[ISN] Microsoft to buy Sybari

[InfoSec News]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2005/0207/web-sybari-02-08-05.asp

By Rutrell Yasin 
Feb. 8, 2005

Microsoft officials are moving into the virus protection business with
an agreement to buy Sybari Software, a provider of anti-virus
software.

Company officials are counting on the acquisition to further provide
enterprise customers with new solutions to protect them from malicious
software. Microsoft officials bought Giant Company Software in
December to protect Windows users from spyware and other deceptive
software. The purchase of Sybari will aid in protecting messaging and
collaboration servers from viruses, worms and spam, Microsoft
officials said.

"Enterprise customers face a complex set of attacks through their
e-mail and collaboration infrastructure," said Mike Nash, corporate
vice president of the Security Business Technology Unit at Microsoft,
in a prepared statement.

"Through this acquisition, we're excited to be able to provide
customers with a server-level anti-virus solution that delivers
advanced file and content-filtering capabilities and the use of
multiple scan engines," he said. Nash added that this will give users
"the most up-to-date protection possible."

By being embedded within the server infrastructure it protects, Sybari
Software provides an additional layer of messaging defense, stopping
threats before they reach end users, Microsoft officials said.

In addition, a single Sybari Software product will work with multiple
versions of Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. So when users migrate
from one version to the next or deploy multiple versions long term,
they can achieve lower maintenance and support costs, officials said.  
Sybari also offers solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.

Terms of the acquisition were not announced. Sybari will maintain all
current operations until regulatory approval.

Microsoft's move to strengthen virus protection for messaging and
collaboration servers does not mean that enterprise customers won't
need e-mail and messaging security solutions that offer a broader
range of protection, according to officials at Symantec Corp., a
leading provider of security management software. Organizations will
still need integrated solutions that include scanning, filtering,
archiving and recovery over heterogeneous networks, Symantec officials
said.

The Sybari "technology may help Microsoft help their customers more
easily integrate antivirus solutions with Exchange, but still requires
the scanning engines and support infrastructure from third party
antivirus and antispam vendors," according to a statement issued by
Symantec officials.

"This acquisition does not provide Microsoft with the security and
antivirus response infrastructure necessary to support the virus
protection needs of enterprise customers. Detection is only as strong
as the best engine plugged into the solution," the Symantec statement
reads.