Beersheba-based Cyberfish, which makes next-generation phishing protection technology, has been acquired by US-based Cofense, a leading global phishing defense company with thousands of enterprise clients. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Following the acquisition, Cofense will open its first R&D center in Israel, led by the Cyberfish team, and will hire more workers. Cyberfish, which started out in JVP's cyber incubator in Beersheba, was founded in 2017 by Dima Kagan, Eugene Geht, and Amit Israel, and is backed by Spinach Angels and JVP.
Phishing is considered the top threat in cyber-attacks and is responsible for over 90% of global cyber-attacks. Every year there is an increase of over 400% in phishing attacks worldwide and the FBI estimates that damage from phishing attacks each year amounts to more than $15 billion, Cofense said.
By integrating innovative machine learning capabilities from Cyberfish with Cofense’s detection and response technology, Cofense will offer a holistic, advanced automation solution for e-mail protection, detection, and response, the company said. Cyberfish’s solution is powered by Computer Vision and advanced Machine Learning technology and can be installed in less than a minute to enable real-time phishing protection. It will be immediately deployed as part of Cofense's managed service.
“Cyberfish is excited to join forces with Cofense to solve the phishing problem and take email security to another level,” said Dima Kagan, Cyberfish CEO and Co-founder. “As we met with the team, it quickly became obvious that we share the same vision for how to revolutionize the email security market, which includes addressing the business requirements of MSPs and enterprises offering advanced email protection beyond Microsoft and Google. We look forward to working together to bring that vision to reality through Advanced AI and automation capabilities.”
“Together, Cofense and Cyberfish will offer a one-stop-shop for an organization’s email security needs, eliminating the need for many expensive and slow-to-deploy legacy solutions,” said Rohyt Belani, Cofense CEO and Co-founder.“With organizations increasingly working to consolidate technology vendors, we are laying the groundwork to support our customers in this endeavor and maintain the high quality they expect in whatever solutions they adopt. This includes our ongoing commitment to the MSP ecosystem Cyberfish has developed. Disrupting the email security market is in Cofense’s DNA, and we look forward to advancing phishing detection and response capabilities for more organizations and MSPs in 2021.”
"We congratulate the founders, and are confident that the establishment of Cofense's first R&D center in Israel, following the acquisition, will create significant employment opportunities for the area," said Erel Margalit, JVP founder and executive chairman. "This is another example of how JVP sees Israeli innovation shaping our world through connecting groundbreaking technologies to global markets."