EMC to Acquire Silver Tail Systems, in Web Fraud Detection and Security Software

EMC Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Silver Tail Systems, Inc., in real-time web session intelligence and behavioral analysis.

Upon closing, Silver Tail will operate within the RSA security division and is expected to extend the capabilities of RSA’s Identity Protection and Verification (IPV) solutions, as well as other areas across RSA’s enterprise security portfolio.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2012, subject to certain closing conditions.  

The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP or non-GAAP EPS for the full 2012 fiscal year.

The evolution of malware and advanced online threats has left growing numbers of online banking, e-commerce and government web sites and their customers vulnerable to attack, account takeover and fraud. In response to this evolution organizations historically have focused on building fraud detection and security strategies that try to identify what a bad transaction looks like, creating solutions that must always play catch-up to the latest threats.

Silver Tail Systems’ web session intelligence is the response to this evolution in threats and fraud, using a big data-driven approach to gather and analyze mass quantities of information in real time and at scale to deepen visibility into web sessions and mobile traffic. The information is fed into Silver Tail Systems’ behavior analysis engine to review at both user and population levels to detect anomalies, IT security threats, fraud, insider threats, business logic abuse and other malicious activity.

Silver Tail’s solutions are deployed in large customer environments, helping to secure online banking traffic and e-commerce and government web sites and portals. Their team has experience in building performance solutions that provide monitoring for upwards of 330,000 clicks per second for some of the largest e-commerce and banking providers.

Within RSA, Silver Tail is expected to contribute to multiple areas across RSA’s enterprise security portfolio. Silver Tail’s products will add a disruptive fraud-fighting technology designed to install and begin providing value in a matter of days, lowering complexity and cost of ownership. In addition, it is expected Silver Tail’s core transaction and behavioral analysis technology will help further extend the security analytics capabilities across RSA’s enterprise security solutions portfolio.

Art Coviello, RSA Executive chairman and EVP, EMC, said: "The industry is well beyond the point of providing effective security using static, perimeter point tools that fail to keep up with dynamic cyber attackers. Customers need better intelligence, analytics, and the ability to respond in real time which is a capability that Silver Tail’s products do extraordinarily well to help foil web-based attacks. Silver Tail offers proven anti-fraud solutions that complement RSA’s portfolio of risk-based and adaptive products and services.

"We see tremendous opportunity with Silver Tail at the intersection of Big Data and Security to leverage our collective expertise and technologies to move beyond the hype to execute on the vision of intelligence-driven security that is risk-based, agile and contextual. Together RSA and Silver Tail can deliver compelling solutions that leverage session intelligence and Big Data analytics to help our customers gain better visibility and control risk."

Tim Eades, CEO, Silver Tail Systems, said: "Stopping cybercrime has never been harder than it is today.  The recent attacks on the North American banking infrastructure are stark reminders of the pace of innovation in the cybercriminal ecosystem, the convergence of the fraud and info-security attack techniques and the profound responsibility of the CISO to help defend against these attacks.

"Silver Tail pioneered an approach that uses web session intelligence to provide unmatched visibility and the behavioral analysis that detects these threats and protects web-based platforms around the world. Together with RSA, we have an incredible opportunity to extend these capabilities beyond what we do today to protect web-based platforms. Silver Tail’s session intelligence technology demonstrates the capacity to expand the awareness and intelligence of what is occurring on the network with context, helping to rapidly sift through data to identify unexpected behavior and apply controls against advanced threats and malicious attacks."