AT&T has recently publicized that it is now offering AT&T Managed Security Services to multinational corporations in India. These managed solutions help customers assess vulnerabilities, protect infrastructure, detect attacks and respond to suspicious activities and events.

With AT&T Managed Security Services, customers get the benefits of a suite of world-class security services that provide integrated business continuity and security solutions to support their complex networking environments. AT&T helps businesses design, deploy, manage and evolve networks, systems and applications that are reliable and contain security features designed to help protect against cyber attacks and business interruptions.

Specifically, companies in India will now have access to several of AT&T's leading managed security solutions: Premises-Based Firewall, Network-Based Firewall, AT&T Internet Protect, AT&T Private Intranet Protect, My Internet Protect.

"Our portfolio of managed security offerings is important in fulfilling our goal of providing multinational customers in India with sophisticated tools to protect their vital network infrastructure," said Gopi Gopinath, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Global Network Services India. "This enables businesses to take full advantage of the Internet as a means of enhancing their existing business relationships with customers and suppliers."

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Kaspersky Lab announces it has entered IDC's Top 100 of Worldwide Packaged Software Vendors. The rating "Worldwide Packaged Software Revenue by Top 100 Vendors" was published by IDC in its "Worldwide Software 2009-2013 Forecast Summary" after a study of packaged software revenues in 2008 and the proportional market share of vendors. Kaspersky Lab is the only Russian company in the list.

The IDC study analyzed revenues earned by software vendors from sales of packaged software throughout the period 2006-2008 and examined how the revenues for 2008 changed compared to the previous year. Kaspersky Lab demonstrated the best annual growth rate—over 121%—outstripping the nearest competitor by almost 47% and growing 17 times faster than the average vendor.

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IBM has announced new and extended collaborations with six engineering and technology colleges across the state of Maharashtra to provide a platform for development of software skills among the students. The collaboration has brought the establishment of a series of IBM Centers of Excellence (COE), creating a unique opportunity for students to learn new skill sets on the IBM software products—DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, Rational and Tivoli—as well as develop world class solutions.

The COEs were launched at Singahad Institute of Technology (Pune), Walchand College of Engineering (Sangli), International Institute of Information Mgmt (IIT, Pune), Maharashtra Academy of Engineering (Pune), Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (Mumbai), and Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering, NMIMS University (Mumbai).

IBM will follow a two-pronged approach: providing the colleges with access to technologies relevant to the market and with training faculty to ensure that right skills are taught. The students can gain firsthand experience of the software products that are installed at the campus. Through this initiative, IBM will work closely with the colleges in the state of Maharashtra, leveraging the selected institutes as centers of learning.

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HID Global announced a partnership with Select A division of wep solutions India ltd for strategic IT market development of HID on the Desktop. This partnership adds values to the physical access control channel portfolio for implementation of the delivery of converged secure identity solutions in the Indian market.

“HID is delighted to be allied with Select as a strategic IT partner,” said Ranjit Nambiar, director of sales, HID Global India. “Select enjoys an excellent reputation for their IT expertise in providing information protection and management solutions. We are confident that Select’s position in the industry will help us introduce the benefits of HID on the Desktop to the Indian market”

HID on the Desktop represents a bold departure from the product positioning and value propositions offered by other strong authentication solutions on the market. Built out of a need to balance ease-of-use, cost and diverse security requirements, this economical solution allows organizations to leverage existing physical access cards, enabling physical access control integrators to use HID technology to provide customers with complementary logical access solutions.

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eScan has proved its technical superiority and consistency once again by winning the much acclaimed VB100% certification and 5 Star Excellent award from PCSL 2009.

eScan, the flagship product of MicroWorld, and has already received awards from both the bodies earlier this year. Other feathers in its cap include certifications and awards from both domestic and international bodies like the AV Comparative and Checkmark to name a few. The latest feature of ERS (eScan Remote Support) has taken eScan’s popularity to remote locations too like the tier II and III cities as this feature allows eScan to provide fast and efficient solutions to customers.

For these awards, eScan was put through a rigorous test where several brand were tested on certain pre-defined parameters. The VB100% states that eScan’s detection rates were most commendable, added to that is its user friendly interface which is very simple to navigate making it fully worthy of its prestigious 100% certification. At the same time, eScan is among the top scorers in the PCSL Total Protection Test 2009, and has been awarded 5 Star Excellent award.

