IBM to acquire Trusteer

IBM to Expand Security Portfolio to Combat Financial Fraud and Advanced Threats

IBM has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trusteer, a privately held company with locations in Boston, MA and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Trusteer is a leading provider of advanced security and threat intelligence solutions that help protect organizations against financial fraud, malware and data breaches. As part of this announcement, IBM is forming a cybersecurity software lab in Israel that will bring together more than 200 Trusteer and IBM researchers and developers to focus on advanced threat, malware, counter-fraud, financial crimes and mobile security solutions.

Trusteer’s advanced fraud and malware protection are new and important capabilities for the IBM security portfolio. With this agreement, Trusteer’s solutions will integrate and compliment IBM security offerings in the areas of fraud protection, advanced persistent threat protection, zero-day vulnerabilities, endpoint security and threat intelligence services. The acquisition will strengthen IBM’s leadership position in enterprise cyber security and help protect web applications, computer networks and mobile devices.

Hundreds of financial institutions and other organizations rely on Trusteer to protect their web applications, and employee and customers computers and mobile devices from online threats that are often invisible to legacy security solutions. Trusteer combines multi-layer security software with real-time threat intelligence designed to achieve sustainable protection against malware and phishing attacks and help customers meet regulatory compliance requirements. Seven of the ten top U.S. banks and nine of the top ten U.K. banks use Trusteer’s solutions to better secure customer accounts against financial fraud and cyber attacks.

Among the capabilities Trusteer brings to IBMs security portfolio:

• Web Fraud Protection
  • Leading web fraud capabilities for financial services and web commerce
• Secure Mobile Transactions
  • Embedded security for mobile devices and applications helps enables secure transactions from devices to the back office
• Extended Advanced Threat Protection
  • Unique endpoint solution for identifying and protecting against Advanced Persistent Threats
• Security-as-a-Service
  • Cloud based deployment enabling rapid and real-time updates

Consistent with IBM strategy, IBM will continue to support and enhance Trusteer’s clients and technologies while allowing them to take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio.

IBM intends to incorporate Trusteer into its Security Systems business within Software Group.

IBM will combine its Israel security research and development capabilities along with Trusteer research in Tel Aviv to form an IBM cyber-security software lab.

This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2013.

Source: IBM