Mimecast Limited, a data security company, acquired digital threat protection firm Segasec, the company said in a statement. Segasec provides a range of services, including using machine learning to identify hackers seeking to scrape personal data and consumer-facing phishing scam monitoring.
The acquisition allows Mimecast to increase data security protections against a wide range of hacker tactics including account takeover phishing attack detection for fake websites and domains that target customers, company employees, and corporate supply chains.
In the statement, Mimecast CEO Peter Bauer emphasized the idea of brand protection as an impetus of the acquistion. The consequences of phishing and consumer data breaches — such as when a data breach at Capital One caused the company to be embroiled in a class action lawsuit — are significant for brand trust and customer retention. Schulman is confident the combination of Mimecast and Segasec can do more to secure both data and reputations.
“Every brand is vulnerable to attacks that abuse and threaten the trust that employees, customers, partners and 3rd party vendors have placed in them,” he said. “Segasec will allow our customers to take a proactive approach to identifying — and even potentially preventing — attacks that imitate their brands using domains they don’t own, while also offering the visibility required to understand how their brands are being misused for malicious intent.
In the statement, Segasec co-founder and CEO Elad Schulman also highlighted the increasing prevalence and relevance of these kinds of attacks in all walks of life as one of the reasons for the merger. He predicted the acquisition will allow the company’s customers to do more to protect themselves in the future.
“In today’s increasingly digital economy, we rely so heavily on websites and email to interact with businesses in both our professional and personal lives,” he said. “As such, brand exploitation has been on the rise, as cybercriminals co-opt the brands we depend on and violate our trust. The powerful combination of Mimecast and Segasec will help customers better protect their brands, customers and other external stakeholders, as well as their own employees.”
Sources: https://www.mimecast.com/resources/press-releases/dates/2020/1/mimecast-acquires-segasec/