Social network giant
Facebook is to buy server security company PrivateCore. Located in Palo Alto, California, PrivateCore was launched in 2012 by former VMware and Google employees. PrivateCore's technology and solutions will be absorbed by Facebook and run from its own servers. Oded Horovitz, PrivateCore's CEO, will also move to Facebook. Financial details were not released.
Ostensibly intended simply to further protect users from a range of threats, Facebook's move has pushed many to speculate that the social network is making an entry to the ecommerce arena. PrivateCore's flagship product is vCage which uses software-based attestation, full-memory encryption, and operating system hardening to secure servers and private and public clouds from a range of threats including malware, malicious hardware devices, and "insider threats". vCage allows simultaneous remote servers and its cloud-based security software provides data-in-use validation to protect all apps located on x86 servers.
The latest acquisition is one of six purchases made by Facebook in 2014. These include Little Eye Labs which provide Android performance analysis and monitoring tools, Branch Web, WhatsApp, Virtual Reality company Oculus VR, and most recently fitness tracking app ProtoGeo. Exactly which direction these acquisitions take Facebook in is not entirely clear.
What do all these acquisitions mean? Which direction do you think Facebook is heading? Add your comments below.
