KCTS Television Solves Multiple Network Needs With a Single SonicWALL Gateway

KCTS Television Solves Multiple Network Needs With a Single SonicWALL Gateway

Pacific Northwest's Largest Public Television Network Picks PRO 5060 Gigabit Technology to Segment Broadcast and Corporate Functions

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SonicWALL (NASDAQ:SNWL) today announced that KCTS Television, the largest public television station in the Pacific Northwest, has selected SonicWALL technology to improve security and simplify network administration. Seattle-based KCTS is now securing its network with SonicWALL's gigabit-class PRO 5060 security gateway. SonicWALL technology enables the company to create separate, secure zones within the LAN while protecting the infrastructure with features like signature-based intrusion prevention, gateway anti-virus filtering and web content filtering.

Serving 1.6 million viewers each week, and providing more than 8,700 hours of broadcasting per year, KCTS has a history of innovation, including pioneering work in high-definition television production beginning in 1988. The station's busy internal network handles both broadcast, including on-air programming and marketing activities, and corporate activities, including human resources, payroll, finance and fundraising. KCTS needs to maintain a high degree of separation between the all-digital broadcast network and the corporate LAN, while ensuring the ability to share certain data and maintain communications between the two areas.

The station's previous network infrastructure did not have the capability of securely segregating broadcast, corporate, and public web site traffic. Control of connections between computers was not centralized, was and the network did not have the ability to filter Internet traffic based on the type of traffic. "There were many pathways between broadcast and corporate, and it was almost impossible to track all of them," commented Ken Bajema, network administrator at KCTS. "But with the new SonicWALL technology, our entire IT landscape has changed. We are now able to manage an incredibly complex operation very easily."

KCTS selected SonicWALL Gold Medallion partner Conjungi Networks to install its secure network. Mark Schulstad, sales director of Conjungi, said, "The network design we recommended was based on a detailed examination of the existing network in parallel with a vulnerability assessment. With the information gathered in this process we were able to create a dynamic new network map from which the security, network flexibility and management objectives of KCTS could be achieved. The new security infrastructure is built around SonicWALL's PRO 5060 gigabit speed security firewalls, which provide the powerful zoning capabilities needed in this deployment. Their intrusion prevention service was another key feature in this network redesign. We also wanted to ease the administrative burden on KCTS' IT staff. They are very busy, and needed an easy-to-manage solution that didn't require constant babysitting."

KCTS currently uses SonicWALL's Premium Content Filtering and Intrusion Prevention Service on their PRO 5060. Central management of several layers of security in this complex network environment is simplified through the use of SonicWALL's SonicOS Enhanced object-based policy configuration interface. With SonicWALL's intuitive management interface and ViewPoint reporting software, KCTS' IT staff have detailed central reporting and sophisticated management capabilities allowing them to view and control all traffic passing through the gateway, including granular control of all ports and communications from individual computers.

Mark Schulstad said, "Broadcast is the jewel in the crown for KCTS, requiring high speed and bandwidth to support the transfer of large, high-definition TV files without compromising either security or broadcast quality. The PRO 5060 allows them to do all of this."

KCTS is also using the PRO 5060 to filter potentially malicious programs from Internet traffic. Applications blocked include peer-to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, and web e-mail. "These constitute a significant security risk and require a great deal of filtering if they are to be used safely, so one of our goals was to restrict all communications to the primary email system," explained Ken Bajema. "We couldn't do this before with our previous firewall, but the moment the PRO 5060 was turned on, it took effect. The SonicWALL did a great job of locking down our security policy, but in the interest of keeping users happy, we relented and put an isolated cable modem and PC in the lunchroom for employees' private use. This proved to be a simple way of providing a nice convenience for our staff without compromising our highly secure environment."

About KCTS Television

KCTS Television is the 4th most watched public television station in the country, serving the 12th largest television market in the US, and provides an essential service to viewers by creating and distributing content that informs, involves and inspires. KCTS produces the weekly regional current affairs series, KCTS Connects; the weekly business and finance series, Serious Money; quarterly Ask the Governor call-in specials; and the annual Golden Apple Awards honoring examples of excellence in education across Washington state. KCTS airs more than 50 hours of quality, commercial-free children's educational programming each week. The station works to enhance children's literacy skills and school readiness with a variety of community-based services, including online resources, Ready To Learn workshops for parents and educators, and literacy activities including the annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest and the distribution of thousands of free books to children and families who otherwise would not own them. If you would like to learn more about KCTS or support public television through the KCTS secure online pledge page, click on http://www.kcts.org/ .

About SonicWALL, Inc.

SonicWALL, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated network security, mobility, and productivity solutions for the SMB, enterprise, e-commerce, education, healthcare, retail/point-of-sale, and government markets. Core technologies include firewall, VPN, wireless, intrusion detection and prevention, SSL, anti-virus, and content filtering, along with award-winning security management solutions. Together, these products and technologies provide the most comprehensive distributed enforcement architecture available. SonicWALL, Inc. is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA. SonicWALL trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol SNWL. For more information, contact SonicWALL at +1-408-745-9600 or visit the company web site at http://www.sonicwall.com/ .

Safe Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding SonicWALL's ability to create secure zones within the LAN, its ability to protect network infrastructure, or its ability to simplify network management. These forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements are made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. In addition, please see the "Risk Factors" described in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 and Form 10-Q for subsequent periods, for a more detailed description of the risks facing our business. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to SonicWALL as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement.

NOTE: SonicWALL is a registered trademark of SonicWALL, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.


Source: SonicWALL, Inc.

CONTACT: Mary McEvoy of SonicWALL, Inc., +1-408-962-7110, or
mmcevoy@sonicwall.com; or Pat Mallinson of KCTS, +1-206-443-6798, or
pmallinson@kcts.org

Web site: http://www.kcts.org/

Web site: http://www.sonicwall.com/


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