Security and IBM

I admit it. When the word "security" pops up, IBM isn't the first company that comes to mind.

That's good and bad. On the good side, IBM isn't prone to generating the negative news that, say, a Microsoft often does. On the bad side, the company has antivirus and anti-spyware tools that you don't hear much about either.

As it turns out, IBM has an entire group -- the Internet Security Systems -- which hasn't appeared on my radar until now. That's probably my fault, not IBM's. The core security activity is based on IBM's acquisition of Internet Security Systems (ISS)--an acquisition that was announced on August 23, 2006. Okay, so I wasn't paying attention and missed the press release.

ISS is a company that has been around since the mid 1990s, focusing on vulnerability assessment and intrusion detection/prevention technologies has been around since1994. IBM will keep the ISS X-Force research and development team and link its expertise with IBM Labs. And since the research results that come out of IBM Labs is generally quite impressive, it is worth watching the X-Force and ISS teams as they move into the future.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:41 PM  Permalink