Symantec Acquires Israeli Endpoint Security Firm Fireglass

Cyber security giant Symantec has agreed to acquire Israeli-based firm Fireglass for an undisclosed sum to boost its user protection and endpoint security offerings.

Fireglass possesses an agentless isolation platform which sits in between user’s devices and the web and executes potentially malicious content remotely to block ransomware, malware and phishing threats in real-time.

This way, the content is stopped from ever reaching user endpoints or the corporate network, thereby reducing the attack surface and improving cyber security.

Endpoint security

By protecting email, messaging and web browsing, Fireglass’ platform means users are covered even when they click on a dodgy link as all harmful sites and content is executed securely within a separate environment.

The tools is available as a cloud service, on premises, or in a hybrid model to help reduce the burden on a company’s IT and security teams.

“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 spread by web browsing or email content,” said Symantec CEO Greg Clark.

“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. Isolation is a key element of securing the cloud generation and is even a productivity gain for both the end user and security operations center.”

This acquisition follows on from Symantec’s purchase of identity theft company LifeLock in November for $2.3 billion (£1.9bn) to boost its Norton consumer security division.

More recently the company has clashed with Google over an alleged series of failures to “properly validate certificates”, which Symantec responded to by describing the claims as “exaggerated and misleading”.

Quiz: Cyber security in 2017!