Barracuda Networks buys phishing simulation company PhishLine

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Storage, backup, and security appliance vendor Barracuda Networks announced that it has acquired phishing simulation SaaS company PhishLine. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Barracuda CEO BJ Jenkins said PhishLine's email protection portfolio, including social engineering and data analysis offerings, made them an attractive acquisition target. Going forward, Barracuda plans to combine gateway security, data protection, AI-based targeted threat protection, and user awareness training into one platform.

"Security awareness training is an important and quickly evolving area, particularly with increasingly targeted attacks making the human element a critical link in the security value chain," Jenkins said.

The deal marks the second acquisition by Barracuda in two months. The company acquired Sonian in November in an effort to expand its cloud archiving, and email security and management capabilities.

Meantime, Barracuda was itself acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo last year after struggling with mixed financial results for several quarters. At the time, Barracuda said the buyout would help to accelerate growth of its security platform and maximize shareholder value.

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