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another deal Senetas and Nextgen partner to market Australia’s First High-Speed Layer 2 Encrypted Network
MELBOURNE - June 29, 2006: Australia’s corporate and government communications can now be conducted at high speed using encrypted security at Layer 2 with the country’s first national Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS).

Senetas Corporation Limited (ASX:SEN), which produces the world’s only high speed (greater than 100 mbps) Layer 2 encryption platform, will partner with specialist data services carrier Nextgen Networks, the first carrier in Australia to offer a national Layer 2 (Ethernet) VPN, which can now be encrypted to the highest global standards.

In a joint announcement today Senetas CEO, John DuBois and Nextgen General Manager, Peter Harrison said the two offerings were a great fit.

Mr DuBois said: “Nextgen offers the most advanced corporate data networking products and services in Australia and Senetas has developed an encryption platform that provides a simple return on investment whilst ensuring that large volumes of sensitive information can be securely transmitted at high speed with no overhead. So it is obviously a great fit for us to jointly offer our customers an integrated Layer 2 solution - access to Nextgen’s national VPLN secured by Senetas’ high-speed Layer 2 encryption.” Mr DuBois said the Senetas Layer 2 encryption technology, designed and manufactured in Melbourne and sold globally, is endorsed to the most rigorous independent security accreditation standards (Common Criteria and FIPS-140) which are mandated by some foreign governments. Senetas technology was recently deployed at the heart of a large US Government fibre optic network, he said.

Peter Harrison said: “It makes sense for Nextgen to partner with a world-class Australian encryption platform that is designed specifically to operate in Layer 2,” he said.

“We are pleased with the opportunities this relationship with Senetas introduces to our own marketing efforts around our Layer 2 VPLS,” Mr Harrison added. “Advanced encryption systems are an obvious complement to the type of premium Layer 2 data services offered by Nextgen Networks. There are clear cross-promotional, product development and customer service benefits for both Senetas and Nextgen Networks from this relationship.”

“With Nextgen’s VPLS offering, serious Australian data users are now empowered to manage their own strategic data network direction through choice of applications, self-management of their own configurations, changes and service levels as well as being able to segregate their traffic with multiple VLANs. Being able to implement a world-leading encryption technology which totally secures information carried on our network infrastructure represents a significant value-add to what we are offering.”

Mr Harrison said VPLS has emerged as a standard in mature telecommunications markets such as North America and Europe and he believed the market opportunity in Australia was significant. VPLS has won the endorsement of renowned Australian telecommunications analyst, Mr Paul Budde, who said: “VPLS services and their supporting technologies are now a clear international trend which I believe is poised for substantial growth globally and locally.”

Mr DuBois said recent industry forecasts suggested more than 20 per cent annual growth over the next three years in the total Ethernet equipment market in Asia Pacific would make it a $2 billion market. Meanwhile, the recent Deloitte’s 2006 Global Security Survey showed organisations regard security as the number one area of focus, with 78 per cent of financial services organisations being hacked during the past year. “Recent reports of heightened security concerns by government and business only serve to underscore our key message: SecureData=Layer2,” he said.

The Nextgen marketing agreement follows last week’s announced partnership between Senetas and New Zealand-headquartered SignalGuard to market CypherNET Layer 2 Encryptors into Asia and is further evidence of Senetas’ multi-channel strategy to maximise market penetration while minimising costs.