Cisco Aquires Sourcefire

[ritchie58]

Cisco has announced the purchase of security firm Sourcefire, paying a premium for the company in order to bolster its weakening position in network security.

The Columbia, MD-based company develops cybersecurity solutions for next-generation applications -- spurred on due to the rising adoption of mobile technology, the evolving nature of cybercrime and corporate demand for systems which prevent data loss and theft.

By purchasing Sourcefire, Cisco may be able to shore up its position in the network security industry after losing marketshare in the last few years to more competitive rivals including Palo Alto Networks and Check Point -- which are better equipped to develop more complex firewalls suitable for use in web applications, cloud computing and social media.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay $76 per share in cash for the firm -- a premium of over 20 percent based on Monday's close -- paying approximately $2.7 billion. Now approved by both Cisco and Sourcefire's board of directors, the acquisition is expected to close during the second half of 2013.

"The notion of the 'perimeter' no longer exists and today's sophisticated threats are able to circumvent traditional, disparate security products. Organizations require continuous and pervasive advanced threat protection that addresses each phase of the attack continuum," said Christopher Young, senior vice president, Cisco Security Group. "With the acquisition of Sourcefire, we believe our customers will benefit."

Sourcefire was founded in 2001 and has over 650 employees worldwide, reporting revenue of $223.1 million in the previous fiscal year.

 

By, Charlie Osborne - ZDNet

 

My comment: Since SourceFire is Immunet's parent company one must ask will there be any changes forthcoming? Will Cisco make any radical changes to Immunet, demand that SourceFire completely scrap this AV that we've come to love or just keep the status quo going? I think all Immunet users have a right to know what will be done with Immunet by Cisco! If anyone has any further information about this takeover and how it will affect Immunet, if at all, feel free to add a thread to this topic.

 

Regards, Ritchie...

[Zurchiboy]

Hopefully they keep the antivirus software. And thanks for the share ritchie.

[bremmel@sourcefire.com]

Hi Ritchie,

 

Thank you for the question. At this time we are unable to comment on any future development or product support. However, Cisco expressed their commitment to Sourcefire’s innovation in a recent blog post by Chris Young, SVP, Cisco Security Group:

 

“Having led security innovation for more than 12 years, Sourcefire has assembled a world-class team with deep security DNA that will help drive Cisco’s execution of its security strategy. Sourcefire was founded by Marty Roesch, who pioneered their success through open source, creating a community of security technologists working together to build an industry leading intrusion prevention system. Sourcefire also is home to the Vulnerability Research Team, a group of elite security experts who work around the clock to proactively discover, assess, and respond to the latest trends in hacking activities, intrusion attempts, malware and vulnerabilities.

 

Sourcefire’s open source model is expected to strengthen and accelerate Cisco’s ability to build a strong ecosystem of security partners who can bring real time threat intelligence and innovations to customers through integration with our technologies and platforms.”

 

We’ll be sharing more information with the Immunet community as it becomes available.

 

Brian Remmel

Sourcefire

[ritchie58]

Thanks for the thread Brian. However that still leaves me with questions as to what will become of Immunet. For instance, there was suppose to be a new version of Immunet released soon as there has not been a completely new build rolled out in over a year's time. There is some serious bugs with the current build that really needs to be addressed. The sooner this new build is released all the better in my view and hopefully, with this new build, these bugs will be fixed. My concern is will this new build be put on hold now until everything is sorted out by Cisco and SourceFire or will development of Immunet continue unencumbered? If you find out anything relevant pertaining to the future of Immunet please keep us informed Brian. That would be much appreciated!

 

Best wishes, Ritchie...

[Francis]

Hey Ritchie,

 

Unfortunately I can't add much to what Brian has stated above, but I can say that the general roadmap we have already outlined will not be changing drastically any time soon (in fact when things do begin to change, it will be gradually). For the next couple of months or so, business will remain as usual. Thanks,

 

- Francis

[ritchie58]

Ok Francis, that puts to rest (for now) perhaps my unfounded paranoia, lol! Actually, after further examination of the avaliable news regarding this merger it seems this could very well be a benefical cooperation of expertise to further the development of advanced security solutions for multiple platforms and applications. Made for some interesting reading. I guess I was just a little worried that Immunet was going to get pushed by the wayside in favor of other new forthcomming projects or, worst case scenario, scrap Immunet all together. Look what happened to PC Tools after Symantec bought that company not too long ago so can you blame me for being a little concerned. If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em, then scrap 'em seems to be a corporate strategy that's employed by some companys.

 

Regards, Ritchie...

[bellgamin]

This thread is ~6+ years old, and Immunet is still going strong -- as demonstrated by the recent issuance of version 7.0, followed shortly thereafter by update 7.0.2.  What next, I wonder? Maybe add a non-signature-based component such as an anti-execution/whitelisting ability. perhaps?

[ritchie58]

Hello bellgamin,

I am glad that my fears were unfounded regarding Immunet being completely scraped when I first posted this topic. The decision to eliminate the Plus (paid) version of Immunet had me concerned once again at the time though. Why mess with a money maker, that didn't make any sense to me.

It was explained to me that an Enterprise version of Immunet designed for multiple end-point environments was being developed. It was decided that to continue supporting the Plus version and continue R&D for what would become FireAMP Connector (the name has been changed to AMP for Endpoints) was just to too costly & time consuming for the development team.

The logic was if a user that liked the Plus version could use AMP instead. Although AMP is designed primarily for server based business, educational or institutional use it can be configured for private network/home use too. I was given a free one year license a while back just to check it out for myself.

I did put forth the idea of issuing a new Immunet Plus version that would include a secure VPN service. VPN services are very popular right now because of more folks are doing on-line shopping, banking or using sites where sensitive data is sent then ever! VPN's make it virtually impossible for your browser activity to be snooped on by hackers, spyware, rootkits, malware, etc...

Cheers, Ritchie...