Thales Group has announced plans to acquire California-based data protection company Vormetric for $400 million to expand its cybersecurity operations.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to complete during the first quarter of 2016. Thales aims to use Vormetric assets to expand their cybersecurity product development. The company says Vormetric technologies will work well with Thales e-Security activies, which already protect network data for 19 of the 20 largest banks in the world.

"The acquisition of Vormetric is a great opportunity to accelerate the growth of our cybersecurity activities," said Thales CEO and Chairman Patrice Caine in a statement. "Combining Thales critical IT systems protection capabilities with Vormetric's know-how in data protection will create a global leader in data security, offering comprehensive solutions for protecting enterprises against cybersecurity threats."

Vormetric was founded in San Jose, Calif., in November 2001, and provides cyberseucrity products. Their products are able to be deployed individually while also being centrally managed, including file-level encryption, application-layer encryption, tokenization, cloud encryption gateway, integrated key management, and security intelligence logging. Alan Kessler, President and CEO of Vormetric says the current cybersecurity environment calls for extensive growth of data protection services.

"The opportunity to join Thales has come at a time when the world is focused on data to enable business due to the explosive growth of mobile, cloud and social media," Kessler said. "Jointly we are in a unique position to offer leading security solutions to protect data, while broadening the support to our customers and partners globally."

Vormetric services over 1,500 entities including over half of the top 30 companies in the United States.

Sony reaches settlement over 2014 security breach
Laguna Beach, United States Oct 20, 2015 - Sony has reached a settlement in a US court to pay $8 million to employees affected by a massive cyberattack, officials said Tuesday. The settlement deal struck this week calls for payments of up to $10,000 to employees whose personal data was stolen. Sony will also pay for data protection and legal costs for the employees under the deal, which must be approved by a judge. "The agreement, which still requires preliminary and final court approval, was mutually agreed upon with the plaintiffs and is an important, positive step forward in putting the cyber-attack firmly behind us," CEO Michael Lynton said in an internal memo. The massive cyberattack against Sony Pictures, which sparked an international furor had minimal impact on the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant, another top executive said. "I think that there was not that much impact from a business perspective," Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai said at the WSJD Live technology conference in California. "There was impact for a very short time on the morale of the employees, but I think they have come around," Hirai said. "We did learn some lessons with becoming more robust in terms of security, and we have done that. We have come out being a stronger and more resilient business." The November 2014 cyber attack against Sony led to an online leak of employee information, unreleased films and embarrassing in-house emails. The hackers also mounted threats against Sony over the planned Christmas release of "The Interview," which depicts a fictional CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. US investigators have said North Korea, which has repeatedly denied involvement, was behind the attack, but some experts have raised doubts about the conclusions of the FBI probe. Washington authorized a new layer of sanctions on several Pyongyang institutions and officials in retaliation for the attack. The impoverished but nuclear-armed state was already heavily sanctioned following a series of nuclear and missile tests staged in violation of UN resolutions.