More Signal. Less Noise.

V3 | Issue 2 | 1.13.21

LogRhythm acquires MistNet. Lacework closes $525 million Series D round. Intel will replace its CEO.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

LogRhythm acquires MistNet.
Lacework closes $525 million Series D round.
Intel will replace its CEO.

Mergers and acquisitions.

Boulder, Colorado-based SIEM provider LogRhythm has acquired Mountain View, California-based threat detection and hunting company MistNet. LogRhythm's president and CEO Mark Logan stated, "MistNet complements our existing SIEM platform by enhancing deep network visibility, behavior analytics and threat detection capabilities and will accelerate LogRhythm's reach into the XDR market."

Equifax has acquired fraud prevention and digital identity solutions provider Kount (based in Boise, Idaho) for $640 million. Kount's full product suite will be integrated into the Equifax Luminate Platform.

Seattle-headquartered application delivery and security firm F5 Networks has acquired distributed cloud platform provider Volterra, of Santa Clara, California, for $500 million, SecurityWeek reports. F5 said, "With the addition of Volterra's technology platform, F5 is creating an edge platform built for enterprises and service providers that will be security-first and app-driven with unlimited scale."

North Carolina-based open source software company Red Hat will acquire StackRox, a Kubernetes-native security firm headquartered in Mountain View, California. Red Hat stated, "With this acquisition, Red Hat will further expand its security leadership, adding StackRox’s complementary capabilities to strengthen integrated security across its open hybrid cloud portfolio with greater simplicity and consistency."

Axiologic Solutions, a Fairfax, Virginia-headquartered company that provides systems and IT solutions to the Federal government, has acquired Herndon, Virginia-based intelligence services firm Knowledge Link. Axiologic stated, "The addition of Knowledge Link will nearly double the size of Axiologic, strategically expand its capabilities, and allow it to bring a greater range of services and mission support to more customers across the federal national security spectrum."

Accenture has acquired Brazilian managed cybersecurity services provider Real Protect. Paulo Ossamu, Accenture Technology Lead for Latin America, stated, "Brazil is home to a variety of cybercriminal groups with specific tactics, which is a cyber threat that can be tackled with specialized Brazilian cyber defense and incident response specialists. Real Protect will bring this expertise to complement our teams all over the region and enhance our commitment to help secure our clients’ businesses across their entire ecosystems in Latin America."

Managed detection and response provider Huntress Labs, based in Ellicott City, Maryland, has acquired Recon™, an endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution from San Antonio startup Level Effect. Huntress's founder and CEO Kyle Hanslovan stated, "By integrating Recon, our platform will respond to malicious network sessions, event logs and non-persistent threats, allowing us to support broader cybersecurity use cases and defend additional attack surfaces." Level Effect's co-founders Greg Ake and Robert Noeth will join Huntress to help with the "initial integration and ongoing development of the Recon software." Huntress's press release adds that Level Effect itself "will continue to operate as its own independent business—providing cybertraining services to aspiring security practitioners looking to advance their knowledge."

Columbia, Maryland-based network security company Owl Cyber Defense has acquired Trident Systems' Assured Collaboration Systems (ACS) product line. Owl's press release states, "ACS has the only U.S. government-approved Voice over IP ("VoIP") and Video Teleconference ("VTC") Cross Domain Solution ("CDS") as well as the industry's most advanced Full Motion Video ("FMV") filtering capability – functionality critical to CDS operations in an era of drones and cameras. The acquisition gives Owl a broader range of certified network perimeter defense solutions than any competitor in the market."

Investments and exits.

Reuters reports that Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group is considering an IPO in Tel Aviv. Globes says market sources believe NSO's IPO would be valued at around $2 billion.

Lacework, a cloud security company based in San Jose, California, has secured $525 million in a Series D round led by Sutter Hill Ventures and Altimeter Capital, with participation from D1 Capital Partners, Coatue, Dragoneer Investment Group, Liberty Global Ventures, Snowflake Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. The round brings the company's total funding to nearly $600 million. Crunchbase News says the company plans to use the funding to "for product development, sales and market and international expansion—especially into Europe."

San Francisco-based embedded software security company Vdoo has raised $25 million in an extension to its Series B round, TechCrunch reports. The additional funding comes from Qumra Capital and Verizon Ventures, and brings Vdoo's total Series B funding to $57 million.

