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Cisco To Acquire IoT Company Jasper For $1.4 Billion (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the no-more-thingless-internet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Cisco has announced its intention to spend $1.4 billion purchasing startup Jasper Technologies, Inc. which specialises in IoT connectivity. It's the most significant acquisition the tech multinational has made since its purchase of Wi-Fi manufacturer Meraki in 2012. In 2015 Cisco also acquired OpenDNS for $635 million, and with the Jasper acquisition seems committed to securing a major foothold in IoT infrastructure over the next five years.

25 comments

  1. Awesome ... by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    This should guarantee the IoT continues to have no security for the foreseeable future ... cloud-based IoT management should provide me hours of entertainment to laugh at the idiots buying this shit and getting pwned.

    Cisco estimated that the Internet of Everything represents a $19 trillion opportunity over the next decade

    All those suckers, waiting to be fleeced. The mind reels.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Because the company that basically built the internet infractructure as we know it doesn't understand security? LOL. That kind of shit might fly sitting around playing minecraft with your geek buddies, but the reality is there probably is no other company as qualified to make sure it is done correctly. Fail.

    2. Re:Awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You're either a shill or naive. Either way, You're worng

    3. Re:Awesome ... by gstoddart · · Score: 2

      but the reality is there probably is no other company as qualified to make sure it is done correctly. Fail.

      You keep telling yourself that, and I'll keep expecting the security of IoT to continue to be shit.

      Until there are legal penalties, nothing is really going to change.

      This is just more monetization and leveraging of synergies. That shit doesn't magically create security.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Awesome ... by Junta · · Score: 1

      At least parts of it have been woefully embarrassingly bad at security. Note also that a great deal of presumed secure infrastructure/enterprise stuff has some of the most laughable actual security practices. This is not just Cisco mind you.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    5. Re:Awesome ... by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      The security of a cloud platform right now depends on whether the creators of the cloud platform care for security, and whether they know what they are doing. Google for example does both, their security is one of the best in the industry. And for IOT devices, usually one of the two criteria is wrong.

      My major issue with IoT is about giving up control over my things to different entities. That's unfortunately what the term "IoT" stands for, even though "internet" is in theory a neutral medium without centralist "cloud" authorities.

    6. Re:Awesome ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      No, the major issue with IoT is it's pointless marketing hype designed to sell products, and security (if any) is tacked on as an afterthought.

      The security of the cloud will continue to be irrelevant if the security of the damned products is non-existent.

      And for the next several years (at least) you should assume the security of IoT products was written by incompetent morons under the guidance of indifferent management ... because that's pretty much what we have now.

      If you can access your home from a cell phone, chances are someone else can too.

      Until companies face major fines, or CEOs get thrown in jail, security of internet connected devices will continue to suck.

      Me, I'll continue to not buy this crap, and laugh my ass off as people keep learning just how badly done the security is.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    7. Re:Awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Taking into account that most of their engineers don't know their own (sometimes broken) protocols, that doesn't surprise me.

    8. Re:Awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, do you mean the internet infrastructure that we hear - EVERY.SINGLE.FARKING.DAY - has security problems oozing out of its infected fundament?

      THAT internet infrastructure? Is that the one you mean?

      I just want it stated clearly, exactly WHO and WHAT we are talking about here.

      LOL@vword: crooks

    9. Re:Awesome ... by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      Yeah, because as we all know back doors don't exist in Cisco routers... oh wait

      Well, at least their Linksys products have never been exploited... oh darn

      Hmm, I am sure that their Call Manager has never been... damn it!

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    10. Re:Awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging by the comments most people don't have a clue what Jasper does. But hey, this is slashdot and since when has that been a requirement.

  2. And another sprung up to take its place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, IoT isn't a thing. Some millenial douchebro Zuckerberg wannabe just scored.

    Also, not that I ever used OpenDNS, but knowing they're owned by Cisco, now I never will. They're becoming the same IP-Borg that IBM has become. No thanks.

    1. Re:And another sprung up to take its place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, IoT isn't a thing. Some millenial douchebro Zuckerberg wannabe just scored.

      It won't be a thing, not after the big .io bubble blasted. But until then, happy bubble enlarging!

    2. Re:And another sprung up to take its place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Resistance is futile.

    3. Re:And another sprung up to take its place by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IoT certainly isn't so ubiquitous that you can use the acronym in the summary without expanding it. I understand why it would move so quickly to an acronym, since saying "internet of things" sounds stupid, which it is.

    4. Re:And another sprung up to take its place by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      What about capacitance?

  3. Jay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    mandatory maintenance contracts for each of my 300 IoT devices, and mandatory support via a CIsco certified business partner with Cisco certified engineers, just to be able to download the security updates.

    The future is bright.

  4. Fun/Sad Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did you know that, as well as openDNS, Cisco has acquired and virtually abandoned:

    SpamCop.net - 2007
    Snort - 2013
    ClamAV - 2013

    All great projects when Cisco bought them and now circling the drain.

    1. Re:Fun/Sad Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Definitely a sad fact. I had no idea ClamAV even could be bought. I thought it was a free open source project. So what exactly has cisco done to it?

    2. Re:Fun/Sad Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ClamAV is free open source. But, like so many open source projects they depend on corporations to fund on going development and, in the case of ClanAV, signature updates and detection improvement.

      ClamAV was first acquired by Snort's company, SourceFire. SourceFire was then acquired by Cisco, making both Snort and ClamAV Cisco "funded" projects, if not outright properties.

      Cisco doesn't really care about open source, beyond what open source can do for Cisco, so there's little if any funding from Cisco and these projects are just languishing. My sample submissions to SpamCop and ClamAV take weeks or months to show up in the blocking/detection by these product, if they ever show up.

  5. More Likely by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The more likely outcome;

    A new Linksys cloudy home automation portal for $5 per month.
    No updates to buggy IoT firmware, ever.
    And the whole thing gets abandoned in two years.

  6. No one wants to put their refrigerator on the net by bigsexyjoe · · Score: 2

    Can we just shut up about IOT already? And if it was a thing we'd already talking about IOT 2.0: the semantic things.

    --
    Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
  7. There was a more significant acquision in 2013 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In 2013, Cisco acquired SourceFire for 2.7 Billion. I'd say that one was more significant.