Business management software company Watchfire Corp. will buy Sanctum Inc., which makes Web application testing products for an undisclosed amount, Watchfire said Monday.
Watchfire, of Waltham, Massachusetts, will add Sanctum's technology for spotting vulnerabilities in Web applications to its WebXM enterprise management platform, which allows customers to track Web application compliance to corporate security policies and regulations, according to executives from both companies.
Watchfire bought Sanctum's products and intellectual property in the deal, including the AppScan Web application testing software and AppShield application firewall. Watchfire, with 190 employees, will take on more than 75 Sanctum employees, including a research and development hub in Israel, which will be added to Watchfire's other development center in Ottawa, Canada, said Mike Weider, founder and chairman of Watchfire.
Some employees will be let go because of the acquisition and the fate of employees at Sanctum's Santa Clara, California, headquarters is still being worked out, though Watchfire plans to maintain "some presence" there, Weider said.
Watchfire plans to marry the AppScan technology to WebXM and expects to release a version of the combined product by November. The merged product will give executives a dashboard, or centralized console, from which to view all of their company's Web sites and software development projects and assess their security posture. Chief information officers and vice presidents will be able to quickly assess progress in implementing privacy protections or complying with regulatory requirements, Weider said.
The top down reviews by management will put more pressure on developers to focus on security, compared with developer-controlled and initiated security scanning tools, he said.
"The way security assessments are done now at the development level, there's no way to know, across an enterprise, how a company is doing at a point in time. If a developer chooses not to use scanning tools, then vulnerabilities can sneak into the development environment," he said.
Sanctum's AppScan and AppShield product will retain their names and continue to be sold separately. AppScan will also be turned into a module for WebXM that can be used to crawl over product Web applications and feed vulnerability information back to the WebXM dashboard. The AppShield product will be used to remediate security issues that are discovered, said Steve Orrin, chief technology officer at Sanctum.
The two similar-sized companies already compete in some areas and share some customers, especially in the financial services industry. However, Watchfire believes that Sanctum's strong technology and good relations with companies that make integrated development environments will compensate for the overlap. At the same time, Watchfire will be able to introduce Sanctum technology into markets such as government, technology and pharmaceuticals, in which it has made inroads, Weider said.
The acquisition of Sanctum is expected to close within 30 days, Weider said.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts
This white paper provides guidance on how to develop a strategic approach to managing and monitoring logs, a key function required for compliance with many regulatory mandates and a critical defense against security threats.
Download now! »
Learn about the processes and technologies that support security information management (SIM) operations, as well as the business case for SIM. The series examines different options for implementing SIM and gives you evaluation criteria for selecting the best option for your organization.
Download now! »
Learn the strategies, actions, and capabilities that Best-in-Class organizations employ and technologies they choose to obtain superior performance against various security performance metrics. This report provides guidelines for identifying which security solutions to consume as a MSS and defines best practices for choosing and managing MSSPs.
Download now! »
Recommend This
