The phishing simulation and security awareness training company PhishLine has been bought by Barracuda Networks.
Barracuda Networks is expanding its phishing defense solutions and is planning on creating a comprehensive anti-phishing platform that includes data protection, gateway security, AI-based threat intelligence, security awareness training and phishing simulation exercises.
Barracuda already offers its customers a broad range of anti-phishing services, although the firm lacked a security awareness training library and phishing simulation platform. As a leading provider of a phishing simulation platform and security awareness training material, PhishLine was an attractive acquisition target.
Barracuda CEO BJ Jenkins said, “Security awareness training is an important and quickly evolving area, particularly with increasingly targeted attacks making the human element a critical link in the security value chain.”
Even the most advanced email security systems cannot detect every single phishing email. Cybercriminals are constantly changing tactics and developing increasing sophisticated phishing emails that occasionally sneak past organizations security stacks. While anti-phishing solutions are good at blocking phishing scams, they are less effected at blocking targeted phishing attacks – termed spear phishing. A robust anti-phishing defense must therefore include employees as well as technology.
Organizations provide security awareness training to their employees can significantly improve their security posture. Now Barracuda Networks customers will have access to training material that will help them develop their own security awareness training programs, and a phishing simulation service to test the effectiveness of those training programs.
“Barracuda’s innovations around targeted attacks, AI, archiving, and data protection complement PhishLine’s solutions well. Our combined strengths offer a comprehensive, data-driven approach to help customers fight smarter, mitigate risks, eliminate threats, and gain greater peace of mind,” said Mark T. Chapman, president and CEO at PhishLine.
This is the second major acquisition for Barracuda in the past two months. The firm also bought the cloud archiving company Sonian in November and has added secure storage and email archiving to its service stack.