Zimperium has signed a UK distribution partnership with ABC Distribution, extending the mobile security company's reach in the British market.
ABC Distribution will make Zimperium's products available to channel partners serving sectors including financial services, telecommunications, government and critical infrastructure. The deal comes as organisations face a rise in attacks targeting mobile devices and applications, including phishing delivered through text messages, messaging platforms, QR codes and social media.
Security vendors and government bodies have paid closer attention to mobile threats as fraud and cybercrime increasingly overlap on smartphones and tablets. In the UK, official policy has highlighted risks including social engineering, SIM swapping, phishing and scams that use artificial intelligence.
Many of these attacks begin directly on mobile devices or inside mobile apps, where older security systems often have limited visibility. Zimperium focuses on monitoring threats affecting devices and applications, including compromised apps, malware and attempts to exploit mobile software.
The partnership gives ABC Distribution a role in bringing those tools to resellers and service providers across the country. It includes support for partners that want to sell mobile threat defence and mobile application protection to customers with large workforces or consumer-facing apps.
For businesses, the issue is no longer limited to employees reading email on handsets. Banks, telecoms groups, public sector departments and infrastructure operators now rely on mobile channels for transactions, account access and service delivery, increasing the number of points attackers can target.
One area drawing greater scrutiny is so-called mishing, a form of phishing aimed at mobile users. These campaigns can arrive through SMS, chat apps, QR codes and social platforms, and are designed to steal credentials, hijack active sessions or support fraudulent transactions.
Government focus
The UK's latest fraud strategy has underlined mobile's role in criminal activity and in response efforts. It also set out plans for an Online Crime Centre intended to improve intelligence sharing among government, law enforcement, telecoms companies, financial institutions and technology providers.
That broader push matters for mobile security suppliers because telemetry from phones and tablets can reveal attack patterns that might otherwise be missed. Information on malicious links, compromised devices or suspicious application behaviour can help organisations spot incidents earlier and share indicators with other parts of the ecosystem.
Andy Fleet, Regional Vice President of EMEA at Zimperium, said the shift towards mobile-based attacks had changed companies' security requirements. "Mobile is now central to how modern threats are executed, from initial compromise through to transaction," Fleet said.
He linked the commercial move to the broader policy backdrop in the UK. "The UK Government's Fraud Strategy reinforces a critical reality: threats increasingly originate on mobile devices, and identity alone is no longer enough. Organisations need visibility into mobile risk to understand what is actually happening and respond in time to stop real impact. Our partnership with ABC Distribution helps bring that visibility and protection to organisations across the UK," Fleet said.
Channel route
For ABC Distribution, the agreement adds a specialist mobile security vendor to its line-up at a time when many resellers are looking to broaden their cyber offerings. Distribution partners can play an important role in this market by handling recruitment, training and commercial support for resellers that may lack in-house expertise in newer threat categories.
Chris Walsh, Managing Director at ABC Distribution, said many organisations were still relying on models that did not address threats occurring on the device itself. "Mobile threats have evolved incredibly quickly over the last few years, but many organisations are still relying on security models that were never designed to deal with attacks happening directly on the device," Walsh said.
He said visibility into on-device activity was a key point for customers. "What makes Zimperium different is the visibility it gives organisations into genuine mobile risk, whether that's phishing, compromised applications or malicious activity happening in real time on the device itself. As mobile becomes a bigger part of how people work and transact, this is an area of security that businesses simply can't afford to overlook. By partnering with Zimperium, we're enabling our partners to help customers identify those real mobile threats, understand how attacks unfold across devices and applications, and respond in minutes," Walsh said.
Zimperium, which is based in Dallas, is backed by Liberty Strategic Capital and SoftBank. Its UK expansion through a distribution agreement reflects a broader market trend as cyber suppliers seek local channel coverage for products aimed at a growing class of attacks centred on mobile devices rather than desktop systems.