Mimecast has announced the acquisition of Elevate Security, as the email and collaboration security specialist moves to boost its human risk capabilities.
Elevate’s security platform analyzes human behavior and context data from across a range of sources and uses a precision risk scoring algorithm to flag high-risk users.
Security teams then leverage this data to drive behavior change, enforce conditional policies, respond to cyber incidents, and automate protective controls for individual users.
By integrating the platform’s capabilities with Mimecast’s own tools such as Awareness Training, the company said it will be better equipped to help drive targeted intervention and training for businesses to reduce their overall risk and exposure.
The move follows in the wake of Mimecast’s 2023 State of Email Security report, which found that human error is responsible for more than 95% of data breaches. Elevate’s own data has also revealed that just 8% of users are responsible for 80% of security incidents.
Mimecast chief technology and product officer, David Raissipour, said the advancement of artificial intelligence has accelerated cyber criminals’ ability to exploit an organizations’ people, communications, and data.
“People are historically the largest vulnerability in an organization but can also be the strongest line of defense if given the right tools and education,” he said.
“That’s our goal with this acquisition and core to our work – manage risk by understanding human behavior in the context of a complex environment and then acting on it.”
Mimecast aims to “change the conversation” around security
Founded in 2003, email and collaboration specialist Mimecast has grown to help more than 40,000 customers mitigate risk and management complexities across the threat landscape.
The firm’s range of solutions serve up a range of protection capabilities, including proactive threat detection, brand protection, awareness training, and data retention capabilities.
Post acquisition, Mimecast said it will continue to maintain and support Elevate’s existing customer base, while integration of the firm’s software into its own solutions is underway. Functionality is expected to be available to users “in upcoming quarters,” it said.
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“Elevate Security prides itself on being one of the first human risk platforms to help organizations identify high-risk people and automate responses and safeguards, and we have long admired Mimecast’s commitment to changing user behavior to enhance protection,” commented Robert Fly, CEO and co-founder of Elevate Security.
“We have no doubt that our combined strengths will help break new ground that changes the security conversation.”
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
