Symantec Acquires Appthority, Javelin Networks

Symantec on Monday announced the acquisition of mobile application security firm Appthority and Active Directory protection company Javelin Networks.

With the acquisition of Appthority, Symantec wants to provide customers the technology needed to analyze mobile applications for malicious capabilities and unwanted behavior, including vulnerabilities, exposure of sensitive data, and privacy risks.

According to Symantec, the technology obtained from Appthority will be built into Symantec Endpoint Protection Mobile (SEP Mobile), which the security firm launched following the acquisition of Skycure last year.

Appthority was a Symantec Ventures portfolio company before the acquisition. The mobile security firm’s employees and technology have now become part of Symantec’s endpoint security business.

“Mobile apps are a critical threat vector that every company must address to protect their enterprise security,” said Adi Sharabani, Sr. Vice President for Modern OS Security at Symantec. “The Appthority technology extends SEP Mobile’s capabilities in limiting unwanted app behaviors, supporting regulatory compliance, and assessing vulnerabilities.”

Employees and technology of Javelin Networks have also joined Symantec’s endpoint security business.

Symantec believes that its acquisition of Javelin technology will protect customers against threats abusing Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) service. The security firm pointed out that malicious actors, including advanced persistent threats (APTs), have increasingly abused AD for reconnaissance and lateral movement.

Javelin’s AD security solutions are designed to detect misconfigurations and backdoors, and protect commonly used domain resources, such as credentials, controllers and identities.

Symantec has not disclosed financial terms for either of the acquisitions.