HP Expands Security Practice

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday expanded its security practice to include a wider variety of services that company officials hope will help it compete with the legions of other practitioners in this market.

The HP Global Security Consulting Practice will now offer services such as security strategy and policy development, risk and vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, firewall functionality assessment, and security integration services.

With this move, HP joins a market for high-end security services that is already quite crowded with the likes of @stake Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers and others.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company also announced that it has hired a group of employees from Internet Security Advisors Group, a small boutique consulting firm and one of HPs partners. ISAGs former head, Ira Winkler, has joined HP as chief strategist of the North American Security Consulting practice.

Winkler is a former National Security Agency employee and a well-known writer on network security topics.

HP has also created a security services center in Bellevue, Wash., that will perform security research, assessment and penetration testing. The center will open in November.