Symantec to acquire behaviour-based anti virus security provider

Mumbai: Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) has announced having signed a definitive agreement to acquire WholeSecurity, Inc., a leading provider of behaviour-based security and anti-phishing technology. Behavior-based security technology identifies online threats such as worms, viruses, Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, and phishing sites by their actions and characteristics.

WholeSecurity's technology analyses the characteristics and actions of viruses, worms and other malicious code to offer real-time protection against these threats without the need for traditional security signatures. The transaction is expected to close in October.

The company was recently named by Fortune magazine as a '2005 breakout company', Its customers include eBay, Deutsche Bank, and Visa.

" Enrique Salem, senior vice president, Symantec Security Products and Solutions considers attacks from the phishing virus, "one of the fastest growing threats to online transactions, such as banking, e-commerce, and auctions."

WholeSecurity's Confidence Online analyses the behaviour exhibited by these threats against hundreds of detection modules to determine whether the active processes or web sites are safe or malicious. This technology can immediately detect and mitigate unknown threats by their behaviour without traditional signatures or patches thereby protecting users against zero-day attacks.