Oracle Buys ID Security Firm

By Greg McNevin

July 20, 2007: A week following Google’s acquisition of the security firm Postini, Oracle has bought online identity theft and fraud detection specialist Bharosa.

Both deals highlight the increasing pressure organisations are under to combat identity theft and fraud in the face of regulatory mandates such as FFIEC, PCI, and HIPAA in the US, as well as the need to provide users with strong protection for their personal details.

Bharosa’s software battles online identity theft and fraud, and of particular interest to Oracle are the real-time fraud prevention capabilities in the firms Tracker and Authenticator software which will be integrated into its existing web single sign-on and web-based authorisation solutions,

The company’s real-time fraud detection and multifactor online authentication security solutions are aimed at enterprises and currently boast around 25 million users. When combined with Oracle's solutions the company says it will be able to offer unique protection by extending internal web Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions to external users.

“Companies need new mechanisms that complement their existing security solutions so that they can better protect themselves from insider threats and misuse from privileged users,” added Bharosa CEO Jon Fisher.

Bharosa's Tracker and Authenticator software will continue to be available on a standalone basis with integrations for Oracle and non-Oracle environments as well as integrated with Oracle Identity Management to come.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in August. Financial details were not disclosed.

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