Intel-owned McAfee has acquired next-generation firewall maker Stonesoft for $389 million, the companies announced Monday.
The deal bolsters McAfee's network security portfolio, best known for its intrusion prevention system and traditional firewall technology.
Next-gen firewalls are a fast-growing segment of the IT security market. They go beyond the port-and-protocol focus of legacy firewalls by controlling applications with more granular visibility. This need has become more pronounced as traffic, both legitimate and malicious, increasingly becomes application-based.
