Symantec to Buy Israeli Cybersecurity Firm FireGlass

In a move to deepen its security offerings for business clients, Symantec is acquiring Tel-Aviv based cybersecurity startup Fireglass, the company announced Thursday.

Fireglass developed a safe web browsing technology that enables users to view online content without actually running the original webpage script on their computer.

Symantec has been planning to tap into this market for a while. According to technology research firm Gartner, by 2021at least 50% of the industry will adopt browsing isolation technologies. 

Symantec headquarters

Founded by veterans of the Israeli cybersecurity industry, Fireglass employs around 40 employees in its Tel-Aviv offices. To date, the Tel-Aviv company raised 30 million dollars from investors including Silicon Valley venture funds Norwest Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, both with on-ground operations in Israel.

Before founding Fireglass in 2013, Guy Guzner, the company’s CEO, served as head of security products at Israeli flagship technology company Check Point Software Technologies, a global firewalls pioneer.

“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”, said Symantec’s CEO Greg Clark in an announcement by the company.

Israeli cybersecurity companies have attracted the attention of many multinationals seeking to bolster relevant offering in recent years. With a list of five small cybersecurity acquisitions in the local market made since 2014, Microsoft has been the most voracious buyer of such companies. Other multinationals buyers of Israeli cybersecurity companies in recent years include IBM, Palo-Alto Networks, PayPal and Huawei.