Data security giant McAfee has bought a young Tel Aviv startup, Onigma, for somewhere between $15 million to $25 million cash, surmise hi-tech circles.

McAfee will be integrating the Onigma technology in its enterprise security solution, and will be recruiting dozens more Israeli developers for the startup, which will become a local R&D center.

Onigma was founded in December 2004 by Amir Sadeh, Ishay Green and Liad Agmon, three “graduates” of the technology division of the Israeli army intelligence forces. The company is run by Jim Penosky, who hailed from the OnDemand Partners consultancy.

The startup was devoted to a new area in data security: DLP, or Data Leakage Prevention from an enterprise servers.

Within days, the Onigma technology will be available via all McAfee outlets worldwide.

The technology enables the company to monitor all its workers and ensure they do not send confidential information beyond the enterprise boundaries, whether via Internet or external memory storage devices.

Among the company’s investors are the founders of Excellence-Nessuah, Gil Deutsch and Roni Biran.

Via e-mail from Raphael Fogel