“It is a great honor for us to win such prestigious awards that go a long way in proving the consistency and robustness of our solutions. Such a glorious response from the international and domestic community has given an impetus to our team and has fueled our enthusiasm.” exclaimed Mr. Govind Rammurthy, CEO & Managing Director, MicroWorld.

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Midmarket companies in India are likely to spend $291 million on security-related investments in 2009, according to a report from AMI-Partners. Small and medium-size businesses (companies with up to 999 employees) in India are on track to spend $291 million on security-related investments in 2009, according to a study by Access Markets International Partners. Security software accounts for three-fourths of the total SMB security expenditure, the report found.

The AMI study notes that SMBs are the most vulnerable segment in terms of data security. Two reasons for this are the increasing instances of cyber-threats and a lack of expertise among SMBs in handling such threats. Security software accounts for 73 percent of the total SMB security expenditure.

The dependence on Web-based enterprise solutions and sharing of critical data on corporate networks is rising rapidly among midsize businesses. As employee size increases, the report found the thrust on information security also rises. Even for basic security solutions, upper segment midsize businesses (500 to 999 employees) lead the way in terms of technology adoption.

Adoption of network firewall and IDS/IPS shows significant growth among businesses in this category. On one hand, the growth rate of traditional security solutions such as anti-virus is falling; on the other hand, anti-spyware and anti-spam solutions will record growth rates of nearly 26 percent among Indian SMBs this year.

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Fluke Networks has expressed desire to acquire AirMagnet. The acquisition of AirMagnet is expected to create a global leader in the fast growing area of Wi-Fi testing and further strengthen Fluke Networks' worldwide leadership in test and analysis for networks, regardless of media type. Terms of the agreement will not be disclosed. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.

AirMagnet provides industry-leading products that allow enterprise IT organizations to ensure the availability, performance, security and compliance of wireless LAN infrastructure so that business applications can function without interruption. The company's innovative products include AirMagnet Enterprise, the leading 24x7 WLAN security and performance management solution; AirMagnet Wi-Fi Analyzer, a widely adopted Wi-Fi troubleshooting tool; as well as AirMagnet Survey, AirMagnet Spectrum Analyzer, AirMagnet Planner and AirMedicT.

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In August 2009, ZyXEL celebrated its 20 years of success in the network equipment market. To link the past to present, ZyXEL is launching a competition to find the owners of the oldest ZyXEL products in different regions. All contenders for the title of "Owner of the Oldest ZyXEL Product" will have to do is to take some photos of themselves, products and products’ serial numbers, and submit them to the ZyXEL forum (http://forum.zyxel.com/viewforum.php?f=80). Any accompanying anecdotes are welcome! Whether the product is still in working condition or it's already being exhibited in a computer museum (!), ZyXEL will be happy to hear from the owner. As a reward to illustrate how far ZyXEL has come over the years, a bundle of ZyXEL's latest multimedia products from digital media adapter to network storage to Powerline adapters will be the prize for the lucky winner.

To mark this anniversary, ZyXEL has developed a unique 20th anniversary logo which, with its migrating geese soaring skyward, symbolizes our "Connecting the Future" catchphrase and depicts corporate values such as cooperation and courage, factors that have contributed to ZyXEL's success. It also portrays the company’s determination to continue leading the market by consistently innovating network technology.

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F-Secure Corporation reaffirms their commitment to expand reach in Bangladesh by partnering with AKCEYCOM LIMITED, a joint venture company between A K Khan & Co. Ltd of Bangladesh and Ceylinco consolidated of Sri Lanka. F-Secure recently announced the company to be an authorized security service partner to introduce F-Secure service platform for consumer standard into the market targeting the small businesses and consumers in Bangladesh via its Security as a Service (SaaS) business model with AKCEYCOM LIMITED.

“Brand building today is different from what it used to be. We believe partnering with a strong innovative market leader such as AKCEYCOM LIMITED will be a vital key for our success to significantly expand our business here in this region,” says Venu Palakirti, F-Secure’s sales director for India and SAARC region.

