As for buying from e-Security, MasterCard knew it was relying on a small vendor with about 80 employees, but it weighed the value of the product in comparison. 'E-Security's size was something we considered, but we decided we'd rather use a product which looks as if it has an extremely bright future,' McWhinnie said.

E-Security officials said the Sentinel server software costs US$89,000 with support for 20 devices. There is an added cost of $300 to $700 per network or security device.

According to Hamilton, e-Security competes primarily with Symantec Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. in the SIM market, which totaled about $350 million worldwide in 2005. That figure is expected to reach $700 million to $800 million in 2008.