Business
The latest in Israel's tech sector is Check Point Software Technologies' announcement that it will buy Lacoon Mobile Security for tens of millions of dollars. Lacoon was founded in 2011 and employs 40 people, reports Reuters. Lacoon's product, whose customers include Samsung, Intel and Dell, will be integrated into Check Point's mobile security solution called Capsule. "Companies are not necessarily protecting the data on mobile devices properly," Check Point Chief Executive Gil Shwed said, adding Check Point's product will be targeted at enterprises. "We found that Lacoon had the best and most advanced solution to prevent threats."
Like many other veterans of the PC era, security company Check Point has found that its market domination in the server room doesn't necessarily translate into leadership on other platforms, like mobile, notes ZDNet. To help with that, Check Point announced Thursday that it was acquiring fellow Israeli security company Lacoon, which specializes in mobile. Reports said that Check Point was paying about $80m for Lacoon, but neither company would comment on the sale price. Like other behavior-based security products, Lacoon uses the cloud to evaluate behavior on a device (both Android and iOS are covered), alerting headquarters if something seems amiss. The data is compared to other reports and the Lacoon database of threats, enabling the system to detect and identify zero-day attacks, APTs, malicious apps, malware, botnets, rootkits, and the like.
If a problem is detected, the system can enable a VPN or immediately institute new rules that will keep the threat at bay, preventing infected users from connecting to the enterprise network and offloading malware. The company has a great deal of information about the most advanced attacks, with the system identifying threats like Android installer hijacking, using 'safe' apps to piggyback the installation of malware onto a phone on their first day out.
According to research company IVC, Lacoon ,whose field is threat prevention on mobile, has raised $10.7 million, its last round having taken place at a valuation of $30 million, writes Globes. One of the investors in Lacoon is Shlomo Kramer, who was among the founders of Check Point. Check Point's previous acquisition, Hyperwise, was also connected to Kramer.
