back to article Cisco coughs $2.7bn for Sourcefire

Cisco has dug deep and found $2.7bn for intrusion prevention security player Sourcefire. Sourcefire started out in intrusion detection/intrusion prevention but expanded over the years to add next-generation firewall and advanced malware protection wares to its portfolio. Cisco reckons the acquisition will accelerate the …

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  1. Bronek Kozicki

    almost 3bln ?

    This seems to be a big deal, I wonder how are they going to sell it to shareholders. And deliver.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: almost 3bln ?

      After seeing the bad joke that is Cisco's latest 'CX' update to their ASA platform (it has two f'ing management interfaces, ASDM for the FW and Prime for the content control) it was obvious to me that they had to buy to stay in the FW market, though they should've stumped up the extra $1B or so for Palo Alto Networks (that they could've probably paid way less pre-IPO last year).

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

        Re: almost 3bln ?

        After seeing the bad joke that is Cisco's latest 'CX' update to their ASA platform

        I'm fed up of each ASA F/W upgrade changing the core ACL/NAT syntax. Imagine the outcry if they changed the format of the IOS access-list command every upgrade.

        Please Cisco, put the ASA out of it's misery, kill it off, and replace it with something better.

        1. AskOllie.com

          Re: almost 3bln ?

          Just one change to NAT syntax - around the 8.2/8.3 software releases - that's a long way from 'each ASA F/W upgrade'.

          FWIW, configuring NAT on Cisco ASAs is now loads easier than it was before.

          After seeing the bad joke that is Cisco's latest 'CX' update to their ASA platform

          The 'CX' bit is pretty good, crappy management notwithstanding.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    How did computer security come to this?

    "Sourcefire started out in intrusion detection/intrusion prevention but expanded over the years to add next-generation firewall and advanced malware protection wares to its portfolio".

    Malware protection is next to useless as it only identifies known badware, the solution is to *not* run software you download from the Internet by clicking on a URL or opening an email attachment. Same with the firewall, is next to useless as you run some remote script on your computer hoping the AV software catches it. How did the state of computer security come to this?

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: How did computer security come to this?

      Malware protection is next to useless as it only identifies known badware, the solution is to *not* run software you download from the Internet by clicking on a URL or opening an email attachment. Same with the firewall, is next to useless as you run some remote script on your computer hoping the AV software catches it. How did the state of computer security come to this?

      This is decidedly not the way current anti-malware solutions work, especially enterprise solutions. Yes, using some common sense about what to run on your workstation is helpful, but in a corporate environment, most admins are trying to get things to work properly in spite of their customers' collective actions. Too, firewalls are not typically the same as antivirus software.

      Your post, however, illustrates one of the biggest issues in information security: education. I would not suggest that everyone on the internet ought to study up for the CISSP, but some basic knowledge can go a long way in getting people to act right.

  3. FordPrefect

    Seems a strange fit to me. CISCO already have an IPS, and as much talk of the "next generation" firewall features as there is from sourcefire, its not a patch on Palo Alto, Checkpoint and Juniper. It is a very good IPS however.

    Granted yes I do think CISCO need to up there game in the security field, the latest ASAs are a strange compromise.

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