Symantec [SYMC] on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire Fireglass, an Israel-based firm that will strengthen the company’s position in secure web gateway and email protection in local networks and the cloud.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close during the third quarter of 2017, were not disclosed. The company has 43 employees.
Fireglass provides a threat isolation platform isolates attack vectors such as web sites, emails and documents, thereby eliminating malware and phishing, it says on its website.
“Integrating Fireglass’ isolation technology with Symantec’s existing endpoint, email and secure web gateway solutions could reduce security events by as much as 70 percent, while virtually eliminating advanced threats caused by web browsing or email content,” Greg Clark, CEO of Symantec, said in a statement. “Isolation will become a core component in the design of cyber defense architectures for the cloud generation who face the reality of an encrypted Internet and the crisis inherent in email and web-delivered attacks. The ability for the security team to take an aggressive stance on unknown websites and questionable attachments without causing chaos for a company’s users and IT help desk is now a reality.”
Phishing attacks, which involve the sending of emails by cyber hackers and attackers, in an attempt to get recipients to click on links that open the way for the bad actors to get inside a targeted network, are a common attack vector. Fireglass, in a recent blog post, said that despite employee training for phishing awareness, “many employees are still not able to detect cleverly disguised spear-phishing emails,” particularly when they look “credible” such as in corporate communications and related documents.
The blog cites a recent study by Intel Security, which is now McAfee, saying that 97 percent of people can’t spot phishing emails.
Fireglass said the deal with Symantec means its technology will be available to a larger set of customers worldwide.
Fireglass doesn’t disclose its sales. The company introduced itself publicly in 2016 and in January it said that sales increased 400 percent versus 2015.