US anti-virus software firm Symantec has agreed to buy web security firm Messagelabs for $695m (£401.2m).

And this at a time when the global economy is plummiting in to free fall. Still nice to see such confidence in the Security Market. Only within the last few weeks our favourite Secure Computing announced that it was allowing itself to be acquired by McAfee.

It would appear that both acquisitions have similar aspirations in one respect. Symantec have purchased Messaglabs to help them exploit "in the cloud" managed email filtering systems, which is where Secure Computing have been heading with their email system SecureMail (formerly IronMail) and their Web filter SecureWeb (formerly Webwasher). Just to finish with Secure Computing they also have Secure Firewall (formerly SideWinder) and SafeWord which they have just sold to Alladin.

I hope you're taking notes.

With the acquisition of Secure by McAfee we at Net-Ctrl are hoping for a change of product names from the Secure stable. For example SeureFirewall could become McFirewall, and SecureMail could become McMail. You get the idea. I guess this means we'll have to wear badges with stars! We are though looking forward to increased awareness of the Secure products which are world class and we are sure that McAfee will help build the brand and make it more widely accepted.

As always, if you require more information on Security issues and products please contact us on 01473 281 211 or email sales@net-ctrl.com.