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Facebook acquires server security firm PrivateCore

With the goal of better protecting user data, the social network buys a company known for just that.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr

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Facebook's 290,000-square-foot data center in Lulea, Sweden Facebook

Looking to make user data more secure, Facebook announced Thursday that it has acquired secure server technology company PrivateCore.

PrivateCore, which was founded in 2012 and is based in Palo Alto, Calif., develops software that authenticates and secures server data. The company's goal is to protect servers from malware, unauthorized access, and malicious hardware devices.

This type of software would be useful to Facebook, given that the company runs tens of thousands of servers. The social network has more than 1 billion monthly active users, which means a lot of data that could be vulnerable without the right protections.

"Facebook has done more than any company to connect the world, and we want to use our secure server technology to help make the world's connections more secure," PrivateCore CEO Oded Horovitz said in a statement. "Working together with Facebook, there is a huge opportunity to pursue our joint vision at scale with incredible impact."

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a Facebook spokesperson did confirm that the social network plans to add PrivateCore's technology to its server stack.

"PrivateCore and Facebook share a vision of a more connected, secure world," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET. "We plan to deploy PrivateCore's groundbreaking technology into Facebook's server stack to help further our mission to protect the people who use our service."