Managed intelligence provider Nisos (headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia) has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Paladin Capital Group, with participation from existing investors Columbia Capital and Skylab Capital. The company says the investment "enables Nisos to expand its marketing and operations, while extending its international footprint."

Hyperproof, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software provider with its home office in Bellevue, Washington, has raised $4 million in its third seed funding round, bringing its total funding to $10 million, GeekWire says the new funding was "raised mostly from existing backers." The company stated, "We plan to use this funding to build out additional enterprise product capabilities and its go-to-market efforts, specifically in sales, marketing, and partnerships."

Booz Allen Hamilton has invested an undisclosed amount in digital forensics and incident response firm Tracepoint.

Executive moves.

Intel is replacing its CEO Bob Swan with Pat Gelsinger, the Wall Street Journal reports. Gelsinger served as Intel's Chief Technology Officer before moving to VMware, where he'd served as CEO since 2012.

Francisco Partners has completed its acquisition of Forcepoint from Raytheon Technologies. CRN reports that following the acquisition, the company named Manny Rivelo, Senior Operating Partner at Francisco Partners, as Forcepoint's CEO, replacing Matthew Moynahan.

IBM has hired Gary Cohn as Vice Chairman and a member of its Executive Leadership Team. Cohn previously served as an economic advisor to President Trump and Director of the National Economic Council. Before that, he served as president and CEO of Goldman Sachs for ten years. IBM says, "Mr. Cohn will work in partnership with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and the IBM Executive Leadership Team on a wide range of business initiatives and external engagement, in areas including business development, client services, public advocacy and client relationship management."

Becrypt has appointed former GCHQ Chief Information Officer Nick Hopkinson has a non-executive director. The company says "The appointment is aimed at supporting and enhancing the company's focus on the development and delivery of high assurance products and services into the government, defence and security sectors, as well as related critical national infrastructure markets."

Panaseer has appointed Jonathan Gill as its new CEO, Information Age reports. Gill previously served as General Manager and Senior Vice President for EMEA at Talend. Panaseer's former CEO and founder Nik Whitfield will serve as the company's Chairman and Chief Seer.

RingCentral has hired Heather Hinton as CISO, Security Magazine reports. Hinton most recently served at IBM as Vice President and CISO for IBM's Cloud and Cognitive Software business unit.

Malwarebytes has promoted its CFO Tomas R. Fox to President. As President, Fox will continue to hold the title of CFO.

Cloudera has hired Robert Carey as President of its Government Solutions business unit and Vice President of its Public Sector unit, GovCon Wire reports. Carey previously served as Vice President of RSA Security's Global Public Sector Solutions.

Companies in the news.

Cyber risk ratings firm NormShield has rebranded itself as "Black Kite" and moved its headquarters from Vienna, Virginia to Boston, Massachusetts. The company stated, "While the award-winning software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform remains the same, the rebranding aligns the company’s vision with its capability to expand cyber risk visibility to third parties and supply chains."

CNBC reports that a misinterpreted Elon Musk tweet led to a "buying frenzy" for shares of an obscure technology component manufacturing company based in Texas. Musk tweeted, "Use Signal," presumably referring to the encrypted messaging app Signal (which Quartz notes is not a publicly traded company). Following the tweet, investors bought shares in an unrelated company called Signal Advance, sending the small company's stock up by 11,708%, Business Insider says. CNBC summarizes that "Signal Advance, which reported receiving no revenue in 2015 and 2016, is now worth more than $3 billion." (Do read before you invest, and in this case even reading the large print would have sufficed.)

Former CISA director Chris Krebs and former Facebook CISO Alex Stamos have launched a cybersecurity consultancy firm, TechCrunch reports. Their first client is SolarWinds, a Texas-based IT management company whose software was abused in a wide-ranging cyberespionage campaign by suspected Russian intelligence services.

Selected Reading

Marketplace.

Vdoo Reveals an Extension Funding Round with Qumra Capital and Verizon Ventures Joining as Investors (GlobeNewswire) Connectivity surge in telcos and utilities drives explosive demand for Vdoo’s Product Security Platform

CrowdStrike raised $750M unsecured debt capital (NASDAQ:CRWD) (SeekingAlpha) CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD -2.4%) has priced $750M of 3.000% senior notes due February 15, 2029.Offering is expected to close on January 20.

McAfee cuts staff in San Jose, including 3 vice presidents (Silicon Valley Business Journal) The San Jose cybersecurity company is reportedly making cuts elsewhere, including a closure in Israel.

