Security giant McAfee is to acquire banking and retail software firm Solidcore Systems in a $33m (£21.8m) deal which will give the firm cutting edge whitelisting capabilities and access to the embedded devices market.

Solidcore protects over 200,000 endpoints, including point-of-sale systems, multifunction printers, ATMs, mobile and other embedded devices. Its customers in over 40 countries comprise more than 100 financial institutions and more than 15,000 retail stores.

The whitelisting software ensures that only pre-authorised technology runs on the server, endpoint, mobile or other device. After the acquisition, McAfee said that the combination of these capabilities with its own compliance mapping and policy auditing would provide customers with an end-to-end compliance solution.

Customers will also be able to manage the technology via McAfee's centralised ePolicy Orchestrator console, easing the admin burden.

McAfee chief executive Dave DeWalt said that the acquisition would help the security giant further strengthen its position as leader in the lucrative endpoint security market.

"Solidcore's industry-leading compliance and protection solutions will extend the current McAfee security portfolio beyond signature-based anti-malware with the addition of dynamic whitelisting and application trust technology," he said.

"Combined with leading McAfee anti-virus, anti-spyware, host intrusion prevention, policy auditing and firewall technologies, we will help customers more easily mitigate the risks associated with vulnerable or malicious applications downloaded by employees."

McAfee said that it would pay an additional $14m (£9.2m) if certain performance targets were met.