Sourcefire gobbles up Immunet
Security vendor Sourcefire has bought Immunet for US$21 million, adding cloud-based anti-malware products to its portfolio, currently dominated by its flagship open-source intrusion detection system dubbed Snort.
Oliver Friedrichs (Credit: Symantec)
Immunet pioneered an approach to security that employs crowdsourcing to build a friend protection network that reveals how malware spreads. It also offers a 4MB antivirus system, which uses machine learning to detect cloud-based threats.
Sourcefire said that the acquisition will allow it to provide endpoint protection from client-side attacks.
"This acquisition enables Sourcefire to accelerate our cloud initiatives," Sourcefire chief executive John Burris said.
The deal is one of a string of buyouts for Immunet boss and entrepreneur Oliver Friedrichs, who has seen his former start-up SecurityFocus and Secure Networks bought by Symantec and McAfee (then known as Network Associates) respectively. He also built what is said to be the first commercial penetration testing product, codenamed SNIPER, which was bought by Core Security Technologies in 2001.
Sourcefire said it will retain all full-time Immunet personnel, including Friedrichs.
The cash payment included US$17 million paid at closing and US$4 million to be paid over the next 18 months.
Both companies have customers in Australia, with Immunet claiming a base of some 750,000 users across 192 countries.
(Frontpage image credit: Handshake image by Johnny Magnusson, public domain)