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Tumbleweed Communication's John Hines to Speak at 2004 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security April 22nd

Tumbleweed’s Director of Product Development to Discuss Validating Digital Certificates in Real Time

Redwood City, CA – April 16, 2004 – Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of secure Internet messaging software and appliances for enterprises and government agencies, announced today that John Hines, Tumbleweed's Director of Product Development, will be speaking on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at the 2004 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security. Mr. Hines is scheduled to present at 9:30 am during Session IIIC at the event being held at Volpe Transportation Center in Cambridge, MA.

Mr. Hines’ presentation, entitled “Validating Digital Certificates in Real Time,” will address how digital certificates provide individuals and companies with virtual IDs, or credentials, for use in the electronic world. However, like passports or credit cards, these digital credentials can expire, be revoked, or be suspended. Enterprises that conduct business electronically need to confirm that a digital certificate is current and valid before allowing a transaction to occur, much in the same way that a merchant needs to check a credit card before processing a purchase. Digital certificate validation is the Achilles heel of many of the public-key infrastructures now being put in place to protect parties engaging in secure transactions. Without a reliable way of checking the validity of every digital certificate presented to an application, the relying parties in a transaction have no legal recourse should someone use a certificate in some rogue or malicious fashion.

Information about 2004 IEEE Conference can be found at http://www.ieeeboston.org/homeland.htm

About the 2004 IEEE Conference
Join 300 members of the New England innovation community as they gather for the fourth IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security. Organized by the Boston Section of IEEE, Massport, The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, and the British Consulate, this conference is the only New England forum which facilitates the development of transportation security solutions by fostering collaboration among the innovation, operations, regulatory and funding communities involved with protecting our critical transportation infrastructure.

This conference focuses on technologies that enhance the security of our transportation infrastructure of: airports, seaports, rail, road and mass transit; and assure the efficient and secure transportation of people and goods. A special session will be devoted to the critical challenge of protecting the worldwide intermodal shipping container system from its use as a conduit for Weapons of Mass Destruction and without introducing unacceptable delay or excessive processing.

The conference will highlight over 60 papers on technology innovations, two business panels addressing market trends & opportunities and intellectual property & government contracting, and networking opportunities to foster collaboration. Attendees include technology innovators, industry professionals, government officials, system integrators, business development, and legal professionals who are involved with the homeland security marketplace.

The British Consulate will host an evening reception for conference attendees on Wednesday, April 21, at the Marriott Hotel, located at 2 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA.

About John Hines
John Hines is Director of Validation Authority Product Development at Tumbleweed Communications where he is responsible for the engineering and marketing of the Tumbleweed Valicert Validation Authority product line. Mr. Hines had been with Valicert for four years, which Tumbleweed acquired last year, and previously was an engineering manager at Netscape Communications Corp. responsible for Certificate Management Server (CMS). CMS is used by the US Department of Defense in the world’s largest PKI deployment (over 12 million certificates issued). John began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories and has more than 15 years of experience building security software. John holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Emory University, and an M.S. Computer Science from Columbia University.

About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.
Tumbleweed is a leading provider of secure Internet messaging software and appliances for enterprises and government agencies. By making Internet communications secure, reliable and automated, Tumbleweed's anti-spam email firewall, secure file transfer, secure email, and identity validation solutions help customers significantly reduce the cost of doing business. Tumbleweed products are used to communicate with millions of end-users and tens of thousands of corporations. Tumbleweed has more than 600 enterprise customers, including ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the US Navy and Marine Corps. Tumbleweed Communications was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. For additional information about Tumbleweed go to www.tumbleweed.com or call 650-216-2000.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
Tumbleweed cautions that forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on current plans and expectations, and that a number of factors could cause the actual results to differ materially from the guidance given at this time. These factors are described in the Safe Harbor statement below.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, particularly with respect to the requirements associated with digital certificate validation. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions about the risks of investing in Tumbleweed, we refer you to the documents Tumbleweed files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly Tumbleweed's Form 10-K filed March 15, 2004.

Tumbleweed assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release, including for example its guidance regarding its future performance, which represents the Company's expectations only as of the date of this release and should not be viewed as a statement about the Company's expectations after such date. Although this release may remain available on the Company's website or elsewhere, its continued availability does not indicate that the Company is reaffirming or confirming any of the information contained herein.
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