Marshal8e6, a global provider of Web and e-mail security products, has today announced the acquisition of Avinti, a provider of advanced behaviour-based malware detection technology.
The acquisition strengthens Marshal8e6's ability to stop the emerging threat techniques known as blended threats and bridges the gap in security protection between e-mail and the Web.
E-mail blended threats either use active malware content or, by embedding URLs in an e-mail, can link the user to Web sites where malware is downloaded in the background. These attacks are missed by traditional anti-virus products looking for malware as e-mail attachments, and by Web filters that focus on content, not viruses and spyware.
Under terms of the agreement, Avinti's team will be immediately merged into Marshal8e6. In addition, Avinti's patent-pending behaviour observation technology, used to solve the problem of blended threats, will be quickly integrated into Marshal8e6's portfolio of e-mail and Web security solutions.
This acquisition follows closely behind the November 2008 merger of Marshal and 8e6 Technologies, and delivers on the company's promise to add new technologies to continuously improve their existing portfolio of multi-layered enterprise-class threat protection solutions.
"Organisations are increasingly looking for methods to effectively detect and manage inbound malware across all communication channels," said George Shih, Interim CEO, Marshal8e6. "When we created Marshal8e6, we committed to providing the most effective multi-channel security solution on the market. With the acquisition of Avinti, we are delivering on that pledge. Their innovative and proactive malware detection technology fulfils customers' requirements to block today's new threats. One of the key areas we anticipate using their technology is in blocking blended threats, an area that has successfully thwarted other Web and e-mail security products."
Avinti's advanced behavioural analysis technology proactively searches the body of an e-mail for active content and URLs. It quickly filters potential threats and observes the behaviour of suspicious Web content in its Observation Engine to identify Web-based malware and takes action on those threats. Avinti's approach does not rely on signatures and is effective at catching even new malware.
It is capable of blocking malware threats not detected by signature-based solutions, providing true protection from zero-day threats, malware variants, targeted attacks and blended threats. As part of Marshal8e6's enterprise-class e-mail and Web security solutions, Avinti's technology will deliver the necessary malware protection needed to bridge the gap between standalone e-mail and Web security strategies.
"The increasing emergence of blended threats requires advanced threat detection and analysis, along with a holistic approach to looking at threats across an organisation's inbound and outbound channels," said William Kilmer, CEO of Avinti.
"Marshal8e6 recognises customers' needs and have positioned themselves to be the 'one-stop-shop' for integrated enterprise-class blended threat protection. We are very pleased with the acquisition and look forward to integrating our technology into existing Marshal8e6 solutions."
The financial details of the acquisition were not announced. Marshal8e6 will retain a development centre in Avinti's Utah-based office to focus on integrating elements of Avinti's behaviour-based malware detection into Marshal8e6 products.
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