McAfee to buy SIEM provider NitroSecurity

Intel-owned McAfee has made a splash in the security information and event management (SIEM) market by announcing it is to acquire NitroSecurity.

The announcement came on the same day IBM made its own SIEM purchase in agreeing to acquire Q1 Labs.

McAfee now wants a piece of the SIEM pie and offer its customers greater security intelligence so they can learn about security issues affecting their organisation.

With NitroSecurity's technology and talent, McAfee can expand its reach into the fast growing SIEM market.

NitroSecurity offerings will be rolled into current McAfee offerings, including the security giant's SIEM product known as the ePolicy Orchestrator.

NitroSecurity's SIEM offering has already passed integration testing with ePolicy Orchestrator, so the wheels are already in motion.

"NitroSecurity's technology supports a broad range of information sources including network security devices, firewalls, operating system and application logs, vulnerability assessment scans, identity and access management systems and privacy systems," said Ken Levine, chairman and chief executive officer at NitroSecurity.

"It will complement the extensive McAfee security portfolio and help to meet the demanding compliance and protection needs of our joint customers."

McAfee expects the deal to be sewn up by the close of 2011's fourth quarter.

"With NitroSecurity's technology and talent, McAfee can expand its reach into the fast growing SIEM market," said Stuart McClure, general manager and senior vice president for the risk and compliance business unit at McAfee, in a blog post.

"NitroSecurity is quite simply the most advanced SIEM on the market This capability provides the most visibility and the most advanced correlation capabilities giving McAfee true situational awareness.'"