snom and Ingate Secure VoIP Traffic

Complete the World’s First Successful VoIP Call Using SRTP to Encrypt Media; Demonstrate Interoperability

SPRING VON, SAN JOSE -- March 14, 2006- Ingate® Systems (www.ingate.com), which develops firewall technology and products that enable SIP-based live communication for the enterprise while maintaining control and security at the network edge, and snom, an open systems provider of high quality VoIP business telephones, today announced the world’s first successful completion of an encrypted VoIP call using the approved standard protocol SRTP (Secure Realtime Transfer Protocol).

Ideal for voice traffic, SRTP provides a very high level of security for realtime data with advanced encryption, confidentiality, message authentication, and replay protection. Used with voice data, SRTP provides one of the most secure environments for Internet telephony and VoIP applications available.

To date, only snom and Ingate offer compatible SRTP implementations. The successful completion of interop testing between the two companies offers customers a secure solution for voice traffic: the combination of a snom phone with an Ingate Firewall® ensures a secure, reliable VoIP environment.

snom and Ingate have both incorporated SRTP support to their VoIP products. SRTP was first developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 2004 as RFC 3711. The SRTP key exchange mechanism used by both vendors is based on the SDP Security Descriptions draft for media streams (sdescriptions). Both companies base their products on the SIP standard, also developed by the IETF. By working to strict IETF specifications, snom and Ingate remain committed to open standards and true interoperability.

"Achieving SRTP interoperability between snom and Ingate Systems marks an important watershed in the evolution of VoIP security," said Michael Knieling, VP Marketing for snom technology, AG. "Single-vendor, proprietary security schemes, developed under wraps, may or may not provide genuine protection. By contrast, standard security strategies receive wide-ranging scrutiny by the developer community, and the process of interoperability testing forces mutual technology disclosure. The result is more robust, provably-secure solutions, and a wider field of options for end users."

"With the conclusion of this successful interoperability test, both snom and Ingate set a benchmark for other vendors to implement similar features and push security in VoIP environments to the next level," said Olle Westerberg, Chief Executive Officer, Ingate Systems. "We look forward to continued interoperability testing to widen the group of vendors that comply with the open standard, to provide customers with a secure VoIP solution.”

A Secure VoIP Environment

Using snom phones with Ingate Firewalls provides users with a secure, reliable VoIP environment. Both products support Transport Layer Security (TLS) for secure SIP signaling and SRTP for encrypting audio streams. When combined, these protocols shield users from eavesdroppers, hackers and spoofers.

In addition, SRTP uses 128-bit AES for encrypting the RTP payload.

SRTP is ideal for protecting Voice over IP audio traffic because it can be used in conjunction with header compression and has no effect on IP Quality of Service. It creates a unique key stream for each RTP packet, and transmits encrypted audio packets over data networks, making it almost impossible for eavesdroppers to retrieve the original media stream from the encrypted stream.

For more information, visit Ingate Systems at booth #1338 at Spring 2006 VON in San Jose.

About snom technology AG

snom is recognized for its high quality Voice over IP (VoIP) business telephones. Our customers are companies who use interoperable technologies for their enterprise communications. Together with our partners, snom offers solutions that reduce the total cost of ownership, maximize the overall return on investment into telephony infrastructure, and make our customers independent from a single vendor. Founded in 1996 and based in Berlin, the company was amongst the first to adopt the session initiation protocol (SIP), which today is recognized as “the” future telecommunication standard. snom is privately held and incorporated under German law.

About Ingate® Systems

Ingate® Systems develops firewall technology and products that enable SIP-based live communication for the enterprise while maintaining control and security at the network edge. Ingate has a long history of developing next-generation firewall technology that solves the NAT/firewall traversal issue inherent in SIP communications. In addition to an extensive line of Ingate Firewalls®, the company also produces the award-winning Ingate SIParator®, a device that connects to an existing network firewall to seamlessly enable SIP communications. Ingate products currently protect the networks of retail companies, financial institutions, industrial firms, government agencies and small-to-large enterprises throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Ingate Systems AB is headquartered in Sweden with offices in Stockholm and Linköping. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ingate Systems Inc., is located in Hollis, New Hampshire, with a U.S. technology center in Frisco, Texas. For more information on Ingate Systems, visit www.ingate.com.

For more information, please contact:

Olle Westerberg, CEO
Ingate Systems
+ 46 8 600 77 54, + 46 733 583 100
SIP and email: olle@ingate.com

Hillary Call, Public Relations Manager
Ingate Systems
(917) 414-9262
SIP and email: hillary@ingate.com

Maria Schnake
snom technology AG
+49 30 39833-103
email: press@snom.com