Intel Ousts Chief Executive Bob Swan (Wall Street Journal) Swan will be replaced by VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger effective Feb. 15, after activist hedge fund Third Point had called for sweeping changes to revive the semiconductor giant’s fortunes.

Tech Community for Managed Service Providers Addresses Industry Regulation, Cyber Security, and Transparency (PR Newswire) MSPAlliance®, the leading standards organization for the global Managed IT Services profession, today announced that it would be addressing the...

WhatsApp really wants you to know it’s not sharing all your data with Facebook (The Verge) WhatsApp is facing a privacy reckoning, largely due to Facebook’s poor reputation.

New WhatsApp Privacy Policy Allows Data Sharing With Facebook, Users Given No Means To Opt Out (CPO Magazine) WhatsApp users who are not interested in giving Facebook access to their personal data are being told to either get in line or hit the road by February 8.

WhatsApp Affirms User Privacy Following Backlash Over Data Sharing With Facebook (MacRumors) Following backlash after changing its terms and privacy policy to consolidate a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp is now...

Mistaken Identity company Signal Advance plunges after spike in last few days (OTCMKTS:SIGL) (SeekingAlpha) Signal Advance (OTCPK:SIGL) sunk about 75%, reversing an almost 440% increase yesterday, after the stock soared in recent days following investor confusion after Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) Elon Musk tweeted to ``use Signal,'' referencing the encrypted messaging service.Musk wasn't talking about Signal AdvanceFamed tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya/Social Capital (NYSE:IPOB) also might have contributed to the gain after he tweeted over the weekend to longer text him on Whatsapp and instead download Signal after he said that Whatsapp will begin sharing its data with Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) in February.Signal Advance CEO Dr.

Following Trump Ban, Facebook Tells Employees to Avoid Wearing Company-Branded Apparel (The Information) Facebook on Monday told employees to avoid wearing or carrying company-branded clothing and other items in public following the company’s suspension last week of President Donald Trump’s account and its more recent crackdown on content mentioning “Stop the Steal,” an online movement that falsely ...

Amazon begins removing QAnon goods for sale, after booting pro-Trump Parler from its cloud service (Washington Post) The e-commerce company will block sales of products that reference the baseless conspiracy theory whose adherents were among those that stormed the U.S. Capitol

An update following the riots in Washington, DC (Twitter) Twitter’s work to protect the conversation following the riots in Washington, DC

It’s not just Twitter and Big Tech racing to contain damage from Capitol attack (Silicon Valley Business Journal) While Trump-related account suspensions by tech giants have drawn the most attention, a number of other companies in the Bay Area have been taking action against accounts connected to the President and supporters who were involved in last week's events in Washington. Here's a look at some of them.

Google’s New Union Is Already Addressing Political Issues (Wired) The Alphabet Workers Union isn’t seeking better pay and benefits. It wants to influence the company’s policies on social and other issues.

GitHub reportedly fired a Jewish employee who warned co-workers to stay safe from Nazis (The Verge) The HR team at GitHub chastised the employee for using the word "Nazi" in the company Slack.

GoFundMe Has Banned Fundraisers For Travel To Trump Rallies (BuzzFeed News) Trump supporters are planning and preparing for more inauguration-related rallies, but they will no longer be able to use GoFundMe to help them get there.

YouTube Suspends President Trump’s Account (Wall Street Journal) YouTube suspended President Trump’s channel, joining a growing list of tech companies that are ejecting him from their platforms.

AT&T, Verizon, Comcast halt donations to lawmakers who opposed Biden's election (Light Reading) Lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who voted against the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory, won't get money from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Big Law Firms Join In PAC-Freezing Following Capitol Attack (New York Law Journal) Following the lead of several major banks and corporations, the firms are reassessing where money from their political action committees goes.

Cymulate Announces Exceptional Revenue and Company Growth in 2020 (PR Newswire) Cymulate, the only SaaS-based Continuous Security Validation platform to operationalize the MITRE ATT&CK® framework end-to-end, today announced...

Huntress Acquires Network-Aware Endpoint Detection and Response Technology from Level Effect to Strengthen Platform Capabilities (GlobeNewswire) The acquisition brings malicious network traffic detection and expanded forensic capabilities to the Huntress Security Platform regardless of endpoint location

Cyware Announces Follow-on Investment as part of its Series A Fundraise (PR Newswire) Cyware, the industry's only Virtual Cyber Fusion Center Platform provider featuring next-generation SOAR technology, today announced that it...

