Vanguard launches fed subsidiary

Computer security firm Vanguard Integrity Professionals on Thursday announced

the launch of Vanguard Federal Systems to market advanced security solutions

and services to the federal government.

Vanguard Federal, a wholly owned subsidiary of its parent company, will

build off VIP's current federal customers, which include NASA, the Defense

Information Systems Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the Agriculture

Department, according to the company.

In conjunction with the announcement, Vanguard, Orange, Calif., named

Robert Filler as director of federal systems. Before joining the new company,

Filler worked for IBM Corp. for 11 years in sales and management roles.

Prior to that, he was a flight officer, instructor and division officer

in the Navy.

Filler said the plan to launch a federal subsidiary had been in the

works for the past six months to a year, and he formally signed on in August.

He expects Vanguard Federal, which will be based in Las Vegas, to have at

least five or six full-time employees by the end of the year, with plans

for expanding that team in the near future.

"The idea is to go after a number of federal agencies to expand our

market," Filler said. "We've been working with federal agencies for a number

of years but had never gone out to establish a formal federal division.

This shows we're more serious about doing business with the government and

are going to make a concerted effort to go after that business."

Vanguard's security software products run on several hardware platforms,

including mainframe, Unix, AS/400 and Microsoft Corp. Windows NT. The company

also offers security consulting and training.