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Zscaler (ZS) to Scoop Up Smokescreen, Expand Zero Trust Offerings

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Zscaler, Inc. (ZS - Free Report) recently announced that it is set to acquire active defense and deception technology provider, Smokescreen Technologies. The acquisition will help Zscaler further build its Zero Trust Exchange platform. The deal is likely to be completed by Jul 31.

Active defense is a security method that uses proactive techniques to foil sophisticated and advanced attacks with step-by-step action across the lifecycle of an attack. Smokescreen’s technologies are built on the MITRE Shield framework, which allows organizations to incorporate active defense effectively into their security operations.

Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform detects the most sophisticated attacks, ransomware, and other unethical movements in the cloud, and the integration of Smokescreen's capabilities will add strong threat intelligence and telemetry to the platform. This will equip Zscaler with the ability to detect emerging adversary tactics and techniques.
 

Zscaler has made strategic acquisitions to boost growth. In May last year, the company acquired Edgewise, which focuses on securing communications among applications running in cloud and datacenter networks.

Prior to this, the company bought Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) company, Cloudneeti. Cloudneeti prevents and remediates application misconfigurations and compliance violations in SaaS, IaaS and PaaS.

We believe these acquisitions have not only strengthened the data-protection capabilities of Zscaler but have expanded its customer base as well.

However, the company faces competition from numerous big players in the security application market, such as Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) , Fortinet (FTNT - Free Report) and Check Point (CHKP - Free Report) . As Internet threats and attacks increase, stiff competition will follow suit. Competing firms must deliver prompt and advanced technologies to suit customer requirements and expedite product introduction in order to survive.

Nonetheless, integration of active defense into a zero-trust architecture is something, which not many security vendors have ventured into yet. Thus, this acquisition gives a strong competitive edge to Zscaler.

Zscaler currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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