NEWS RELEASE

Technical Communications Corporation January 18, 1999

100 Domino Drive For Immediate Release Concord, MA 01742 - 2892

Contact: Roland Fournier, Product Marketing, (978) 287 - 5100

Web Site: http://www.tccsecure.com

CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, January 18, 1999 -- Technical Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:TCCO), a leader in securing mission-critical communication networks, today announced the launch and immediate availability of KEYNET 2.1 and the CipherX 7100 – the industry’s highest performance Triple DES (ANSI X9.52) frame relay encryption system specifically designed to provide high level protection for T1/E1 speed mission-critical wide area network (WAN) communications. TCC will be showcasing this product at the RSA Data Security Conference and Expo (Booth # 136) at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. TCC is a leader in securing highly sensitive military and government networks. Now, this high quality encryption technology is available to protect the growing number of financial and corporate WAN applications.

The CipherX 7100 encryption unit and the KEYNET 2.1 secure management application form a comprehensive security system that protects sensitive information transmitted over public frame relay networks. Frame relay is a fast growing data communications service due to the cost savings it provides over older network technologies such as X.25 and leased lines. It also provides quality of service guarantees that make it a better choice than the less reliable Internet for delivery of mission-critical data. Frame relay service revenue in the United States was over $4 billion in 1998 growing from $2 billion in revenue in 1997.

Carl H. Guild, Jr., TCC’s President and CEO, stated, "TCC is excited about being the first to introduce a high performance frame relay encryption product for T1/E1 circuits. The CipherX 7100 now supports Triple-DES encryption, which makes it more than 1000 trillion times stronger than the NIST approved DES standard. This breakthrough product will allow TCC to continue to service our customers in the mission-critical financial and corporate markets where this level of security is imperative."

The CipherX 7100 Frame Relay Encryption system has been fully engineered to provide the high level protection required by demanding mission-critical applications, while maintaining optimum network performance. For maximum security, the CipherX 7100 is a hardware-based, self-contained unit. It is the first product on the market to provide hardware-based Triple DES encryption for frame relay virtual circuits up to full T1/E1 speeds. It is also network transparent - no network modification is required, no overhead is incurred, and no end user training is needed. A single CipherX system can control access for 1,024 virtual circuits making it a very cost-effective solution.

The KEYNET system has been upgraded to support the new CipherX 7100 encryption units and enables the cryptographic key management, configuration, monitoring and diagnostics of geographically dispersed CipherX encryption units from a central location. It provides the easiest way on the market today of creating security groups and monitoring their performance, while meeting the optimum communications protection and high availability requirements of mission-critical networks.

KEYNET also reduces network life cycle costs by providing a lower cost of operation and increasing network performance. There is no need to incur the extra cost and delay of operation to send technicians to encryption units located over a wide geographic area. TCC’s KEYNET is fully compliant with the ANSI X9.17 banking security standard for centralized key management.

This standard defines ‘Prudent Business Practice’ and provides liability protection for banks. Also, all of KEYNET’s cryptographic processing is executed in a hardware-based, tamper-resistant ‘Security Vault’ to ensure high-level communications protection against hackers, viruses etc.

Important features of KEYNET include the following:

1. an intuitive drag and drop user interface that simplifies the adding and deleting of encryption units and forming key groups;
2. a low-cost platform based on Windows NT; all remote management functions make use of Triple-DES encrypted industry-standard SNMP messages to prevent spoofing attacks by hackers; KEYNET complements third party enterprise network management applications;
3. status at a glance capability is provided via color-coded icons on a key management map; and
4. a series of enhanced traps proactively notifies KEYNET of a network or security problem.

Technical Communications Corporation’s products and systems secure mission-critical networks for governments, corporations and financial institutions around the world. With over 35 years of experience, TCC is the trusted supplier for organizations that place a high value on their data and its successful transmission.