Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held ScanSafe, Inc.  Based in London and San Francisco, ScanSafe is a market leader of software-as- a-service (SaaS) Web security solutions for organizations ranging from global enterprises to small businesses. 

"With the acquisition of ScanSafe, Cisco is executing on our vision to build a borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement," said Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit (STBU).  "Cisco will provide customers the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their organization and deliver anytime, anywhere protection against Web-based threats."

Web security is a large and expanding market expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2012.  By acquiring ScanSafe, Cisco is building on its successful acquisition of leading on-premise content security provider IronPort.  The acquisition brings together the Cisco IronPort high-performance Web security appliance and ScanSafe's leading SaaS Web security service.  This combination will expand Cisco's security portfolio to offer superior on-premise, hosted, and hybrid-hosted Web security solutions. 

ScanSafe's service will be integrated with Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client, the newest virtual private network (VPN) product from Cisco, to provide the industry's leading secure mobility solution.  In addition, ScanSafe's global network of carrier-grade data centers and multi-tenant architecture will further enhance Cisco's ability to provide new cloud-security services for customers anywhere in the world.

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GFI Software has announced the acquisition of Los Angeles-based hosted email filtering company Katharion. Through this acquisition, GFI will be able to offer a hosted email filtering, anti-spam and anti-virus service later this quarter.

With this new service GFI will be able to provide a range of additional or edge services that will benefit companies both with and without existing on-premise email security solutions. For example, companies can use the hosted service to block up to 90% of the total emails received by the company (which are spam) and therefore reduce their bandwidth costs and the volume of junk hitting their server. The GFI hosted and edge anti-spam and anti-virus filtering solutions will work with any mail structure including Microsoft, Novell, Apple, and Linux environments. Both the hosted and edge solutions will provide for email continuity - if a customer's server goes down, the GFI service will keep a copy of all inbound email messages, and allow customers to access and respond to those messages, until the server is back online.

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Zscaler announced that Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC Ltd.) is adopting Zscaler's service to secure Web traffic for corporate headquarters, branch locations and mobile workers worldwide. The move away from appliance-based and point products provides HDFC with more powerful security and comprehensive reporting at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

"Zscaler enables HDFC to protect its IT infrastructure against newer and dangerous threats arising from botnets, Web 2.0 applications and malicious active content, in addition to traditional anti-virus," said Mr. Arivazhagan, senior general manager of IT, HDFC. "Advanced security technology, mobile user protection, and the ease of administration by not having to deploy and manage appliances were among the most compelling reasons we selected Zscaler."

HDFC has an established network of branch offices in multiple locations across India, and continues to expand its presence worldwide. Before selecting Zscaler, HDFC had earlier deployed appliance-based solutions at its Internet gateway. Zscaler service is providing rich functionality and consolidated reporting across all locations at an attractive ROI. Zscaler service also covers mobile users and offices connected via Internet VPN with no additional hardware or software, while providing them with the most complete web protection.

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Cyberstar Infocom Pvt. Ltd. announced the release of WatchGuard XTM 1050 high performance security appliance. The XTM-1050 provides fully extensible, enterprise-class security at an affordable price. WatchGuard XTM builds on the powerful UTM foundation of integrated firewall/VPN with virus and intrusion blocking, but extends security to provide spam blocking, spyware and bot protection, and URL filtering. It also includes enhanced support for business technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP), and is the only XTM product on the market that offers inbound and outbound HTTPS inspection to increase content security coverage and close the HTTPS loophole.

The XTM 1050 delivers strong security, high performance, flexible management tools, and advanced networking features, with integrated SSL and IPSec VPNs to ensure secure connectivity for your remote workers. Enterprise-grade performance with 10 Gbps firewall throughput and 2 Gbps IPSec throughput Connectivity options include 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports, with optional 4-port fiber gigabit interfaces Stronger security, including enhanced VoIP security and inbound and outbound HTTPS inspection Excellent price/performance ratio means this enterprise-class solution is available at a compelling price point Flexible management tools allow IT administrators to choose to centrally manage all security capabilities from one intuitive console or opt to use the scriptable command line interface Advanced networking features include clustering, high availability (active/active), VLAN support, multi-WAN load balancing, dynamic routing and traffic management, policy-based routing, and server load balancing.

