PKWARE, creator and continuing innovator of the ZIP standard, today introduced new releases of its SecureZIP enterprise-wide data security platform for zSeries and iSeries computing systems. SecureZIP enables organisations to extend end-to-end data security and compression capabilities across all major computing platforms - from desktops to mainframes - to support efficient and secure storage and transfer of sensitive data such as financial records, health information, and other private consumer and business-related data.

SecureZIP for zSeries and iSeries delivers the highest level of data security available today. These new releases include digital signature capabilities for protecting data integrity to ensure that files have not been altered during storage or transfer, as well as offering powerful functionality for authenticating the originator of the information. Data confidentiality is supported through the use of either certificate-based or password-based encryption, making it possible to securely transmit files to recipients with diverse security capabilities. These industrial-strength security measures ease the deployment and support of cross-enterprise data protection solutions for protecting proprietary business information. SecureZIP for zSeries and iSeries also helps businesses comply with regulations and security initiatives such as Basel II and the EU Data Privacy Directive.

"Organisations of all types are under tremendous pressure to ensure the privacy and integrity of their data as a way to help comply with an ever-growing list of regulatory issues," said Tony Lock, Chief Analyst at Bloor Research. "SecureZIP provides enterprise data centre security managers with a data protection solution that is easy to implement, use and support. The extension of SecureZIP to include zSeries and iSeries platforms brings this interoperable solution to an even broader range of diverse computing and security infrastructures."

Datacentres have traditionally relied on physical and logical access controls to "lock-down" their systems and prevent unauthorised access to their mission-critical data. However as mainframe and midrange systems increasingly become part of enterprises' heterogeneous networks, IT organisations are seeking a scaleable means to protect their data and ensure privacy and integrity, whether it is being transferred from their datacentres to external partners or stored in their companies' archives.

"We have used PKWARE's mainframe solutions for many years to ensure the efficient storage and transfer of the large volumes of information we provide to our customers," said Maria Schoonover, senior director of foundation system engineering at LexisNexis, one of the leading providers of legal, news and business information. "LexisNexis serves as a trusted source of information for attorneys and businesses in more than 100 countries. The new data security capabilities in SecureZIP for zSeries will enable us to easily and efficiently protect the integrity and confidentiality of that information within our organisation and for our business partners around the globe."

"Healthcare organisations today are faced with complying with HIPAA standards. SecureZIP for the mainframe addresses the need for a reliable and secure enterprise solution that's not only easy to install and manage, but also has very strong encryption capabilities," said Robert Burgess, IS project lead at US-based Aurora Health Care. "We've been using PKWARE products within Aurora for the past three years and have been very satisfied with the compression and encryption capabilities. We're excited that PKWARE is introducing advanced, industrial strength data management and protection solutions for the mainframe."

SecureZIP builds upon the widely adopted, cross-platform ZIP compression standard developed by PKWARE. It combines strong data security based on industry-leading RSA BSAFE cryptographic libraries with enterprise-class compression solutions to provide an efficient method for protecting data. PKZIP and SecureZIP are already used in 12 of the top 13 financial institutions' datacentres and on more than 20 percent of mainframe computers worldwide.

"In recent years, enterprise security initiatives have been focused on firewalls, intrusion prevention, SPAM filtering and anti-virus products - all designed to protect organisations' IT boundaries," said Steve Crawford, Chief Marketing Officer for PKWARE. "With the proliferation of regulatory requirements governing data privacy and integrity, as well as the need to protect proprietary information being exchanged across distributed computing platforms and organisations, enterprise datacentres are increasingly seeking solutions to protect their organisations' most critical asset - their data."

SecureZIP for zSeries and iSeries is available now from PKWARE and from select resellers. SecureZIP is also available for Unix, Linux, and Windows Servers as well as Windows desktop computers.

About PKWARE, Inc.

PKWARE, Inc. is the creator and continuing innovator of the ZIP standard, the most widely used method for data compression on Windows, UNIX, Linux, iSeries, zSeries and other computing platforms. Since it was founded in 1986, the company has been dedicated to extending the ZIP standard into products that meet end-user and enterprise requirements for compressing files for efficient storage and transmission across all major enterprise platforms. PKWARE recently announced the SecureZIP product family, which extends the ZIP file format to include the ability to add strong authentication and encryption to ZIP archives, making it possible not only to compress files, but also to prevent unauthorised access and modification. For additional information, please visit http://www.pkware.com.

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PKWARE, PKZIP, and SecureZIP are trademarks of PKWARE, Inc. Trademarks of other companies mentioned in this documentation appear for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective companies.