Area 1 Security to be purchased by Cloudflare in $162M deal

Cloudflare disclosed that it has entered a deal to acquire cybersecurity firm Area 1 Security for nearly $162 million, with the purchase poised to close in the second quarter, according to ZDNet.

Area 1 Security has developed a platform that could enable phishing attack mitigation and the purchase could help Cloudflare lead in Zero Trust, according to Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince.

"To us, the future of zero trust includes an integrated, one-click approach to securing all of an organization's applications, including its most ubiquitous cloud application, email. Together, we expect we'll be delivering the fastest, most effective, and most reliable email security on the market," Prince said.

Moreover, merging Area 1 Security's threat intelligence and phishing protection capabilities with the Zero Trust platform, global network, and data skills of Cloudflare could facilitate improved network infrastructure security for their clients, said Area 1 Security CEO Patrick Sweeney.

"Today, email is a business' most-used cloud application. It's unfortunately unprotected. We estimate that more than 90% of cyber security damages are the result of just one thing: phishing," added Sweeney.