"Businesses understand attacks on their mission-critical applications can hit their bottom line unexpectedly and with grave results," said Novell chairman and CEO Jack Messman as he today announced that Novell has acquired Immunix, Inc., a leading provider of host-based application security solutions for Linux.

Immunix is the creator of AppArmor, widely regarded as one of the most effective and easy-to-use Linux application security systems. The new product will henceorth be called "Novell AppArmor powered by Immunix."

Novell has long been committed to enterprise-class security: SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 was the first commercial Linux distribution to support Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) and to receive Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+) certification

"Novell customers will sleep better at night knowing their applications are protected," Messman continued. "Only Novell AppArmor provides an enterprise-class security system for Linux that is easy to implement, deploy and maintain."

Immunix, founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1998, was instrumental in the development of the security architecture of the Linux kernel and has close ties with the Linux development community. "Security is our passion, not just our profession," said Crispin Cowan, CTO and co-founder of Immunix. "Our engineers were able to use their substantial and specialized IT experience to produced the Immunix core host-based Linux security technology. We are excited to be joining forces with Novell and gaining the ability to provide our solution to a global market."