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Mahindra Special Services Group (MSSG) and Tata Communications Ltd., have signed a major security services agreement to leverage each others strengths to offer a complete suite of security services to Indian enterprises to enable security of their information assets and data. The partnership will deliver state of the art process consultancy as well as security services to the customers. Customers can now choose to implement simple services such as firewall management through to complex services such as mDDoS D&M service (managed Distributed Denial of Service Detection & Mitigation service) from Tata Communications and leverage the security process expertise from MSSG to minimise their security risk and better manage any threat to their business.

The partnership with MSSG expands Tata Communications’ MSS offerings to provide security consulting services. Tata Communications will now be able to provide end to end set of advanced security offerings to its enterprise customers.

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Aruba Networks announced the appointment of Shalendra Singh as its Sales Director for India. Mr. Singh will be based in New Delhi and lead sales, partner, and reseller operations throughout India.

Mr. Singh brings with him over 15 years of IT and networking experience in the United States, Asia, and India. Prior to Aruba, Mr. Singh was the Vice President of Sales and Business Development at O-Zone Networks in India. He has also held key roles at IBM India, PeopleSoft Singapore, and webMethods.

“The wireless market in India is experiencing tremendous growth, and we believe a seasoned executive manager is essential in order to navigate the many potential opportunities and spur growth,” said Albert Tay, Aruba’s Regional Managing Director for ASEAN & India.  “We have invested heavily in the region, both in our Bangalore research and development center and a growing network of national sales representatives. Shalendra will be invaluable in driving new business and supporting our large and growing base of existing customers.

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Securitybyte and OWASP India, organizations committed on raising InfoSec awareness in the industry, are hosting India’s largest information security event at Hotel Crowne Plaza on Nov 17th – Nov 20th 2009. This event gets credit for many “First time in India” and comes with the format in-line with other large international information security conference like Blackhat, HITB, DefCon etc.

30 world-renowned speakers are lined up to deliver talks and trainings to techies and leaders likewise.  There are 18 international speakers coming in from USA, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, UK, Canada, Thailand & Taiwan to talk on subjects like “The international state of cyber security: Risk reduction in a high threat world” by Howard Schmidt , “Critical infrastructure security: Danger without borders” by John Bumgarner, to name a few.

The conference has three main tracks focused on security professionals, developers and leaders in the security space. Speakers like Kevvie Fowler will address the security professionals to talk about techniques used to bypass forensics in databases, additionally speakers like Jason Lam will reveal how their SANS Dshield Webhoneypot Project is coming along. Microsoft Security Response Center will reveal how things work under the cover in their team.

The highlight of the event is India’s first Information security focused “India Technology Leadership Summit 2009” with panel discussion on “Security concerns for off-shoring” between industry leaders representing outsourcers, service providers & regulators. The panel is being moderated by none other than Howard Schmidt, the Key note of the conference.
Interested people can visit www.securitybyte.org for participation details.

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Mahindra Satyam announced a key appointment of Vijayanand Vadrevu as the Sr. Vice President – Strategic Initiatives. Vijay has a vast experience in IT services industry with over 17.5 years with Wipro Technologies.  For the last 3 years, he was working as Vice President and Head for Life Sciences Vertical solutions, responsible for Strategy, Sales and Delivery and was instrumental in shaping it as one of the fastest growing Verticals.

Vijay, who holds a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, has spent more than 6 years in the US in a number of client facing and practice building roles. In his new role, Vijay will be assisting the CEO, in providing leadership on “Strategic Initiatives” to Mahindra Satyam, and will play a key role in scripting the growth plans of the organisation.

 CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam, said “Vijay is a critical addition to the leadership team at Mahindra Satyam, and his role will be very significant in providing a strategic direction to the organization to achieve long term objectives. I welcome Vijay, to the Mahindra Satyam family and wish him all best for the challenging tasks ahead of him”.

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PortWise announced the appointment of Mikael Kruhsberg as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Kruhsberg joins PortWise from IBM, where he held senior management positions within business development. Prior to IBM Mr. Kruhsberg held senior roles within Ericsson and has also been a consultant with McKinsey & Company. “Internet opens many doors for value creation and cost savings to companies and government organizations alike. It also carries a threat should the wrong person gain access to the information. I’m therefore delighted to join PortWise, to further develop the company and its products for secure Identity and Access Management, says Mikael Kruhsberg, CEO of PortWise.

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SAP Asia Pacific Japan has appointed Stephen Watts, Chief Operating Officer, SAP Asia Pacific Japan, as Interim President, SAP India.  This appointment follows the tragic loss of Ranjan Das, President SAP India. Watts has unparallel depth and expertise within the global software industry and has worked closely with Das and his Leadership Team since 2007.

"I had the great privilege of knowing Ranjan and working closely with him.  This has been a tragic loss. Ranjan was loved by all.  Through his leadership Ranjan propelled SAP India to growth and success", said Watts. Watts added, "Taking Ranjan's vision for SAP India forward, I want to assure everyone that the team here is committed to helping SAP India customers thrive."  

Echoing Watts' comments, Geraldine McBride, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan, said, "Ranjan's energy and vision were unique. He wanted to make every company in India a Best-Run business. His expertise and passion genuinely put SAP India on the map. But above all, he was a great friend. We will miss him deeply and our thoughts are with his family."

Watts has already joined the team on the ground in India, spending this week in SAP's Delhi offices.

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IBM unveiled the Lotus Center for Advanced Collaboration (LCAC), the only one of its kind in Asia Pacific. The center located at the IBM Software Lab in Pune will host dedicated technical expertise to help customers and partners adopt collaboration technology in their environment. Customers can leverage this center to get access to the latest offerings & best practices from IBM Lotus collaboration offerings, and create roadmaps and strategies that best suit their business needs. IBM aims to create this center as a regional hub for Lotus advanced collaboration strategy & solutions.

Dr. Ponani Gopalakrishnan – Vice-President, India Software Lab, IBM said “The LCAC will develop specialized focus on high value areas like social networking tools and capabilities for enterprise collaboration, Software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing based on-premise enterprise collaboration software, Lotus Notes and Domino offerings and advanced messaging and real time collaboration. The center will develop an ecosystem that will showcase industry solutions, best practices, user case studies, and demonstrations with world wide solution experts and resources accessible locally for a much more integrated work environment”.

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(ISC)² announced that Data Security Council of India (DSCI), A NASSCOM Initiative, has joined the (ISC)² global Affiliated Local Interest Group (ALIG) program, which supports local information security professional associations around the world. Currently, there are seven (ISC)² ALIGs in Asia-Pacific. W. Hord Tipton, CISSP-ISSEP, CAP, CISA, executive director for (ISC)², commented, “We are excited to see more ALIGs forming in Asia-Pacific to support our growing membership base, with over 1,100 members in India to date. DCSI has chapters throughout major cities in India, which will foster a strong alliance between our organizations and drive professionalism throughout the local information security community. We are proud to add DSCI to the growing list of ALIGs, who are providing local professionals a valuable outlet for peer networking and information exchange.”

Launched in 2005, the ALIG program aims to help local interest groups support their members by offering enhanced benefits such as convenient education opportunities and greater access to other local professionals and peer networking opportunities. The initiative also aims to promote the information security profession worldwide by increasing awareness of the importance and benefits of professional certification and continuing professional education among information security professionals.

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