IBM has boosted its security offering with the acquisition of CrossIdeas

IBM, already the third biggest security vendor by revenue behind Symantec and Intel-owned McAfee, is looking to do even better with the acquisition of Italian security company CrossIdeas. Details of the acquisition has not been disclosed. CrossIdeas offers a portfolio of solutions that helps manage user access to applications and data, regardless of whether they are on-premise or in the cloud. Headquartered in Rome, the company was founded in 2011 and is already an IBM partner. IBM says that it adds “next generation identity and access governance capabilities to help mitigate access risks and segregation of duty violation” to its portfolio.

IBM has added to its security software portfolio with the purchase of Italian access control and identity management firm CrossIdeas for an undisclosed sum, the companies said Thursday. The company, already an IBM partner, provides tools to ensure that users can only access the applications and data permitted under corporate governance, regulatory compliance and business process rules, whether on-premises or in the cloud. One use for the tools is to enforce so-called segregation of duty controls, which ensure that staff are not given the power to police their own actions. As an example of how such rules might be violated, IBM cited a stock trader who, following a promotion, gains the power to approve trades while retaining the ability to enter trades from the previous role—and thus becoming able to conceal illicit trades from superiors. The CrossIdeas software can help auditors and managers to detect or correct such rules violations. The CrossIdeas software must be integrated with other systems, but the company provides some vendor-specific tools for simplifying this. For instance, it offers a special SAP version of its Access Risk Controls tools, which polices segregation-of-duties violations, while a partnership signed earlier this month with U.S. company Stealthbits extended the capabilities of business units to manage access to unstructured data stored on Microsoft SharePoint servers or in server file systems without intervention from central IT departments. IBM’s Security Identity Manager is also among the identity and access repositories that CrossIdeas’ software can integrate into its dashboards.