Sourcefire

Sourcefire, Inc. was an American cybersecurity company founded in 2001 by Martin Roesch in San Diego, California. The company built commercial security products around Roesch's open-source Snort intrusion detection system, which had become a de facto standard in network security. Sourcefire offered hardware appliances and a management platform that integrated Snort with intrusion prevention, firewall capabilities, and threat intelligence.

Key products included the Sourcefire IPS (intrusion prevention system) appliances and the Defense Center, a centralized management console for configuring sensors, correlating events, and distributing Snort rules from the VRT. The company also maintained a threat intelligence ecosystem and professional services that supported Snort users.

In 2013, Cisco Systems acquired Sourcefire for approximately $2.7 billion to augment its security portfolio. After the acquisition, the Sourcefire line was integrated into Cisco's offerings, with Snort continuing as the underlying detection engine and with products rebranded under the Cisco Firepower brand. FirePOWER Services, Firepower Management Center, and later Cisco Secure Firewall products consolidated the IPS/NGFW functionality. The Sourcefire lineage contributed to Cisco's transition to next-generation firewall and advanced threat protection. The original open-source Snort project remains widely used and maintained through the Snort community and the broader Cisco security ecosystem.