IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Trusteer, a provider of software that helps protect organisations against financial fraud and advanced security threats.
The acquisition of Trusteer advances the investment IBM is making in cloud-delivered software and services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As part of this announcement, IBM is forming a cyber-security software lab in Israel that will bring together more than 200 Trusteer and IBM researchers and developers to focus on mobile and application security, advanced threat, malware, counter-fraud, and financial crimes. This lab is an addition to IBM’s existing research and development facilities in Israel.
With offices located in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel, Trusteer helps hundreds of organisations including many financial institutions protect Web applications, employee and customer computers, and mobile devices from threats. Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly efficient in creating and deploying attacks to bypass existing security controls.
Trusteer software can identify security threats that can be missed by traditional security software. For example, to help ensure that banking customers can safely transfer money on a mobile device, Trusteer software performs detection of malware that can infect a smartphone, enabling the bank to take steps to prevent fraudulent behaviour and account takeover before the transaction occurs.
Seven of the top 10 US banks and nine of the top 10 UK banks use Trusteer’s solutions to help secure customer accounts against financial fraud and cyber-attacks.
“Trusteer’s expertise and superior technology in enterprise endpoint defence and advanced malware prevention will help our clients across all industries address the constantly evolving threats they are facing,” says Brendan Hannigan, GM: Security Systems Division at IBM.
“Together with IBM’s capabilities in advanced threat detection, analysis and remediation, we will now be able to offer our clients several additional layers of defence against sophisticated attackers.”
“The way organisations protect data is quickly evolving,” says Mickey Boodaei, CEO of Trusteer.
“As attacks become more sophisticated, traditional approaches to securing enterprise and mobile data are no longer valid. Trusteer has helped hundreds of large banks and organisations around the world defeat thousands of sophisticated attacks using innovative solutions that combine intelligence, cloud, mobile, and desktop technologies.”
The capabilities Trusteer will bring to the IBM security portfolio include:
* Security as a service delivered through the cloud;
* Comprehensive counter-fraud and advanced persistent threat (APT) protection;
* Helping to secure mobile transactions; and
* Cyber-security software lab.