Symantec to Acquire Sygate

Symantec announced a deal to acquire Sygate, maker of policy compliance solutions. The deal will close shortly after the companies receive regulatory approval. Terms of the pending acquisition were not disclosed.

A spokesperson for Symantec said the company will integrate Sygate solutions into its own suite of offerings. "Sygate Universal Network Access Control system enables enterprises to extend the protections of network access control to every type of network access \[including\] VPN, wireless, wired switch, DHCP, and home networks, and on all endpoints \[such as \] desktops, laptops, servers, guest systems, and embedded devices,  and allows \[administrators\] to define how secure an endpoint must be before it can access specific network resources, even when users take their mobile devices off the corporate network."

Symantec also said that it will integrate its Live Update and LiveState Patch Manager solutions into Sygate solutions, and customers who already use the company's AntiVirus and Client Security solutions will be able to deploy Sygate Network Access Control to enforce endpoint compliance.

Endpoint security could be a significant factor in the spread of the recent Zotob and Esbot/ RBOT/Sdbot/IRCbot worms. In some cases portable systems are protected while within a company network due to network border security systems. However without endpoint or desktop security those portable systems become vulnerable when taken outside the company network and connected to the Internet.