Thales and Loea Corporation today announced an alliance to provide secure wireless solutions to the U.S. Federal Government. Loea Corporation, a leading developer of point-to-point wireless communications, has become a member of Thales' new Secure Wireless Alliance Program. The program is designed to provide the U.S. Federal Government with solutions to meet the new Department of Defense Directive (DoDD) 8100.2. This DoD mandate requires that all unclassified wireless transmission must be encrypted with Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 2 certified hardware utilizing the AES encryption algorithm. Both Thales and Loea Corporation already have significant deployments within the federal government and this affiliation will accelerate the deployment of secure wireless solutions within DoD and Federal agencies by enabling the use of lower cost COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) encryption products.

New regulations are driving the need for security in wireless WAN applications. Presidential Directive 63 (PDD-63) and the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) regulations are forcing federal agencies and city governments to encrypt their wireless deployments.

Loea Corporation provides point-to-point, wireless millimeter wave radios that transfer up to 1.25 gigabits per second of video, data and information. Fog, snow, rain, sand storms, dust, smoke, artillery debris and other small occlusions do not impact link performance, which is a strong advantage of Loea's technology. Loea's virtual fiber can achieve 99.999% weather availability at link distances of about 1km. The Loea radio operates at OSI Layer 1 (physical layer) and are compatible with the Thales Datacryptor® family.

“Loea's Fiberless Access TM Link coupled with the Thales' Datacryptor offers tremendous bandwidth while complying with the federal user requirements for security,” said Jay Lawrence, Executive Director, Loea Corporation. “We see strong interest in high-speed wireless solutions, coupled with a solid security appliance such as Thales.”

“The Datacryptor products coupled with Loea's solutions are an excellent fit for on-base high-speed wireless applications. Our customers can continue to manage their Thales Datacryptor products for wireline and wireless WAN deployments and utilize the resilient Loea solutions to reduce traditional wireline deployment costs,” said Alok Sharma, Vice President of Sales and Marketing e-Security activities of Thales in the Americas.

About Datacryptor® products:
The Datacryptor range of hardware encryptors provides strong and FIPS 140-2 certified security at Layer 2 and Layer 3 applications including leased line Link, Frame Relay, SONET, IP networks, and Ethernet. With AES (128, 192, 256-bit) and 3DES (168-bit) algorithms built in, the Datacryptor family is designed to fulfill the requirements dictated by the new Department of Defense Directive (DoDD) 8100.2.

About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving Defense, Aerospace, Security and Services markets. The group employs 61,500 people and generated revenues of $13 billion in 2004.

Recent contract awards include the military's multi-million dollar Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program award; and an award from the Defense Information System Agency (DISA) for data encryption products.

Operating in three main markets covering e-security, card payment, and network security, Thales' e-Security activity addresses the business, government, and finance industries' need for cryptographic security products and solutions. Over half of the world's banks, together with the majority of the busiest exchanges, currently use Thales technology.

About Loea Corporation
Loea Corporation is the first to deploy 71-86GHz wireless products at Gigabit data rates and has been the pioneer for rulemaking efforts in this wireless spectrum. The Loea product is quick, easy and inexpensive to install and has robust all weather performance to several kilometers. The Loea system has received J/F-12 equipment certified with the NTIA which is required for federal deployment and is listed on several GSA schedules.

Thales Media Contact
Rochelle Hopke, Manager, Marketing Communications
Thales e-Security, Inc.
Tel: 954-888-6200/1-888-744-4976 (x-6297)
Email: rochelle.hopke@thalesesec.com

Thales Company Contact
Juan Asenjo, Director Americas Business Development
Thales e-Security, Inc.
Tel: 954-888-6200/1-888-744-4976
Email: Juan.asenjo@thalesesec.com