Rumors that circulated recently about EMC buying another data security-related company turned out to be true after all.
The storage and data security giant announced April 4 that it has acquired Virginia-based NetWitness, a provider of network security monitoring and analysis software, and had closed the deal on April 1. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
NetWitness will operate as a part of RSA, the security division of EMC. The transaction is not expected to have a material impact to revenue or EPS for the full 2011 fiscal year, EMC said.
eWEEK and other publications had been tipped off on March 24 in emails about the impending deal, but nothing factual was made available for publication at that time.
NetWitness provides what it describes as "pervasive" network visibility with its networking monitoring package. This enables security teams to detect and remediate advanced threats in real time as the automated software handles the background investigation process.
The timing of this acquisition is uncanny; EMC and RSA could have used this extra protection against a major hacker assault in March.
Only three weeks ago, on March 17, RSA revealed that it had been hit by an "extremely sophisticated" attack and that information related to its SecurID two-factor authentication products had been stolen.
Intruders succeeded in breaching RSA networks recently as part of an Advanced Persistent Threat attack, RSA Chairman Art Coviello wrote in an open letter to customers on the division Website on March 17. Attackers stole information specific to RSA’s SecurID two-factor authentication products, Coviello said.
For more, read the eWEEK article: EMC Acquires Security Automation Vendor NetWitness.