Database outfit Oracle can't stop spending. The outfit has announced just a few months after inking a deal to buy Sun, it will acquire Secerno, which makes firewall products for databases that protect against hackers and data breaches.

It is not saying how much it paid for the outfit which should be sorted out in a month. Secerno is famous for creating DataWall, which controls how information in databases is accessed. DataWall monitors a database and blocks unauthorised access. DataWall uses what Secerno calls its Synoptiq engine, which "fingerprints the intent of all database requests and clearly and concisely shows exactly how an organization's data is accessed or changed." Synoptiq, designed to detect and stop attacks in real time, came from research done at Oxford University's Computing Laboratory.

Oracle clearly wants to step up its security portfolio as it tries to make itself into an IBM style hardware, software services outfit.