Internet security firm Secure Computing is to acquire CipherTrust in a $273.6m move, to add secure messaging capabilities to its growing portfolio, and position itself as a leader in gateway security.

The deal comes just months after Secure Computing acquired firewall and content-filtering specialist CyberGuard. Secure Computing’s chief executive, John McNulty, said in a statement that with CipherTrust’s reputation-based TrustedSource technology his firm aims to deliver the industry's first reputation-based firewall/unified threat management (UTM), web gateway and identity and access management system.

CipherTrust's IronMail email security appliances protect firms from inbound threats such as spam and viruses, and prevent sensitive data being sent out.

Secure Computing's vice-president of international marketing, Andrew Clarke, said this technology is a good fit with his firm’s current offerings. "It's very complementary to what we've been doing and 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," he said.

Clarke added that CipherTrust's chief executive, Jay Chaudhry, would become Secure Computing's chief strategy officer, while CipherTrust's chief technology officer, Paul Judge, would have the same position within Secure.

Andrew Kellett of analyst firm Butler Group said the consolidation of messaging and internet security is likely to be well-received by enterprise customers wanting to reduce the number of security vendors they deal with.

"It matches the messages coming out of the marketplace," Kellett said. " Secure Computing has good solid technology and it is acquiring an extensive range, as long as it doesn’t over-extend itself."

Kellett added that CipherTrust will need to ensure smooth progress in integrating CipherTrust's technology, or its rivals might gain a competitive advantage in the fast-moving secure messaging market.