By buying Protego Networks Monday, Cisco Systems bolstered its growing portfolio of security products, an increasingly important piece of its networking strategy.Protego makes hardware and software that can spot and respond to threats on computer networks. Cisco plans to use Protego’s technology to boost its Self-Defending Networking initiative, a program to use Cisco technology to help administrators spot, isolate and fix network security problems, including viruses and worms, IDG News Service said.The move is in line with Cisco’s belief in the development of more self-managing, self-configuring networks, David Passmore, research director at the Burton Group, said. “Cisco’s focus is on the network itself being self-defending so switches and routers themselves can detect if they are under attack,” said Passmore.Security management is increasingly becoming part of enterprise management strategies rather than as standalone product.“To a large extent (security) it is tied to network infrastructure,” Passmore said. “Historically, network people are not he security people. However, a lot of the security functionality is migrating into the networks as higher performance is required. You can monitor attacks more efficiently because right there in the middle of the (data) flow.” Technology Industry