PowerNet to Launch End-User Web Filtering Subscription Services Powered by SurfControl's Content Filtering Technology

Leading Asian Internet Solution provider has selected SurfControl's content filtering technology to launch a new Web Filtering Subscription Service for SOHO End-Users

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., (February 10, 2004) - SurfControl (London:SRF), the world's number one Web and e-mail filtering company, today announced its Content Portal Authority (CPA) solution has been licensed to PowerNetix Limited, a global leader in Internet solutions and infrastructure, enabling PowerNet to launch a new Web filtering subscription service specifically targeted at the growing global residential and SOHO gateway market.

PowerNet selected the SurfControl CPA for its easy integration with their existing technology and began offering Web filtering subscription services to residential and SOHO end-users at the beginning of January 2004. The services provide PowerNet's global residential and SOHO end-users access to the largest database of categorized URLs within the industry, enabling users to have management and control over individual Internet activity.

"Content control and Web filtering is now on every Internet user's agenda. The launch of the new service is designed to provide our customers with market leading content filtering capabilities," said Samuel Kam, CEO of PowerNet. "SurfControl is the world's number one for filtering technology and we wanted to ensure our customers benefit from this expertise and service. The technology was easy to integrate and has allowed us to create a powerful, flexible range of services that will enable residential gateway users to protect their families online and SOHO users to meet their business objectives, while providing us with an added value service in an increasingly competitive market."

The SurfControl CPA works by integrating a small piece of code within residential/SOHO appliances which contact the CPA Servers, hosted by PowerNet, to categorize each website request, the results of which can then be cached locally on the residential /SOHO appliance for future reference. The advantage of storing the list of regularly accessed URLs locally is so that the minimal memory capacity of residential/SOHO appliances can be optimised. As the pattern of websites visited is unique to each end-user, the SurfControl CPA works by reducing the need to continually send queries to the server for the same URL requests.

The SurfControl CPA URL categorization engine, running on clustered servers hosted by PowerNet, will be capable of performing around 50,000 categorizations per second. The focus is on simplicity, with none of the usual needs for the end-user to download the URL database and receive daily updates - as with PC based filtering software - since the URL database is updated centrally by PowerNet.

Steve Purdham, SurfControl CEO said, "The agreement with PowerNet reflects the growing demand for Web filtering services in the residential and SOHO gateway marketplace. The key to the SurfControl CPA is its ease of use - integrating into the very low memory footprint requirements of the residential and SOHO hardware market, rather than forcing unrealistic requirements to increase available memory on manufacturers, and therefore cost."

"The PowerNet service launch is a key indicator of the success and ease of integration of the SurfControl CPA. With increasing demand for powerful Web filtering services, PowerNet is now leading the way in providing a precision filtering solution."

SurfControl's content database is the most comprehensive database available in today's market and provides complete coverage of the most widely accessed sites on the Web. It provides access to the largest, most accurate and relevant database of URLs, classified by risk category (eg sexually explicit, racist, hacker etc.) and contains in excess of 6 million Web sites, representing more than one billion pages in 65 languages, with 35,000 new sites added per week.