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Tez Networks announces that it has entered into an alliance with Coyote Point Systems Inc., the leading provider of application acceleration and load balancing solutions for mid-market companies, to distribute Coyote Point's Equalizer family of load balancers and application acceleration solutions in India.

Delip Singh, Managing Director, Tez Networks, says, “With the vast deployment of Web-based applications and a growing need to keep these applications continuously up, we see an opportunity to take the leadership in the application acceleration and load balancing space. Companies cannot afford breakdowns of critical applications or websites. They need a delivery platform which eliminates single points of failure and provides high availability and disaster recovery.”

As per the alliance, Tez Networks will be responsible for sales & marketing of Coyote Point products in India. Tez Networks will develop VARs, Solution Providers, SIs and channel partners in the country for the principal company, enabling them with the skill sets necessary for selling Coyote’s technology products and supporting them thereafter. The company will embark upon an expansive training program for local resellers educating them about the technology and pre- and post-sales aspects of the solutions.

The distribution partnership extends the existing business relationship between Tez and Coyote Point. Tez Solutions, Tez Networks’ services arm has worked with Coyote Point for several years to add functionality to Coyote Point’s products and to provide Q/A services. As a result, Tez is well familiar with Coyote Point’s technology.

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Sunbelt Software announced a licensing agreement with FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions enabling the safe use of Web 2.0 and unified communications in the enterprise.
Through the terms of the agreement, Sunbelt's anti-malware technology, designed specifically for the gateway, and its Threat Track data feeds have been licensed by FaceTime for integration with its Unified Security Gateway product. As part of the integration, FaceTime will deploy Sunbelt's VIPRE technology into its appliance to augment the protection provided by FaceTime's Security Labs and the FaceTime WebFilter.

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Fortinet has acquired certain assets and intellectual property of Woven Systems, formerly a provider of Ethernet fabric switching solutions for the high-performance computing market. Woven's high-speed switching and sophisticated traffic management technology will be used to further enhance the performance of Fortinet's FortiGate-5000 Series chassis-based security solutions.

Among Woven's family of Ethernet switching products is one of the world's smallest, densest and highest-performing 10 GbE switches, which attributes its speed to a custom-designed switching ASIC with unique traffic management capabilities. Fortinet intends to combine Woven's technology with its own custom network and content processors for increased scalability, which will bring about additional acceleration of security throughput for its FortiGate-5000 Series appliances. Increased switching power in the chassis-based product means communications within and between security blades will happen at greater speeds and result in overall superior scalability and performance for Fortinet's high-end customers, including large enterprises, carriers and service providers.

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Thoma Bravo, LLC, has completed the acquisition of Entrust. This follows approval of the transaction by Entrust shareholders during a special shareholders meeting held recently. Entrust shareholders will receive $2.00 per share for each share of common stock they hold. The resulting transaction represents a total equity value of approximately $124 million.

"We could not be more excited to partner with Entrust's existing management team in this investment," said Scott Crabill, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. "We look forward to supporting the company as it continues to provide its customer base with world class products."

"The Entrust board, executives, management and employees are equally excited about the positive stockholder vote and the new direction for the Entrust brand," said Entrust president and CEO Bill Conner. "Together with Thoma Bravo, Entrust will continue to innovate, provide leadership and secure our customers with solutions that are not only proven across the globe, but affordable and easy to use."
Despite volatile market conditions, Thoma Bravo continues to complete software-related transactions, including three software platform investments and 12 add-on acquisitions, totaling more than $525 million since the beginning of 2008.

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eScan, the 1st global packaged brand in Information Security from India has signed up with Technocrat India Pvt. Ltd. as its regional distributor for the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and North-East. With this latest addition eScan has now extended its reach in Eastern India which is a major market for the company.

“We are very happy about our collaboration with Technocrat as this alliance marks our third collaboration just three months from April 2009 to August 2009. The second quarter of financial year 2009 has seen an exceptional growth in our pan-India expansion. After having reached out to Gujarat & South India, we wanted to strengthen our presence in Eastern part of the country. We are confident that eScan’s association with Technocrat will assist in increasing its reach to every user across the SOHO & SMB segment, which is a strong focus area for us,” explained Mr. Sunil Kripalani, Vice President – Global Sales & Marketing, MicroWorld.

eScan, the flagship product of MicroWorld, and has received several acclaims both in the domestic and international market like the AV Comparative, Virus Bulletin, Checkmark and PC Security Labs to name a few. With the introduction of ERS (eScan Remote Support), eScan is today one of the most popular brands even in the tier II and III cities as this feature allows eScan to provide fast and efficient solutions to customers. The solution is also sought after by consumers for its user friendly interfaces, robust technology and reliable solutions.

