Israeli Software Company Faces U.S. Probe

Many Malaysian companies, government agencies and organisations use network security technology products developed by Check Point Software but many of us did not realize it is an Israel company. US government is trying to probe and block an acquisition attempt by Checkpoint over SourceFire the commercial entity of the popular Snort, open source Network Intrusion Detection System (IDS).

I was reading this story from Forbes online minutes ago and one the interesting fact about this is in the 3rd para, reads:

"The objections by the FBI and Pentagon were partly over
specialized intrusion detection software known as "Snort,"
which guards some classified U.S. military and intelligence
computers."

Now, replace U.S. with Malaysia and FBI/Pentagon with equivalent Malaysian agencies, you may (start) to appreciate the potential danger.

Why am I writing this?

If you are involved in the procurement process in your organization, please be careful when buying network security products. If you are buying (indirectly) from Israel, you are also indirectly funding Israel killing the lives of our innocent fellow Palestine brothers. You can actually say the same to US and other allies, but Israel is worst. If you have watched or going to watch it again, in "The Net" (cast: Sandra Bullock), pay close attention to the "Gatekeeper" related scenes and you will soon realize the potential threats. Please note that I'm not saying anything against the Jews, so don't equate me with someone else :)

What can you do?

Buy products from neutral countries. There are a lot out there, although Israel may produce good ones (due to the nature of constant security threats) but there are better ones. Even better if you use credible open source products.

Something to ponder and think...