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Community Bank System Selects Blink to Protect Distributed Systems Across Multi-State Network

Enterprise Security Provider’s Award-Winning Blink Endpoint Intrusion Prevention Solution Proactively Protects Bank’s Distributed Network

(ALISO VIEJO, CA) September 25, 2006 — eEye Digital Security®, the leading developer of endpoint security and vulnerability management software solutions, as well as the industry’s foremost contributor to security research and education, today announced that Community Bank System Inc. (NYSE: CBU), one of the top commercial banking franchises in upstate New York, has selected the award-winning Blink® Endpoint Intrusion Prevention Solution to protect its network of more than 1,200 systems from unknown vulnerabilities before they are able to attack.

“When searching for a solution to properly secure our customers’ information, eEye’s products proved to be technically superior,” said Michael Wilson, Community Bank's Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. “Other vendors’ products never performed as advertised, whereas eEye—just like Community Bank—absolutely stands behind its solutions and offers outstanding customer service; they're as concerned about the security of our customers’ information as we are.”

Community Bank System offers complete consumer, business and financial services, and holds more than $4.2 billion in assets at 130 customer facilities across 22 counties in New York and Pennsylvania. CBSI ranks in the top three for deposit market share in 70 percent of its locations, and with such a prominent foothold in the community banking industry, a reliable security program that protects customers’ personal information is paramount.

“We had been using another well-known solution, but that system was generating more work than the actual problems it was solving,” said Aaron Friot, Community Bank’s Information Security Officer. “Switching to Blink eliminates unnecessary help desk ticket requests and allows our IT staff to patch systems on a cycle that makes sense for us. It was a seamless transition to deploy Blink and it’s been great knowing the integrity of our data and confidentiality of our customers’ information is guaranteed.”

Deployed as a software agent on a Windows-based server, desktop PC or laptop, Blink leverages multiple layers of protection—more so than any other endpoint security product—to shield individual digital assets from intrusion and keep a business up and running. By doing so, Blink not only delivers the industry’s most comprehensive endpoint security, it unifies this functionality in order to reduce the memory and computing resources necessary to support the agent. Just as importantly, Blink can be deployed and managed from a central location, making it ideal for distributed network environments.

“We were impressed with the innovative approach eEye takes when it comes to network security, in terms of delivering all of the endpoint solutions we need in one agent,” Friot added. “Blink was easy to use from the beginning and it’s been an added benefit that we can speak directly to the engineers who manufactured the software when we have questions, which is unheard of in most security companies.”

Blink’s primary layer of protection is an intrusion prevention mechanism that protects from attacks leveraging yet unknown vulnerabilities. Blink is unique in that it focuses on the methods of exploitation that such attacks utilize. This enables Blink to stop intrusions without having to identify the unique signature of the attack itself, while stopping the attack before it infects the system. Unlike behavior-based endpoint security solutions, Blink does not need to “learn” proper behavior, but stops all attacks “right out of the box.”

In addition to host-based IPS, Blink delivers, anti-spyware technology, anti-phishing technology, identity theft protection, an application firewall, a system firewall and local vulnerability assessment all on one agent, thus dramatically reducing the memory and storage space required for endpoint security on the local system. As Friot mentioned, Blink also allows Community Bank’s IT department to defer patching vulnerable machines until regularly scheduled maintenance cycles, thereby saving millions of dollars in business disruption.

“Given the tremendous volume of sensitive information Community Bank is tasked with managing, as well as the distributed nature of their systems, it was clear they needed an all-in-one security solution that enabled them to centrally manage their networks,” stated Ross Brown, eEye’s CEO. “With the rapidly evolving threats facing any organization, Community Bank is clearly making the safety of its customers’ data a priority by deploying this technology.”

For those interested in protecting corporate systems with Blink, an evaluation version is available for download on eEye's Website: www.eEye.com/Blink.

eEye's integrated family of vulnerability management solutions helps IT and security professionals confidently safeguard their valuable digital assets. Working in conjunction with popular tools such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, eEye's product portfolio also includes Retina® Network Security Scanner, REM™ Security Management Console, Iris® Network Traffic Analyzer and SecureIIS™ Web Server Protection.

About Community Bank System Inc.
Community Bank System Inc. (CBSI) holds more than $4.2 billion in assets at 130 customer facilities across 22 counties in upstate New York and five counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. Its subsidiaries include Community Bank N.A., First Liberty Bank & Trust, Elias Asset Management and Harbridge Consulting Group. CBSI is located in smaller cities and towns where superior service is valued and customer loyalty can be earned. In fact, CBSI ranks first or second in deposit market share in approximately 70 percent of the towns in which it does business. CBSI, whose predecessor bank was the St. Lawrence National Bank, chartered in 1866, was incorporated as a registered bank holding company in 1983 and maintains its principal administrative office in DeWitt, New York, a suburb of Syracuse. It is the second-largest commercial banking franchise headquartered in upstate New York. It is a full-service financial institution, offering complete consumer, business, and financial services. For more information, please visit www.communitybankna.com.

About eEye Digital Security

eEye Digital Security® is pioneering a new class of security products:integrated threat management. This next-generation of security detects vulnerabilities and threats, prevents intrusions, protects all of an enterprise’s key computing resources, from endpoints to network assets to web sites and web applications, all while providing a centralized point of security management and network visibility.eEye’s research team is consistently the first to identify new threats in the wild, and our products leverage that research to deliver on the goal of making network security as easy to use and reliable as networking itself. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Orange County, California, eEye Digital Security protects more than 9,000 corporate and government organizations worldwide, including half of the Fortune 100. For more information, please visit www.eeye.com

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