Consolidation in IT security continued last week as Secure Computing announced a $273.6m deal to merge with CipherTrust, and SurfControl bought BlackSpider Technologies.

Secure Computing acquired firewall and content-filtering company CyberGuard in January this year. Once CipherTrust’s TrustedSource technology is on board, it aims to deliver the industry’s first system integrating reputation-based firewall/unified threat management, web gateway and identity and access control, said chief executive John McNulty in a statement.

Secure Computing’s Andrew Clarke said CipherTrust’s IronMail email security appliances, which guard against inbound threats and prevent sensitive data being sent out, will be a good fit with his firm’s current offerings. “It will make the decisions of prospective customers a lot easier because they will now be able to build up a relationship with a single vendor,” Clarke added.

Andrew Kellett of analyst Butler Group said the merger would be well-received by IT buyers wanting to reduce the number of vendors they deal with. But the two firms will need to integrate CipherTrust’s technology swiftly to compete in the fast-moving secure messaging market, he added.

Meanwhile, web and email filtering specialist SurfControl has acquired on-demand security services firm BlackSpider Technologies. The deal will help SurfControl meet the growing demand for managed services and extend protection for web, email and desktop-based threats in the network and beyond, the firm said.