BT buys net security firm

BRITISH TELECOM says it bought US firm Counterpane Internet Security Inc. yesterday, to step up its defences against naughty hackers.

Counterpane is in the software bouncer business and stations its virtual doorman around the networks of some 550 of the richest companies about. BT reckons it can make a few bob in that business. Sounds a bit like double glazing for Windows.

It wouldn't say how much it forked up for the firm although a star gazer Reuters claims to have consulted suggested around $40 million. With annual sales of around $20 million, our own financial tea leaves suggest a bit more than that.

The firm's biggest claim to fame is that its founder and chief technology guru Bruce Schneier got a name check in the multi million-selling Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

That was for being a clever cryptologist. Not for jumping out of a aeroplane into the Tiber using his underpants as a parachute. µ

L'INQ
Reuters