Symantec Expands its Security as a Service Profile

Symantec, Corp. recently announced the planned acquisition of Software as a Service (SaaS) company MessageLabs Ltd. In other news, Core Security Technologies announced the release of its latest security software, while researchers found that Google, Inc. search engine optimization is being used to target security attacks.

Focal Points:

• Officials from Symantec recently announced its intent to acquire MessageLabs, as a way to increase its capabilities in messaging security. The purchase price is $695 million, with MessageLabs making $145 million in fiscal year 2008. This represents a 20 percent growth from the previous year. Officials said they plan on cross-selling and up-selling their SaaS offerings, leveraging Symantec's existing security technology. Executives said they intend to leverage MessageLabs existing skills in selling security in the form of software as a service. Symantec will incorporate its existing SaaS offerings into MessageLabs operations, where they will be run by MessageLabs' current CEO. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2008.
• Executives at Core Security recently announced the availability of Impact Pro 7.6. Core Security's flagship product enables IT executives to evaluate their corporate IT security posture by evaluating the effectiveness of their existing defenses. The ability to automate the evaluation of corporate security posture puts IT in a better position to prioritize enterprise security spending. Core Security's recent version of Impact Pro includes support for IPv6, as well as Web application testing. Impact Pro also includes new tests for commercial security exploits.
• Security researchers have recently reported that hackers are using Internet search engine optimization techniques and Google Trends to lure unsuspecting users to go to sites where malware can be downloaded to the victim's computer. The hackers promote links to site with fake security products, which then trick the victim into downloading malware onto their computer. Hackers are also targeting blogs on free hosting sites such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live Spaces and AOL LLC Journals.

Experton Group believes maintaining security will become increasingly difficult in the enterprise as a result of the recent economic downturn, in addition to the ever-increasing sophistication of the hacker community. As the IT environment increases in complexity, more vectors of exploitation are born, and organized groups of hackers will continue to be focused on launching new attacks. For this reason, IT executives need to increase the emphasis on corporate-wide security education, augmenting mandatory awareness sessions with automated policy enforcement and security evaluation tools to help protect corporate information assets.