EMC added to its growing security portfolio Tuesday by inking a deal to acquire Silver Tail Systems, a supplier of Web fraud detection software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Privately held Menlo Park, Calif.-based Silver Tail Systems provides behavior-based technology to help banks and online merchants detect Web fraud and other suspicious online activity. According to RSA, Silver Tail's technology uses a big data approach to analyze massive amounts of information and provide real-time visibility into Web sessions and mobile application traffic.
Silver Tail will operate as an independent business unit within EMC's RSA security division, where it will extend the capabilities of RSA's Identity Protection and Verification products across its enterprise security product line.
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EMC is best known as the leading storage vendor but has been building up its security business since its 2006 acquisition of major security vendor RSA. Later that year, EMC acquired security information and event management company Network Intelligence. In 2010, the vendor bought GRC software supplier Archer Technologies, and last year, it acquired network monitoring company NetWitness.
Sean Brady, director of RSA's identity and data protection business unit, said that RSA sees Silver Tail's technology as extensible. "The ability to get context into what users are doing online or in the network and apply controls is something we think is potentially very revolutionary," he said in an interview with CRN. "Their ability to take mass quantities of data, boil it down to the critically necessary data and do that at mass scale is something we think holds phenomenal potential for security."
For the channel, one of the main benefits of Silver Tail's technology is its time to value, Brady said. After installation, it quickly provides value by detecting threats, plus it's not complicated software to install, he said.
"The Silver Tail team has designed an almost a turnkey approach to working with customers and having successful installations," Brady said.
Silver Tail Systems CEO Tim Eades told CRN that Silver Tail's technology can figure out the difference between a criminal and a customer. "We do that by looking very deep into the traffic analysis. We believe the criminals' intent will show by the way they move through the site."
Brady said the acquisition also will help re-establish RSA's presence on the West Coast. Having a presence in the valley and its academic community will be valuable to advancing RSA's security analytics and adaptive identity management strategies, he said.
When asked about other potential security acquisitions, Brady said he expects RSA will continue to monitor companies working in the areas of security management and identity and data protection, RSA's core strategies.
EMC's Silver Tail acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
PUBLISHED OCT. 30, 2012
