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More than 100 Leading Health Institutions Choose Tumbleweed for HIPAA Compliance and Email Security

Tumbleweed Email Firewall products secure inbound and outbound messages for HIPAA compliance, spam reduction and secure message delivery

Redwood City, CA – September 29, 2004 – Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), the leading provider of secure e-mail and secure data delivery solutions, today announced that 138 leading health institutions have chosen its e-mail security solutions for HIPAA compliance and elimination of spam and viruses. Among those institutions are Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Delta Dental of California, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Medco Health Solutions, MultiCare Health System, Mt. Sinai New York University Health System, Saint Vincent Hospital, Scripps Health, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Tufts Health Plan, and WebMD Transactions.

Healthcare organizations must comply with HIPAA regulations for sending email containing Protected Health Information (PHI). Tumbleweed’s Email Firewall™ protects critical information for healthcare organizations, and dramatically reduces costs by protecting inbound email communications from spam, viruses and other inbound email threats.

“As HIPAA compliance looms, many healthcare institutions are turning to Tumbleweed for their e-mail security,” said John Thielens, CTO of Tumbleweed. “With 11 years and critical patents in e-mail security, Tumbleweed continues to innovate and create leading, robust product lines that protect and secure inbound and outbound e-mail while eliminating spam and viruses from the network.”

MultiCare Health Systems, with 4,000 employees and 2,000 external users in 56 separate facilities, needed a HIPAA-compliant solution for sending email that contains PHI. MultiCare put together a set of requirements for a new secure messaging infrastructure, including the ability to filter inbound messages for spam and viruses and inspect each outbound email to determine if it contains PHI, and the ability to encrypt and securely deliver the message to the recipient without the need for any client-side software. After evaluating a number of secure email communications vendors, MultiCare selected Tumbleweed’s Email Firewall. The Email Firewall allows MultiCare to automatically scan outbound emails, and identify and encrypt those containing PHI while fighting the influx of spam and viruses in the inbound email stream.

“We are pleased to be able to play a crucial role in HIPAA compliance,” said Jeffrey C. Smith, CEO of Tumbleweed. “Protecting patient data is a crucial step to providing quality, efficient health care. Tumbleweed enables health institutions to take the step.”

About Tumbleweed
A leading global email security company with more than 10 years in the business, Tumbleweed provides one of the deepest product lines and the most developed e-mail security architecture available. From our e-mail security suite, point solutions for spam, inbound and outbound filtering, to secure data encryption and certificate authentication, Tumbleweed has the solution enterprises and governments need to mitigate risk and increase network bandwidth. Tumbleweed customers include ABN Amro, Bank of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), 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, Calif. 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 ability of Tumbleweed’s products to eliminate spam and viruses or to enable compliance with HIPAA and other regulations. 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, Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2004, and Form 10-Q filed August 12, 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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