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Tumbleweed Names Management Team to Lead its China, Asia Pacific and Japan Region

New Team Will Focus on Growing Customer, Channel and Partner Base

Redwood City, CA – December 5, 2005 –Tumbleweed® Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:TMWD), a leading provider of email security, managed file transfer, and identity validation appliance and software products, has announced the addition of three new executives to lead the company’s China, Asia Pacific and Japan (CAPJ) region.  The company announced that Cees van Heemert has been named vice president of the CAPJ region, with Stree Naidu joining as the Country Manager for the South East Asia region and Paul Beks joining as the Country Manager for the Australia and New Zealand regions.  The three new executives combined bring more than 60 years of technology and sales experience to the Tumbleweed management team.

Recently appointed Tumbleweed CEO, Craig Brennan, has recognized the fast growing CAPJ region as an important marketplace for Tumbleweed as the company continues to expand its global presence to provide industry leading secure Internet communications solutions.  With the addition of these new executives, Tumbleweed further extends its commitment to providing its global customers with the highest levels of sales, service and support.

“I’m very pleased to have Cees, Stree and Paul on the Tumbleweed team, and I’m confident they’ll make an immediate impact in expanding our business in the CAPJ region,” said Craig D. Brennan, president and chief executive officer of Tumbleweed.  “Having worked with all three of them previously, I’m aware of their depth of technical knowledge, their professionalism and their ability to execute and effectively grow new territories with great success.  We are looking forward to the contributions of this new team and the role they will play in helping make Tumbleweed into a truly global secure Internet communications provider.”

Cees van Heemert brings an extensive amount of technology experience to Tumbleweed in areas including direct and indirect channel sales, systems programming and systems integration.  His background includes serving at Brio Software as the Regional Vice President for the Asia Pacific and Japan regions operating out of the company’s Sydney, Australia office.  While at Brio he was responsible for direct and indirect channel sales throughout Japan, North and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.  Van Heemert’s experience also includes owning his own hardware and software systems integration business providing solutions for major companies across Europe.

Stree Naidu most recently served as the Regional Director of Asia for Plumtree Software where he was responsible for restructuring the direct sales to a channel distribution model which resulted in over 80 percent of revenue in Asia being made through channel sales the first quarter it was deployed. Prior to Plumtree Software, Naidu was the Channel Director for South Asia at Brio Software. While at Brio Software he was responsible for growing the Asia customer base with more than 20 partners across South Asia. Naidu has also held executive level positions with Sun Microsystems and the Art Technology Group.

Paul Beks brings more than two decades of experience in sales, partner development and training to Tumbleweed.  He has been involved with several start-up companies in the Asia Pacific region including his own company, Sonic Computing, as well as positions at Brio Software and Platinum Software.  At Brio he served as the Regional Director for Australia, Southern Asia and New Zealand where he was responsible for growing revenue from zero to eight million dollars (USD) in less than five years.  Beks most recently served as the National Business Development Manager in the Asia Pacific region for Eclipse Computing, the largest Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.

About Tumbleweed Communications Corp.
Tumbleweed provides security software and appliances for email protection, file transfers, and identity validation that allow organizations to safely conduct business over the Internet. Tumbleweed offers these solutions in three comprehensive product suites: MailGate®, SecureTransport™, and Validation Authority™. MailGate provides protection against spam, viruses, and attacks, and enables policy-based message filtering, encryption, and routing. SecureTransport enables business to safely exchange large files and transactions without proprietary software. Validation Authority is the world-leading solution for determining the validity of digital certificates. Tumbleweed’s enterprise and government customers include ABN Amro, Banc of America Securities, Catholic Healthcare West, JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Regence Group (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), St. Luke's Episcopal Healthcare System, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense, and all four branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Tumbleweed 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.

Tumbleweed, MailGate, SecureTransport and Validation Authority are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Tumbleweed Communications Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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 Tumbleweed’s management, growth, product offerings and distribution channels. 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 16, 2005 and Form 10-Q filed November 2, 2005.

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