Networking giant Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is buying Neohapsis, a small but high-profile privately held Chicago firm as part of its continuing strategy to offer more security-related services. It’s at least the third major acquisition Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) has made in the security space over the past two years.

Cisco earlier this year picked RTP as a hub for its threat offerings. Last July, Cisco made its boldest move, acquiring Sourcefire in a deal valued at $2.4 billion.

And the offerings are already producing $1 billion a year for Cisco just over a year after launch, according to Network World. 

IDG news service described the deal as “a classic ‘aqui-hire’ intended to bring an experienced team at Neohapsis into the Cisco fold. Neohapsis President and CEO James Mobley and other key players in the 57-employee company came from @stake, a security firm acquired by Symantec in 2004.” 

IDG noted that in 2013 Neohapsis “demonstrated a potential IPv6 attack against Windows 8 PCs that would let attackers intercept all web traffic on a network.”

Neohapsis already has Fortune 500 clients, according to Cisco.

The firm advises clients on “evolving information security, risk management, and compliance challenges,” wrote Hilton Romanski,
Cisco’s head of business development, in a blog about the deal. He noted that Neohapsis offers a variety of “risk management, compliance, cloud, application, mobile, and infrastructure security solutions.”

Why make this latest deal?

Romanski wrote: 

“Today, businesses are looking at security in a strategic, comprehensive way to protect mission critical processes and assets. There has never been a greater need to understand the impact that security threats can have on a company’s bottom line. For these reasons, experienced security advice is now among the table stakes required to assess and address the threat landscape that faces enterprises today. The skills and capabilities companies need to maintain a strong security posture, keep pace with rapidly evolving threats and take full advantage of new technologies that can protect their businesses are rare and difficult to retain.

“The right advisory service can change all of that.”

The Neohapsis group will become part of Cisco Security Services, which is run by Bryan Palma.

Financial terms were not disclosed.