Symantec Beefs Up Its Security Offerings With Fireglass Buy

Symantec, the cybersecurity company, made news on Thursday (July 6) with its acquisition of Fireglass, the Israeli agentless isolation solution startup.

In a press release, Symantec said the company’s agentless isolation solution eliminates ransomware, malware and phishing threats in real time by preventing potentially harmful content from ever reaching user endpoints or the corporate network via cyberattacks.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Symantec said the buy of the Israeli startup strengthens its  Integrated Cyber Defense Platform and extends its leadership in battling cyberattacks through its Secure Web Gateway and Email protection, delivered both on premises and in the cloud.

“Integrating Fireglass’ isolation technology with Symantec’s existing endpoint, email and secure web gateway solutions could reduce security events by as much as 70 percent, while virtually eliminating advanced threats spread by web browsing or email content. Isolation will become a core component in the design of cyber defense architectures for the cloud generation who face the reality of an encrypted internet and the crisis inherent in email and web-delivered attacks. The ability for the security team to take an aggressive stance on unknown websites and questionable attachments without causing chaos for a company’s users and IT help desk is now a reality. Isolation is a key element of securing the cloud generation and is even a productivity gain for both the end user and security operations center,” said Greg Clark, CEO of Symantec, in the press release announcing the deal.

According to the cybersecurity company, Fireglass’ approach to browser isolation substantially reduces the attack surface, strengthening an enterprise’s security posture and, as a result, significantly reducing the burden on the company’s security operation center (SOC) and IT help desk.  

With the technology, users are protected regardless of the links they click or the uncategorized websites they visit, as all potentially harmful websites and email content and attachments are executed within a fully protected and separate environment.