Australian tech start up BankVault has hailed the announcement by Symantec that it plans to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Fireglass, saying it validates its own cybersecurity technology and product offering and has the potential to place it firmly in the sights of global cybersecurity and software protection companies.
Today Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) announced it is acquiring Israeli cybersecurity start-up Fireglass, in a deal designed to boost its products that protect corporate email and web browsing from online threats.
Graeme Speak with U.S. President’s Senior Adviser on Cyber Security, the former Mayor of NYC, Rudy Giuliani.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2017. Symantec expects Fireglass’ technology to be available to its customers and partners soon after the transaction closes. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed but media reports in Israel say Symantec will pay USD$250 million.
Fireglass, which is based in Tel Aviv and has 40 staff, was founded in 2014 by a former Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP.O) executive. It specialises in an area of security called “browser isolation,” a technology that proxies Web sessions remotely rather than on the endpoint or sandbox. Users can browse any content without having viruses or malware touch their network. It is backed by investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. It raised an initial $20 million in early 2016.
BankVault CEO/founder, Graeme Speak said the announcement of this significant transaction validates BankVault’s own technology and would now put the business ‘on the radar’ of the major antivirus/cybersecurity companies globally.
“We welcome the spotlight this transaction has placed on ‘browser isolation’, particularly as our products competes well in this global market which is seeing more and more interest from global players.”
“It is important for all players to increase the global spotlight on “Browser Isolation” so we can all work together to keep internet safe”.
BankVault’s CTO Neil Richardson added, “BankVault’s differential to Fireglass is that while both technologies achieved a similar protection outcome, our engineering approach makes it accessible for all computer users.
“Fireglass has been focused on the enterprise whereas BankVault is used by SME’s and our more accessible software version SafeWindow brings ‘browser isolation’ to a global audience”.
“We called the professional/consumer product SafeWindow, because it was what our customers started calling it. It’s a safe window that sits on your PC/Mac desktop which continually refreshes”.
BankVault’s products are immune to the ransomware and other malware outbreaks making news headlines. Users can open potentially hazardous websites, email attachments, shared online folders or complete online transactions such as banking where security is critical. The company this month announced the release of a new cyber technology called an “invisible keyboard” for mobiles.
BankVault is one of the emerging success stories of the fintech startup ecosystem. It won the Fintech category of the 2016 World Cup Tech Challenge in Silicon Valley and was recently invited to presented to the U.S. President’s Senior Advisor on Cyber Security, the former Mayor of NYC, Rudy Giluiani.
The company is currently closing another USD$1 million funding round for expansion.