F5 Networks has bought MagniFire Websystems, a maker of
web application firewall hardware, for $29m.
The company will add MagniFire's TrafficShield security
appliance to its Application Traffic Management architecture,
allowing companies to spot attacks on web-based applications.
TrafficShield is a rack-mounted security appliance that scans
incoming HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) web traffic for
evidence of attacks or suspicious activity. The product can spot a
long list of potential threats to web-based applications and
services, including denial-of-service attacks, buffer overflows and
invalid user inputs.
That focus meshes well with F5's existing products, including
its Big-IP line of appliances, which manages and directs traffic to
applications on Lans based on customer policies, network
performance and availability to prevent service outages and
overloads.
The acquisition of MagniFire gives F5 ready-made technology for
applying those same traffic management principles to the issue of
application security, allowing companies to ensure that legitimate
traffic reaches web applications and that illegitimate or harmful
traffic is weeded out, F5 said.
In July 2003, F5 acquired SSL VPN company uRoam, maker of the
FirePass SSL VPN product.
Meanwhile, F5 has unveiled its latest version of the FirePass
Controller, which adds support for clients running on Apple
Macintosh operating system and on the open-source Linux operating
system.
Paul Roberts writes for IDG News
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