Marshal8e6 Buys Avinti for Behavioral Technology

Marshal8e6 has acquired Avinti to add behavior-based malware detection to its repertoire.

The acquisition, made for an undisclosed sum, is aimed at helping organizations better deal with the blended threats users face. The purchase comes roughly six months after Marshal and 8e6 Technologies tied the knot to combine their e-mail and Web security gateway products. The acquisition of Avinti brings behavior-based technology into the mix to detect threats that get by traditional signature-based solutions.

Avinti’s behavioral analysis technology searches the body of an e-mail for active content and URLs and filters potential threats. It also examines the behavior of suspicious content to identify malware and takes action. According to Avinti CEO William Kilmer, the company was founded on the idea that the threat landscape would make it impossible for traditional anti-virus to keep pace with signature-based systems.

“Essentially we have a network-based device that would run a series of virtual images that can actually mimic the user’s desktop environment,” Kilmer said in an interview with eWEEK. “We’ll open it up, actually run it, and look for process or look for different signals that would indicate that it’s a virus.”

Paul Myer, senior vice president of corporate development at Marshal8e6, said that prior to the Marshal and 8e6 Technologies merger, Marshal had been eyeing Avinti for its technology. More details about the product road map will be forthcoming, he said.

“The objective is to build a solution that will, on the e-mail side, become a secondary filter behind our signature filter that will identity any threats that make it through that initial filter,” Myer said.

Marshal8e6 will keep a development center in Avinti’s Utah-based office to focus on integrating elements of Avinti’s detection technology into Marshal8e6 products.