McAfee acquires Onigma

Anti-virus vendor snaps up data protection product for $20m as part of security risk management strategy

By Chris Green, 16 Oct 2006 at 15:54

Anti virus and security software vendor McAfee has agreed to buy data protection specialist Onigma for $20m in cash.

The deal sees McAfee take control of Israeli-based Onigma's FlowControl data protection product, which allows companies to monitor and report on attempts to move, remove or transmit sensitive and confidential data enterprise data. The product will be rebranded McAfee Data Loss Prevention and support for existing users is expected to continue unaffected.

"Onigma gives us additional capabilities and expertise to help customers reduce the risk associated with compliance violations, corporate governance concerns, internal policy infractions and information leaks" said Christopher Bolin, McAfee's chief technology officer.

The purchase of Onigma is part of a wider effort by McAfee to expand from its current range of security products and technologies - dubbed its security risk management strategy - into managing overall enterprise data security and compliance. McAfee is established in the anti virus, anti spam and anti spyware markets, and it produces hardware security appliance fields.

"Today nearly all corporate information exists in electronic form, accessible to almost any employee and contractor," said Brian Burke, research manager at IDC. "Additionally, much of the information is stored on PCs and laptops, making it critical to protect data at its source from any method of communication by client systems."