Network security firm Palo Alto Networks announced on Monday that it would acquire privately held security startup Cyvera for roughly $200 million.
Tel-Aviv, Israel-based Cyvera has 55 employees and has developed technologies to help block zero-day attacks on the endpoint.
According to Cyvera, which raised $11 million in funding in August, its flagship product, TRAPS (Targeted Remote Attack Prevention System), is a client-based platform with agents that “lay traps and set barriers” across paths that an attack could take and conduct random actions to deceive attackers.
The company has also developed what it calls a Reflector, an isolated environment used for deep analysis of foiled attacks. While Reflector may sound like a typical sandbox, Cyvera says its technology goes further and offers more advanced features than a typical malware analysis sandbox.
“Unlike any other sandbox which is limited to examining files in a ‘generic’ scenario (i.e., Windows 7, office 10, adobe reader 11, etc.), the Reflector replicates the scenario of the specific attacked computer,” Nati Davidi co-founder and Co-CEO of Cyvera told SecurityWeek in August.
Cyvera’s TRAPS platform has already been deployed in finance, energy, chemicals, legal, hi-tech and other sectors that operate critical infrastructure or maintain sensitive data, the company previously said.
Cyvera makes the claim that its approach has been so powerful that they’ve successfully stopped every published zero-day attack since they first began deploying their product.
“The addition of this unique capability to the Palo Alto Networks enterprise security platform will extend customers’ ability to safely enable applications and protect users against known and unknown cyber threats on any device, across any network,” Palo Alto Networks explained.
“This event marks a key milestone in our strategic enterprise security vision. It extends our next-generation security platform with a very innovative approach to preventing attacks on the endpoint,” Mark McLaughlin, President and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said in a statement.
“Much like Palo Alto Networks set out to disrupt the network security market with its next-generation security platform, we founded Cyvera to revolutionize protection for the endpoint – one of the most vulnerable frontiers for cyber attacks,” said Uri Alter and Netanel Davidi, co-founders and co-CEOs of Cyvera. “We are pleased to join the Palo Alto Networks team and together help enterprise customers tackle the advanced threats they face today.”
The acquisition is expected to close during the second half of fiscal 2014, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews.
Also in an effort to enhance its threat protection capabilities, Palo Alto Networks earlier this year acquired Morta Security, a Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity company operating in stealth mode since 2012, for an undisclosed sum.
