Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/10/27/cisco_borgs_scansafe/

Cisco borgs real-time security biz ScanSafe

A plug for the IronPort

By Austin Modine

Posted in Networks, 27th October 2009 17:09 GMT

Cisco intends to buy the web security outfit ScanSafe in a deal worth approximately $183 million, the networking gear maker said today.

ScanSafe sells a web-based security service that analyzes a company's end-user web requests in real-time to determine if content is malicious, inappropriate, or acceptable based on defined security policies. The London- and San Francisco-based company sees about two to three billion web requests per day.

Cisco said it will mesh together ScanSafe's service with the capabilities the company added when it purchased IronPort for $830m in 2007. ScanSafe will be integrated both into Cisco's AnyConnect VPN Client and continue to be offered as a web-based security service, the company said.

The acquisition of ScanSafe is part of Cisco's latest "borderless network" product push of combining network and cloud-based services.

Cisco's purchase of ScanSafe also comes as more malicious security attacks are directed at websites themselves rather than end-users. The company said the web security market is expected to grow to $2.3bn by 2012.

Cisco will pay about $183m in cash and retention-based incentives, and i expects to close the deal in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2010. The ScanSafe team will be rolled into Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit. ®