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Alcatel-Lucent and Bharti Airtel Limited announced the appointment of Arnaud Soubelet as the CEO of their joint venture Alcatel-Lucent Network Management Services India Ltd (ALNMSI).

The joint venture will manage Bharti Airtel’s pan India wireline broadband and telephone services. It will also support their transition to next generation networks (NGN) to offer advanced services like high-speed internet, triple play, media-rich value-added services, MPLS, virtual private networks (VPN) for both retail and business customers of Airtel. The new entity which began pan India operations on August 1st with 4,000 employees, is headquartered in NCR (National Capital Region).

“I am delighted to be part of Alcatel-Lucent Network Managed Services India. This joint venture is a landmark being the first managed services operations for fixed networks in India”, said Arnaud Soubelet, CEO ALNMSI. “This is a great step towards transforming Bharti Airtel’s network to next generation IP technology while improving the quality of service. By driving superior service for Bharti Airtel’s customers, we are looking to establish the new joint venture as the reference for wire line managed services and IP transformation.”

Arnaud Soubelet began his career with Alcatel-Lucent in 1988. Over the last 20 years, he has held several key assignments in France, Latin America, Greece, Egypt and India across sales, enterprises and managed services. Arnaud holds post graduate degrees in business administration and business law from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

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Quick Heal Technologies (P) Ltd. has informed that Quick Heal has received Virus Bulletin's acclaimed VB100% award for successfully detecting all the viruses "In-The-Wild" during comparative testing of AntiVirus products. This is the 27th VB100% award secured by Quick Heal and the 20th on Microsoft Windows platform. This is the 4th award on Microsoft Windows Vista Operating System.
 
This test was conducted on Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition SP2 and its review is published in August 2009 issue of Virus Bulletin magazine, UK.

"The achievement of Quick Heal in such stringent test is the result of dedicated and sincere efforts by the entire Quick Heal team and the encouragement given by our customers and well wishers. The consistency in the quality of the products and services has increased the faith of our users in our company. We will take all measures to maintain this faith" says Sanjay Katkar, CTO, Quick Heal Technologies (P) Ltd.

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LifeLock and Symantec Corp. announced a strategic partnership to offer American consumers online and offline security and identity protection through promotionally-priced product bundles, educational outreach and a united effort to lobby for stronger penalties for identity thieves.

“Today’s malware has become more intrusive, more stealth and more focused on financial gain and there are a variety of ways cyber criminals can compromise your identity and finances in the real world,” said Janice Chaffin, group president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “Online security is a great first line of defense, but the best offline offense is to guard your identity, your money and your credit with identity theft protection. In partnership with LifeLock, we want to provide consumers with the tools they need to better safeguard themselves in both worlds."

“You, your identity and your financial information are more vulnerable than ever before, and people need to protect themselves and their wallets no matter if they’re in a crowded public place or shopping online from home,” said Todd Davis, LifeLock CEO. “Symantec and LifeLock represent two sides of the security and identity protection coin and we feel that in combining our core competencies, we have a unique solution to an increasingly alarming problem.”

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WatchGuard Technologies announced that it acquired privately-held BorderWare Technologies of Toronto, Canada. BorderWare Technologies is a leading e-mail and Web security content and threat management platform provider for mid-sized enterprises, government and service providers.

"This acquisition is extremely complementary and will allow WatchGuard to accelerate and further deliver on its vision of extending security solutions to protect corporate data, networks and applications," said Joe Wang, CEO, WatchGuard Technologies. "By acquiring BorderWare’s best in class messaging, content security and innovative ‘in-the-cloud’ security offerings, customers will now have a single source for comprehensive and complete security."

No immediate changes will be made to BorderWare product offerings, customer support and channel programs. Future new products from WatchGuard or BorderWare will be announced upon their availability. Both WatchGuard Technologies and BorderWare Technologies are privately held. Terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. BorderWare was founded in 1994 and has 90 employees.

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