IWSAlerts for Installation-Wide Emergency Notification System from AtHoc Deployed at Luke Air Force Base

BURLINGAME, Ca. (July 24, 2006) – http://www.athoc.com - AtHoc, Inc., provider of enterprise-class network-centric emergency notification systems, announced that Luke Air Force Base (AFB) has successfully deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts™ to provide base-wide emergency notification using the base’s information technology (IT) network.

Thus far, the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) has successfully implemented the solution at five bases within the Command. Luke is now one of the five that have completed the installation of the Networked Alerting System as part of the Command’s defined emergency notification system.

Luke AFB uses AtHoc IWSAlerts to meet its critical alerting needs for force protection, operational readiness, anti-terror and weather warnings. The alerts, in the form of pop-up windows accompanied by an audio alarm, describe the potential threat, categorize the threat level and include instructions for action. These alerts comply with signals and messaging specifications appropriate to Force Protection Conditions (FPCONs), watches, warnings, evacuation routes, battle staff directives and other federal, Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Air Force, AETC and Luke-specific emergency notifications.

"Luke Air Force Base deployed a network-centric solution offering to dramatically increase the speed of contacting personnel with critical information," said Senior Master Sgt. Ed Willson of the AETC Communications and Information Directorate’s Plans Division. "Because the network-based system can distribute mass and targeted alerts with clear instructions in an average delivery time of sixty seconds, it’s a highly effective way to fortify force protection by rapidly communicating emergency notifications to all base personnel."

AtHoc IWSAlerts enables Luke to disseminate emergency notifications to targeted groups and to the full base personnel. The levels of alerting are each valuable for different scenarios.
For example, some events only impact a specific group of personnel. Targeted emergency notifications to groups such as the Crisis Action Team, Unit Control Centers, fire services, medical services or the military police are an effective way to notify specific personnel of the threat or warning and provide directions for response. Some threat conditions, however, impact all base personnel. Whether the threat is from a tornado or a potential terrorist attack, some emergencies require that all base personnel are alerted and informed of the most appropriate action to take.
Using AtHoc IWSAlerts, Luke’s emergency operation center can now determine who needs to be alerted about the situation as well as what information and instructions should be sent.

"Luke Air Force Base has now successfully deployed AtHoc IWSAlerts. Not only can the base alert its staff faster and more effectively, the response capabilities improve with each base that deploys the AtHoc offering,” said Guy Miasnik, AtHoc’s president and CEO. "As more AETC bases deploy IWSAlerts, the closer AETC is to having a command-wide emergency notification system which can alert all tens of thousands command personnel."

AtHoc IWSAlerts is one of the few enterprise-class commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) networked alerting systems that have received Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Process (DITSCAP) certification and it has received a Certification to Operate (CTO) and Approval to Operate (ATO) on AETC’s network.

About AtHoc, Inc.

AtHoc provides enterprise-class, network-centric alerting systems for emergency notifications, force protection readiness, anti-terror warnings and critical communications. AtHoc offers a broad set of alerting solutions for the government/defense agencies and commercial enterprises, including IWSAlerts™ for Network-Centric Emergency Notifications; C2Alerts™ for Targeted User Alerts in Command & Control / C4I Operations Center; KMAlerts™ for Knowledge and Intelligence Dissemination; and EmployeeAlerts™ for Corporate Emergency Communications. AtHoc has partnered with Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and IBM to bring these notifications solutions to the enterprise market. The U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Air Force, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boeing, eBay and Juniper Networks are some of the world-class organizations that have selected and deployed AtHoc for their critical enterprise notifications needs.

For more information on AtHoc, please visit http://www.athoc.com