Mimecast acquires Aware to enhance AI-powered human risk management

Thu 15 Aug 2024

People shaking hands with various digital icons in the foreground

Human Risk Management (HRM) platform, Mimecast, has announced the acquisition of Aware, an AI-driven collaboration security platform.

This acquisition is a significant move in Mimecast’s strategy to advance the management and mitigation of human-centred security risks in the digital workplace. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

CEO at Mimecast, Marc van Zadelhoff, said in the modern digital workplace, businesses’ most critical data and communications live online. While email and collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams are key to keeping people connected and productive, they also pose significant risks to organisations.

“The human attack surface has expanded significantly, and legacy tools weren’t built to understand the complexity of messages, @mentions, emojis, and GIFs. This creates vulnerabilities, leading to security gaps, blind spots, and missing context, exposing businesses to the risk of regulatory fines, reputational damage, and loss of valuable intellectual property,” added van Zadelhoff.

Aware’s Platform Identifies Risks of Tools

Aware’s platform, which utilises advanced AI models, is specifically designed to identify risks within the unstructured data of workplace collaboration tools. This technology will be integrated into Mimecast’s HRM platform, enhancing its ability to prevent data loss, improve compliance, and manage human risk factors.

The integration will provide state-of-the-art security across various collaboration channels such as Zoom, while also bolstering Mimecast’s Business Email Compromise (BEC) capabilities and enhancing its archiving functions.

CEO and Co-Founder at Aware, Jeff Schumann, said ‘businesses are facing new, dangerous security threats that reach beyond email to everywhere employees collaborate to get work done’.

“Adding to the expanded attack surface, humans have become the new endpoints and the greatest risk to any business, making critical Aware’s ability to leverage AI to understand context and behaviour in conversations, and surface real-time insider threats at scale. AI is not a standalone solution that can solve all cybersecurity problems,” said Schumann.

Schumann said Aware believes the true power of AI technology lies in its ability to understand the nuanced human element of threats.

The acquisition of Aware follows Mimecast’s recent launch of its HRM platform and the Mimecast Engage™ offering, as well as the acquisition of Code42 last month. Mimecast will continue to support Aware’s existing use base, with new technology integrations expected in the coming quarters.