Networking giant Cisco has agreed to buy cyber security firm Sourcefire in a deal worth $2.7 billion, it announced yesterday.
Sourcefire is best known for the network intrusion detection tool Snort. It also sells next-generation firewalls and malware defences to customers including the US government and military.
Cisco said the combination of the two firms’ expertise will provide “the most comprehensive approach to security on the market,” through a shared belief in the role of the network in cybser security, as both a resource to defend and an information source to detect and respond to threats.
“The notion of the ‘perimeter’ no longer exists and today’s sophisticated threats are able to circumvent traditional, disparate security products,” said Chris Young, Cisco Security Group’s senior vice president. “We believe that Cisco and Sourcefire customers will benefit from the combination of world-class products and technologies to provide continuous and pervasive advanced threat protection across the entire attack continuum and from any device to any cloud,”
It added that the acquisition will accelerate the delivery of its “Internet of Everything” strategy – its name for a combination of the internet of things and conventional internet. The company predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet worldwide by 2020, generating $14.4 trillion in value by 2023.
Cisco has been gradually building up its security offerings through acquisition. Earlier this year it bought Cognitive Security, a software company that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect advanced cyber threats.
