Kingsoft and Rising are joining the Network Admission Control (NAC) program, an industry effort initiated and led by Cisco (CSCO). The collaboration will allow Antivirus software solutions from Kingsoft and Rising to enhance the capability of corporate networks to protect themselves against threats from virus affected PCs accessing the network. This is the first time Chinese network-security companies have joined this program.

The NAC initiative, first announced in November 2003, is an industry effort led by Cisco Systems that uses the network infrastructure to enforce security policy compliance on all devices seeking to access network computing resources, thereby limiting damage from viruses and worms.

"Complex and ever-changing security threats require a strong industry collaboration to dynamically protect networked business resources," said Jia Bin Duh, president of Cisco Systems China. "The efforts of Kingsoft, Rising and Cisco in the NAC program will propel us toward our common goals of providing Chinese customers with a more effective, more reliable, and simpler network defense."

Rising will create a module in its "China Shield" Antivirus Solution for Enterprise to support NAC compatibility. With this module, Rising's Antivirus Wall, Rising Antivirus Software Network Edition, Antivirus Mail Box Medium Component and all corporate Antivirus products will support NAC-enabled networks. Kingsoft will embed software that supports NAC in their enterprise Antivirus solutions, and provide a special service package, allowing its customers to easily access NAC-enabled network systems.

Wang Xin, president of Rising, states that, at present, the company's cooperation with Cisco is primarily for the Microsoft Windows platform, and next steps will be to further collaborate on UNIX and Linux. "We are very pleased to continue our technical efforts with Cisco in order to provide more comprehensive and effective security solutions for users in China, and around the world."

Added by Lei Jun, President of Kingsoft: "By teaming up with Cisco, the increased technical and market resources provide a coordinated, end-to-end network-security solution highly suitable for users in China. We envision a bright future as a result of the collaboration and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship."