SMB On-Demand IT infrastructure customers

January 15, 2007 — The Planet, now the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today introduced security and automated backup services to augment its strong network-based protection. With malicious threats on the rise, The Planet provides customers in its Houston and Dallas data centers with new options to protect their vital information resources. Businesses can now select new managed firewall solutions from Check Point, anti-virus protection from F-Secure and The Planet’s own DiskSync ™ automated backup services.

The Planet’s six geographically dispersed data centers, which house more than 40,000 servers, feature robust shared security services, including intrusion and distributed denial of service attack protection. The data centers also provide powerful N+1 redundancy for networks, power generators and temperature-control systems. More than 22,000 customers depend on The Planet to host their 2.8 million Web sites. The company’s enhanced security and backup services build on this strong foundation.

“Data loss translates to lost revenue, which can have long-term and devastating effects on businesses,” said Steve Kahan, vice president of marketing for The Planet. “A secure IT infrastructure is critical to our customers’ success, which is why we are constantly enhancing our already powerful network security. Organizations have varied requirements for security and backup, which is precisely the reason we offer a choice of enhanced firewalls, anti-virus and back-up services to meet our customers individual business needs. With today’s announcements, we are providing customers with opportunities to further secure their IT infrastructures.”

“Today security and compliance are absolute essentials,” said Doug Turpin, IT director for Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group (www.atlanticbay.com ). “We handle sensitive private data for customers. It’s imperative that our systems are secure and backed up with current information. The Planet provides the protection I need.”

Check Point Firewall Protection
To shield customers’ servers from unauthorized intrusions, The Planet offers a choice of managed Check Point firewall and integrated security solutions that block malicious traffic while enabling legitimate access. The company’s security experts work closely with its customers to create firewall configurations that fit their business needs.

With the firewall option, The Planet manages systems over a secure console connection with the data center. Security experts keep firewalls up-to-date, make routine and emergency changes, and assist customers in developing security policies that meet their ongoing needs:

· Protects vulnerable services or applications from compromise by blocking malicious traffic
· Provides simple and secure Virtual Private Networking (VPN) to ensure strong encryption and authenticated access to approved remote sites and users
· Provides integrated intrusion prevention for preemptive network and application-layer security
· Safeguards public IP addresses by using a private addressing scheme on servers behind the firewall
· Monitors access to servers through firewall logs
· Segments public servers from internal servers

F-Secure Anti-Virus Solutions
The Planet also offers enhanced anti-virus protection from F-Secure to protect data and applications on leased servers, and to prevent damage from new, emerging and existing malicious software.

Each day, eight to ten new viruses are found, some with the ability to spread globally in a matter of hours and create significant financial losses due to network disruptions, corrupted data and confidential data leaks.

The service includes installation and configuration of the anti-virus software on the server, along with automatic anti-virus definition updates and automated system scanning to prevent new and emerging threats from infecting servers. The anti-virus protection also includes a heuristic scanning engine that provides proactive protection against new, unknown viruses and malicious software, even if virus signatures have not been identified: