Cisco is paying $452.5 million in a cash and equity deal, with the Lancope team becoming part of the Cisco Security Business Group.
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Cisco said that the acquisition of the privately held, Alpharetta, Georgia-based company will augment its ability to provide advanced threat protection before, during and after an attack by offering additional network behavior analytics. It claims to cover a few 45 million hosts among its customers, which include both Cisco and HP as well as the State of Connecticut, the publisher Gannett, and the Stanford School of Medicine, among others that it does not name (for security reasons).
Cisco Corporate Development Vice President Rob Salvagno said, “As enterprises digitize, security challenges rapidly evolve”.
Lancope’s StealthWatch is a good fit for Cisco’s identity services engine, Holland says, because unlike perimeter-focused security solutions, Lancope’s technology finds intruders who have made it through all perimeter network defenses, whether malicious or accidental, by analyzing behaviors and comparing them to normal thresholds.
As more devices are connected to the Internet, cybercriminals have access to a wider variety of attack vectors when targeting a network. The acquisition is expected to close in Cisco’s second fiscal quarter.
Network security is front of mind for businesses following a series of high-profile breaches that have left companies scrambling to make sure their data is safe.
Lancope is also the third security firm that Cisco has acquired this year.
That involves essentially turning entire networks into security sensors.
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Lancope’s roughly 300 employees will be folded into the Cisco security unit led by David Goeckeler, which has expanded through several acquisitions. With Lancope, Cisco’s portfolio of security solutions adds an additional capability of network behavior analytics that extends protection further into the network.
