Snort mailing list archives

Re: [Emerging-Sigs] Cisco acquires Sourcefire ... should we be worried?


From: Kevin Ross <kevross33 () googlemail com>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:41:54 +0100

Yeah but with MARS it was pretty much an undeveloped product that didn't
really adapt to new threats. Though they certainly put the advertising out
there like in 24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3IeWw_vu9Q :)

So MARs really was dying and Cisco let it happen but I don't really see
Snort dying anytime soon and hopefully Cisco's acquisition will allow for
integration into their products (I would much rather have Snort IPS running
on ASA firewalls that the Cisco IPS software). Although for some reason I
get the idea that Cisco's aquisition may have have more to do with FireAMP
than Snort and Cisco trying to build up their threat intelligence
capabilities like with they acquired the Prague based company Cognitive
Security
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac0/ac1/ac259/cognitivesecurity.html

Regards,
Kevin


On 23 July 2013 20:33, Joe Kraxner <joe () kraxner net> wrote:

Uh, they don't let them die? Ever heard of Protego Networks aka Cisco
MARS? ;)

I agree, I'm a bit concerned with Snort as well.

Sent from my Go-Go-Gadget Phone

On Jul 23, 2013, at 11:58 AM, Bad Horse <b4dh0rs3 () gmail com> wrote:

What a crazy random happenstance! Today I see the news that Cisco is
acquiring Sourcefire (
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac49/ac0/ac1/ac259/sourcefire.html).  I
know this will make the Sourcefire people a lot of money but honestly it
makes me concerned.

My primary worries center around the the traditional open source position
of Snort and Sourcefire (although some have questioned the open source
attitude of Sourcefire at times and I don't necessarily agree with them nor
do I wish to bring up that argument here).  But what will happen to Snort?
Cisco is extremely adroit at acquiring companies and leveraging them to
push their company forward.  Progress via acquisition? Yes. But Cisco
doesn't let the companies they buy just die, they use them to enhance their
position in the marketplace.  So I say again, what will happen to Snort and
the open source roots it grew from?

Obviously, Cisco will use Snort IDS in their products; Cisco currently has
an IDS offering which is weak and thus you have the Sourcefire buy.  So now
we can expect to see Snort as an integrated module in Cisco firewalls,
routers, and other networking equipment.

But will Snort remain open source?  What will happen to the rulesets?  The
mailing lists? Will the "community" that Joel has been trying to build be
put out to pasture?

I have to be honest ... today I just approved a purchase order for some
major hardware that the team will be using to evaluate Suricata (
http://suricata-ids.org/) and some other open source IDS/IPS solutions
such as Bro (http://www.bro.org/).  I am also investigating ET Pro (
http://www.emergingthreats.net/) as a source for high quality rulesets
and scheduling some PoCs with high ranking managed security services (MSS)
providers.  With the news about Cisco, the future of Snort is uncertain and
I need to be prepared (or be prepared to pay Cisco prices in a year or two
when they implement Snort which I'd rather not do if there are viable open
source alternatives).

I worry that Snort may become closed source in the near future and that
progress on the IDS engine will stall during the acquisition period.
Additionally, I fear that the vibrant Snort community will quickly dry up
if everything becomes closed source and you have to "pay to play".

Are my fears unfounded?  Or is Snort just going to get better?  I'd love
to see a press release saying that Cisco is committed to keeping Snort open
source although with a purchase price of $2.7B USD I'm not sure how much
Sourcefire cares right now since they are lounging on all that cash :)

-B4d H0rs3
 The Thoroughbred of SYN

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics
Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics
Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds.
Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today!
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
_______________________________________________
Snort-sigs mailing list
Snort-sigs () lists sourceforge net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/snort-sigs
http://www.snort.org


Please visit http://blog.snort.org for the latest news about Snort!

_______________________________________________
Emerging-sigs mailing list
Emerging-sigs () lists emergingthreats net
https://lists.emergingthreats.net/mailman/listinfo/emerging-sigs

Support Emerging Threats! Subscribe to Emerging Threats Pro
http://www.emergingthreats.net
The ONLY place to get complete premium rulesets for all versions of
Suricata and Snort 2.4.0 through Current!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How ServiceNow helps IT people transform IT departments:
1. Consolidate legacy IT systems to a single system of record for IT
2. Standardize and globalize service processes across IT
3. Implement zero-touch automation to replace manual, redundant tasks
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=51271111&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
_______________________________________________
Snort-sigs mailing list
Snort-sigs () lists sourceforge net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/snort-sigs
http://www.snort.org


Please visit http://blog.snort.org for the latest news about Snort!

Current thread: