Check Point buys Zone to bolster endpoint security

Check Point Software is to buy Zone Labs, which makes software that can tell whether a remote machine meets security policies before allowing it to access a corporate VPN. The $205 million cash-and-stock deal is expected to close in the spring.

The software, called Integrity, will complement Check Point's VPN-1/Firewall-1 software that can set up VPNs over the Internet for individual computers making remote-access connections.

Businesses can prevent attacks that insecure machines might pass along by checking that remote machines have the proper operating system and patches, updated anti-virus software and a personal firewall that is turned on.

The boards of both companies have approved the deal and Zone is expected to become a division of Check Point when the deal closes.

The purchase falls in line with a roadmap Check Point Chairman Gil Shwed set out for the company last month. He said then that the company needed to address endpoint security and that Check Point might need to buy technology to meet its goals.

In addition to Integrity, Zone makes a personal firewall called ZoneAlarm. Its gear is used by other security vendors - Cisco, Enterasys, NetScreen (by acquiring Neoteris), NetScaler and Nortel among others -- as a way to check out whether remote PCs meet security policies. This overlaps with Check Point's Secure Remote, which includes a personal firewall.

Shwed says Integrity software can protect PCs connecting remotely via IPSec VPN and Secire Sockets Layer remote access and desktops on the LAN as well.

Zone Labs also makes Imsecure, software to screen instant messaging. 

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.