Networking equipment maker Cisco Systems is to buy
Perfigo for $74m (£40.5m), boosting the company's efforts to secure
network "endpoints" and protect them from worms, viruses and
hacking.
Perfigo sells network access control technology for securing
endpoints such as remote worker desktops, mobile and wireless
computers. It will join Cisco's Security Technology Group and the
company's products, including SecureSmart and CleanMachines, will
be added to Cisco's evolving Network Admissions Control (NAC)
portfolio.
NAC portfolio uses client security programmes and Cisco
networking gear to inspect machines before they are connected to
corporate networks.
Founded in May 2002, Perfigo is privately held and backed by
venture firm Greylock. The company unveiled its first product,
SecureSmart, last April. The product allows customers to manage and
authenticate users connecting to wired and wireless networks.
The company's second product, CleanMachines, appeared in
November 2003 and combines network and device-based vulnerability
scans with network security policies to evaluate the security of
user machines.
Using CleanMachines, customers can quarantine devices that do
not adhere to security polices in an isolated area of a network,
then use network-based compliance and remediation tools to resolve
any security issues raised in the scan, according to information on
Perfigo's website.
Perfigo's software runs on a hardened Linux platform and ties in
with an enterprise's existing user authentication infrastructure,
such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, Remote
Authentication Dial-In User Service and Kerberos.
Cisco expects to complete its acquisition of Perfigo in its
second fiscal quarter, which ends 29 January 2005. Cisco has
already licensed CleanMachines and will begin selling it this
month.
Paul
Roberts writes for IDG News Service