Symantec Corp., a cybersecurity company, is acquiring U.S.- and Israel-based Skycure, a provider of software for mobile threat defense. Following completion of the acquisition, Skycure’s predictive threat detection techniques will be added to Symantec’s enterprise and consumer mobility offerings to help organizations ensure that the devices used by an increasingly mobile workforce are risk-free and secure while accessing corporate resources.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second fiscal quarter of 2017.
According to Symantec, managed and unmanaged devices like tablets and smartphones are growing in prevalence and flooding the workplace, introducing new risk and vulnerabilities. Last year alone, Symantec says, its researchers discovered more than 600 new vulnerabilities on iOS and Android operating systems and mobile malware detections doubled to a total of 18.4 million. To help combat this, Skycure uses artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques to deliver a single, unified solution that proactively protects mobile devices across all major mobile operating systems, delivering unparalleled depth of threat intelligence to predict and detect the broadest range of threats.
Once Skycure is combined with Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform, Symantec’s customers will have access to endpoint protection offerings across traditional and mobile devices, with capabilities for mobile devices, applications, network gateways and data protection. To date, Symantec says, it has invested in mobile security through SEP Cloud and Norton Mobile product lines. The protection capabilities in those product lines will expand with this acquisition and puts Symantec on the path to protect more than 1 billion endpoints.
According to Greg Clark, Symantec CEO, one of the most dangerous assumptions is that iOS and other mobile devices that employees bring into the office are safe, but the apps and data on these devices are under increasing attack. Increasingly, he noted, the workforce will be completely mobile and will demand a cyber defense solution that travels with them. As a result, he said, mobile is a core component of the Symantec strategy and the acquisition of Skycure is a key step forward in executing it. Combined, he said, the technologies will offer the cloud generation an integrated mobile cyber defense architecture that will protect customers’ mobile devices and networks across iOS, Android, and Windows.
With the addition of Skycure’s technologies, Symantec will also be positioned to serve as a strategic partner for telecommunications companies seeking to build comprehensive mobile security solutions for their end users. Skycure also has validation from Global 2000 customers in the healthcare and financial sectors.
Symantec expects Skycure’s technologies to be available to its existing and new Endpoint Protection and Norton Antivirus customers and partners soon after the transaction closes. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
For more information, go to www.symantec.com.