EMC Acquires RSA Security

Deciding that security is essential to information management, EMC has acquired RSA Security to enhance its data storage and management offerings for financial institutions with a security portfolio.

EMC (Hopkinton, Mass.) will acquire RSA Security (Bedford, Mass.) for $2.1 billion to enhance its data storage and management offerings with a security portfolio. With high-profile data breeches becoming a greater concern for financial institutions, EMC found security essential to information management, according to Dave Farmer, director of public relations for EMC.

"Our Chairman and CEO, Joe Tucci, has been executing a strategic plan over the last three years to transform EMC from a company where data goes to a company that is focused on how information is managed and protected," says Dave Farmer. "We are taking advantage of RSA's technology to add to all of our hardware and software products."

EMC is placing a priority on applying access management, encryption and key management security to its information management and storage management products to help financial institutions meet regulatory compliance by managing data and access to that data throughout its lifecycle, according to a company source.

"Security is an implicit form of the relationship between people and data," Farmer comments. "Our intent is to embed security into every product we sell to protect attacks on the information itself and protect the identities of financial institutions."

The acquisition could be beneficial for insurers because meeting regulatory privacy requirements such as HIPAA and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act have become a major concern, according Donald Light of Celent (Boston). "Insurers need to do a better job of managing the accessibility and security of data, and there are serious legal consequences for not managing information properly," he says. "It will be interesting to see what the combination of the two providers' products will bring to the insurance industry."

The acquisition, which will close in the fourth quarter of this year, will rename RSA Security to EMC's Information Security Division. All 1,144 employees will remain employed, and business partners will be maintained. Art Coviello, RSA's CEO, will become an executive vice president of EMC and president of the division. "We will partner with those companies using RSA Security and carry over our brand," says Farmer.

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