Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – August 20, 2012 – Proofpoint, Inc., (NASDAQ: PFPT), a pioneering security-as-a-service provider, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders quadrant of the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways.¹

To access a complimentary copy of Gartner’s complete 2012 Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways report, please visit:

http://www.proofpoint.com/email-security-magic-quadrant

"We believe Proofpoint's positioning by Gartner in the leaders quadrant is a great confirmation of our growth and ongoing innovation in delivering enterprise security-as-a-service solutions that help the world's largest and most successful companies better secure their most valuable data," said Gary Steele, CEO of Proofpoint. "Proofpoint's strong position in the secure email gateway market has been fueled by our continuing focus on emerging enterprise security and compliance issues and our commitment to delivering breakthrough cloud-based solutions like Targeted Attack Protection solution."

Writing in the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways," Gartner analysts Peter Firstbrook and Eric Ouellet note that, "Buyers should focus on strategic vendors, data loss prevention capability, encryption and better protection from targeted phishing attacks."

Gartner also says that, "Despite market maturity, SEGs (Secure Email Gateways) are not a solution companies can do without. Global spam volumes declined in 2011, as spammers moved to other mediums such as social networks, but spam still represents as much as 75% of email and email viruses. Phishing attacks continue to oscillate, while more targeted phishing attacks increase."

While spam volumes have declined, Gartner notes that targeted attacks against organizations represent an increasingly serious threat, noting that, "Better protection from targeted phishing attacks is the most critical new inbound protection capability (72% of respondents indicated that this was a very important capability), but only a few vendors have advanced the state of the art against these attacks."

The Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways also reiterates that, "Outbound capabilities such as DLP and encryption capabilities remain the single biggest feature differentiators and are the primary reason we have not yet moved to a MarketScope format for this analysis. Of the respondents (see Note 1), 32% indicated that they already use DLP, and 35% plan on adopting DLP in the next 24 months. Thirty-two percent of respondents already use email encryption beyond TLS, while another 28% plan on adopting it in the next 24 months."

Of vendors positioned as Leaders, Gartner says, "Leaders are performing well, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership positions in the market. Companies in this quadrant offer a comprehensive and proficient range of email security functionality, and show evidence of superior vision and execution for current and anticipated customer requirements. Leaders typically have a relatively high market share and/or strong revenue growth, own a good portion of their threat or content-filtering capabilities, and demonstrate positive customer feedback for anti-spam efficacy and related service and support."

Proofpoint Security-as-a-Service Solutions for Email Security
Proofpoint is an innovative security-as-a-service vendor that delivers data protection solutions that help medium- and large-sized organizations protect their data from attack and enable them to effectively meet the complex and evolving regulatory compliance and data governance mandates:
The Proofpoint Enterprise Protection™ suite provides comprehensive security threat classification and email security management solution against phish, virus, spam, and other email borne malware. Features include: advanced connection management; Proofpoint MLX™ -powered spam detection; signature-based and zero-hour virus protection; email firewall, deep content inspection and outbound filtering capabilities to enforce acceptable use policies for message content and attachments; advanced message tracing; and TLS encryption.

Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection™ is a cloud-based security solution uniquely architected to provide reliable protection against spear phishing and other malicious, targeted attacks that have eluded the security industry for more than a decade. Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection™ deploys an array of advanced technologies including big data analysis techniques, URL interception, and malware sandboxing to provide unprecedented protection that follows messages and users wherever they go – whether they’re behind the corporate firewall or off the corporate network, on mobile devices, or public terminals.

The Proofpoint Enterprise Privacy™ provides powerful data loss prevention, protection, encryption capabilities. Proofpoint’s easy-to-configure data loss prevention policies help organizations protect email data based on the role of specific users. Advanced, deep content analysis monitors and classifies both structured and unstructured data, ensuring that sensitive email data is protected. And once sensitive email data is found, flexible workflow allows that data to be blocked or to automatically leverage Proofpoint Encryption™, a policy-based email encryption solution that supports both desktop and mobile users with a user interface optimized for today’s mobile workforce.

Proofpoint also offers email archiving, eDiscovery and email management solutions including Proofpoint Enterprise Archive™, a SaaS email archiving solution, and Proofpoint Enterprise Governance™, which uses patented Digital Thread™ technology to track, classify, monitor, and apply policy to unstructured information anywhere in the enterprise.

¹Gartner, Inc., "Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways," by Peter Firstbrook and Eric Ouellet, 15 August 2012

About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Proofpoint, Inc. Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ:PFPT) is a leading security-as-a-service provider that focuses on cloud-based solutions for threat protection, compliance, archiving & governance and secure communications. Organizations around the world depend on Proofpoint’s expertise, patented technologies and on-demand delivery system to protect against phishing, malware and spam, safeguard privacy, encrypt sensitive information, and archive and govern messages and critical enterprise information. More information is available at www.proofpoint.com.

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Proofpoint, Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Enterprise Privacy, Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection, Proofpoint Encryption, Proofpoint Enterprise Archive and Digital Thread are trademarks or registered trademarks of Proofpoint, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.