Cybersecurity training and awareness provider Ataata has been acquired by Mimecast in a deal of undisclosed size.
Mimecast, best known for its email security solutions, hopes to use the acquisition to complement its existing services. While its services help filter out suspicious emails, increasing awareness of cybersecurity among employees is key to ensuring that those which get through don’t endanger company assets.
Cybersecurity training and awareness doesn’t need to be difficult or boring.
– Michael Madon, CEO and co-founder, Ataata
“Cybersecurity awareness training has traditionally been viewed as a check the box action for compliance purposes, boring videos with PhDs rambling about security or even less than effective gamification which just doesn’t work,” said Peter Bauer, CEO and founder of Mimecast. “As cyberattacks continue to find new ways to bypass traditional threat detection methods, it’s essential to educate your employees in a way that changes behavior.”
The acquisition will also allow Mimecast customers to measure the effectiveness of their training efforts by creating risk metrics based on observations of employee behaviour. Actionable, meaningful metrics for cybersecurity can be a challenge to develop, which for some cybersecurity leads can cause problems measuring performance and justifying budget, as well as complicating the challenges of cyberinsurance and risk modelling.
As well as providing these valuable metrics, the platform will analyse user behaviour to calculate security risk, and provide relevant training based on the risk score and the areas where improvement is needed. According to Mimecast, the joint effort lays the groundwork for “the most effective cybersecurity awareness training program imaginable”.
“Human error is involved in the majority of all security breaches, and these casual mistakes can cost organizations money, their reputation – and employees, potentially their job,” said Michael Madon, CEO and co-founder of Ataata. “Organizations need to understand that employees are their last line of defense. Cybersecurity training and awareness doesn’t need to be difficult or boring. Training and awareness is needed to help mitigate these internal risks. Our customers rely on engaging content at the human level, which helps to change behavior at the employee-level. We’re excited to join forces with Mimecast to help customers build a stronger cyber resilience strategy that includes robust content, risk scoring and real-world attack simulation — going way beyond basic security awareness capabilities.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Ataata is known to have raised $3 million in Series A funding since being founded in 2016.
