IBM buys Watchfire; collects another security firm

IBM said Wednesday that it would acquire privately held Watchfire, a security and compliance testing software company.

The acquisition, expected to close in the third quarter, comes not that long after IBM bought ISS for $1.3 billion last summer. Terms of the Watchfire purchase weren’t disclosed.

In a statement, IBM said:

Watchfire technology will extend IBM’s governance and risk management strategy, with broad security and compliance capabilities integrated into the software development lifecycle. Watchfire with IBM Rational software will help customers integrate web application security and compliance early on and throughout the software development process. As a result, customers will now be able to define, test and track the compliance of their applications with security, legal and corporate requirements.

In a nutshell IBM is saying that it wants to increasingly build security into processes and software development. Not a bad idea for sure. With Watchfire, IBM can better cater to customers worried about internal attacks.

IBM’s security lineup now includes Watchfire, ISS and IBM Tivoli’s identity, access and compliance software.

Watchfire will be folded into IBM’s Rational unit.