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VMware loses top security researcher as well!

Well these are rather grim news from a security standpoint. VMware's Determina's acquisition and its rather dubious Bluelane acquisition, where no one apparantly made any profit, are putting VMware under solid pressure.

I really don't know if all this is because of the restructuring within VMware or merely that some other shift is going to happen. VMware surely is on some rather contradictory paths given that it is under tremendous pressure from the security community to provide some solid answers around Security and Compliance. VMware has made progress around the PCI DSS participation but strategically it is on the losing side.

Bluelane's acquisition has left a lot of people with some bitter taste in their mouths. Speaking to a Bluelane employee, who wished anonymity, there was a lot at play since Feb 2008. during Cannes VMworld, some sort of deal was struck to buy Bluelane, VMware too placed its bets but didn't end up committing till the very end. Bluelane languished and suffered. With the discontinuation of the Bluelane products, yes all the products are discontinued according to this Bluelane employee, there is very little to comprehend from this deal.

Anyways, here's another one:

The company also lost one of its key product security experts in Sotirov, who is well-known for his work with Mark Dowd on bypassing memory protection mechanisms in Windows Vista through browser exploits. Sotirov’s last day at VMWare is Dec. 2. Like Mulchandani, Sotirov landed at VMWare through the Determina deal, though he’s best known in the security community for his personal research on the browser exploits and other projects. Sotirov said he hasn’t decided on his next destination yet.


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