SAN JOSE, California - June 4, 2003 - Metropolis New Media, Inc., a leading provider of managed hosting services for ESRI® server products, today announced that it has enhanced its Managed Security service with proprietary Intrusion Prevention technology. The Intrusion Prevention System, or IPS, scans all traffic on the Metropolis network at wire speed and eliminates any malicious traffic. In addition, the IPS is able to filter traffic for ESRI-specific content, and control the flow of that information in to or out of the network.

"This new security layer can be thought of as a smart firewall," explains David Hunsinger, CEO of Metropolis. "There are literally thousands of known exploits against internet servers. Where a firewall either has an open or closed port, the new IPS analyzes the content flowing through that port and detects and eliminates known attacks."

"Using the same technology, we can detect an ESRI shapefile or ArcXML file, for instance, and control its movement across the IPS. If a customer wants to make sure people can load GIS data on to their servers, but can never copy it anywhere else, we can now make that happen within the network." Mr. Hunsinger believes this will be especially important to organizations working with sensitive GIS data. "This service takes GIS network security to a new level, and we think people who don't need a hosted solution are going to want to buy the IPS for their own networks."

Metropolis disclosed that they will announce more details of the workings of the IPS in the near future, but that the service is already running on their network.

Metropolis is making the new IPS available to customers both as a hosted service and as a standalone product. Customers who want to protect and secure their own networks and GIS data may purchase these new network IPS devices directly from Metropolis.

About Metropolis

Based in San Jose, CA, Metropolis New Media, Inc. is a premier provider of managed hosting solutions for organizations looking to deploy ESRI server products online. Unlike ordinary hosting providers, Metropolis is focused solely on GIS and is an authorized ESRI business partner that is dedicated to providing customers with Internet infrastructure and operations support for sharing GIS data and applications on the Internet. More information about Metropolis and its services can be obtained on the Web at www.metropolisnewmedia.com

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Press Information:
Matt Monahan, Metropolis
Phone: (408) 297-4600 x201
E-mail: