CIA invests in wireless security

The CIA has joined some others to invest $6 million in Network Chemistry, a Silicon Valley (Menlo Park) company that protects against wireless network intrusion. Release is in extended entry.

NEWS RELEASE

Network Chemistry Closes New VC Investment Round

Funding Secured Will Accelerate Market Penetration of Leading WLAN Intrusion Protection and Analysis System

Menlo Park, California – April 14, 2005 — Network Chemistry Inc., the leader in wireless network intrusion protection and analysis systems announced today that it has closed a venture capital financing round, led by Geneva Venture Partners, joined by Innovacom, the investment arm of France Telecom, and In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), securing in total $6 million. The proceeds will be used to accelerate sales and marketing efforts for Network Chemistry’s RFprotect, a product family of distributed and mobile wireless intrusion protection systems for enterprises of all sizes. RFprotect is the leading intrusion protection system in terms of total volume of sensor agents shipped by the company and its licensees.

In addition to the investment, the company is announcing new additions to its board of directors, including Robert Troy, Managing Director of Geneva Venture Partners, Aymerik Renard, Managing Director of Innovacom, and Lou Ryan, former CEO of Entercept Security, who will act as Executive Chairman.
The new board members are joined by existing directors Robert Markovich and Chris Waters, Network Chemistry’s CEO and CTO.

“I am continually impressed by what Network Chemistry has accomplished since its 2002 inception,” said Robert Troy. “The company has a rare combination of proven business executives and truly ground-breaking technology. The founding team brings great enthusiasm, expertise, and
dedication toward this market. We fully believe in their vision, and their
ability to definitively resolve the security bottleneck limiting enterprise adoption of wireless.”

“The move to wireless LANs is a trend, not a fad,” said Lou Ryan. “But
WLANs won’t be broadly adopted by enterprises until they’re protected from RF security vulnerabilities and performance degradations. Network Chemistry’s RF analysis technology is rapidly becoming the de facto industry standard for WLAN intrusion protection and analysis. This is a huge market opportunity and I am thrilled to be involved with the company.”

“This is an ideal group of investors for our company,” said Robert Markovich, CEO of Network Chemistry. “Geneva Venture Partners, Innovacom, and In-Q-Tel will accelerate access to strategic resources that will broaden our market reach. The new board members are proven entrepreneurs with extensive industry experience. Their support and backing are more validation of our vision to instrument wireless networks for security and performance, to transport business-critical applications at the quality of wired networks.”

About Network Chemistry’s RFprotect
Network Chemistry’s RFprotect product family protects wired and wireless networks from wireless-specific vulnerabilities, rogues, and attacks.
RFprotect is the industry’s first wireless IDS/IPS designed with the high scalability, open integration, and auto- maintenance required for large enterprise and government deployments. At the same time, the system delivers the lowest entry cost and total ownership costs in the industry.

About Geneva Venture Partners
Geneva Venture Partners (GVP) is an early stage venture capital fund founded in 1998 by experienced operating executives to assist committed entrepreneurs in building successful software companies. GVP supports the entrepreneur’s vision through its extensive access to world class executive talent, and depth of real-world business experience in helping driven entrepreneurs build successful software companies. GVP helps entrepreneurs get access to industry luminaries, prospective customers and distribution partners globally, world-class board members and exceptional candidates for key positions. GVP focuses its investments on the enterprise software, infrastructure software, wireless, RFID, VoIP and embedded technology sectors. For more information, visit www.genevavc.com.

About Innovacom
For over fifteen years, Innovacom has invested in the entrepreneurs building the telecom and information technologies of tomorrow. Innovacom works with some of the brightest minds in the business, the early stage companies focused on the components, hardware, software and content that improve the ability of telecom carriers to deliver services. As the venture subsidiary of France Telecom, Innovacom is uniquely positioned to help its portfolio companies not only with capital, but with connections to the best research and deployment facilities in Europe and North America.
Past investments include Business Objects, Cobalt Networks, Gemplus, Infovista, Intershop, Kelkoo, Soitec, and Tumbleweed. With 400 million dollars under management, Innovacom has offices in Paris, Stockholm, and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.innovacom.com.

About In-Q-Tel
In-Q-Tel was established in 1999 to identify and deliver transformative technologies to the CIA and the Intelligence Community. In-Q-Tel’s mission is to identify and help solve some of the toughest challenges faced by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Intelligence Community. In-Q-Tel leverages the creativity of the private sector, academia and national labs to seize new opportunities, to see problems differently, and to solve them in new ways. Learn more at www.in-q-tel.org.

About Network Chemistry
Network Chemistry provides enterprise-class systems that increase the security and performance of wireless networks, enabling them for business critical applications. Its award-winning RFprotect system is the industry’s first high- scale wireless intrusion protection system, providing complete detection, assessment, prevention, and auditing of wireless threats and attacks, all at a breakthrough reduction of total ownership costs. Network Chemistry, founded in 2002, is based in Menlo Park, California and is privately funded by Geneva Venture Partners, Innovacom (the venture arm of France Telecom), and In-Q-Tel (the venture arm of the Central Intelligence Agency). For more information, visit www.networkchemistry.com.