PE Firm Completes Acquisition of Forcepoint (SecurityWeek) Investment firm Francisco Partners has completed its previously announced acquisition of Forcepoint from Raytheon Technologies.

Accenture Acquires Real Protect, Brazil-Based Information Security Company (BusinessWire) Accenture acquired Real Protect, a provider of managed security and cyber defense services.

More companies suspend political funding after storming of U.S. Capitol (SeekingAlpha) Following in the footsteps of Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C), a growing number of big businesses have decided to suspend or review their campaign donations in the wake of last week's riot at the U.S.

U.S. Stocks Finish Lower on New Risks (Wall Street Journal) The Dow falls after ending last week at its third record close of 2021

Twitter shares close down more than 6% first trading day after Trump ban (CNBC) Twitter made the decision to remove President Trump "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," after the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump Supporters Used GoFundMe To “Build An Army” In DC (BuzzFeed News) Trump supporters used the popular crowdfunding platform to raise money to attend the president’s rally in Washington, DC.

Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning ‘Stop the Steal’ (Wall Street Journal) Citing use of the phrase among members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, the tech giant said its move is aimed at stemming incitements to violence ahead of Inauguration Day.

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Facebook appoints civil rights vice president amid pressure over racial hatred, violence on Facebook, Instagram (USA TODAY) Civil rights attorney Roy L. Austin, Jr. is charged with curbing racial hatred and violence on Facebook and Instagram after damning internal audit.

Following riots, alternative social apps and private messengers top the app stores (TechCrunch) Alternative social media apps, including MeWe, CloutHub and other privacy-focused rivals to big tech, are topping the app stores following Trump’s ban from mainstream social platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the more recent removal of conservative social app Parler from both the App Sto…

Confused users in search of Parler push the app 'Parlor' to top of app store charts (Mashable) Parler's been banned, and Parlor is reaping the benefits.

The Rise And Fall Of Parler (Avast) Taking an in-depth look at the popularity surge and recent takedown of social media platform Parler.

America Censored! New Social Media Platform Features Zero Tolerance for the Censure of Free Thought (PR Newswire) WhyWould.com Excerpts from an article in the New York Times; January 1st, 1984 edition reviewing George Orwell's' famous literary work "1984"...

Why WhatsApp’s New Privacy Rules Sparked an Exodus (Bloomberg) Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp has begun alerting its 2 billion users of an update to its privacy policy -- and if they want to keep using the popular messaging app, they have to accept it. The new terms, delivered in early 2021, have caused an outcry among technology experts, privacy advocates, billionaire entrepreneurs and government organizations and triggered a wave of defections to rival services.

WhatsApp users flock to rival app from co-founder’s group in Mountain View (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Elon Musk fueled the shift to the new app when he tweeted, "Use Signal," on Thursday and that endorsement was retweeted by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Palo Alto Networks Inc: Is This Cybersecurity Stock Becoming a 5G Play? (Profit Confidential) This is a look at Palo Alto Networks Inc (NYSE:PANW), a cybersecurity company that now also deserves the attention of 5G stock investors.

CIA Recruiting Next Generation Employees and DARPA Wants a Genius Bar (ClearanceJobs) The CIA makes it clear that they have hiring goals to meet with their upgrades to their recruiting website and DARPA doesn't want companies to get lost in the innovation world.

Army Selects Palantir, Raytheon To Support Development Of TITAN Intelligence System (Defense Daily) The Army has awarded a pair of deals to Palantir Technologies and Raytheon Intelligence & Space to support development and software maturation for the

Francisco Partners Completes Acquisition of Forcepoint (PR Newswire) Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses, today...

Equifax Buys Fraud Prevention Firm Kount in $640 Million Deal (SecurityWeek) Equifax will acquire Kount for $640 Million to expand its worldwide footprint in digital identity and fraud prevention solutions.

Booz Allen Invests in Industry Leading Digital Forensics and Incident Response Company Tracepoint (BusinessWire) Booz Allen announces a strategic investment in Tracepoint, an industry leading digital forensics and incident response company.

StackRox Acquisition By Red Hat Underscores The Significance Of DevSecOps (Forbes) Last week, Red Hat announced that it’s acquiring StackRox, a California-based Kubernetes security company founded in 2014.

Lacework Scores $525M in Security Battle Against Palo Alto Networks (SDxCentral) Cloud security startup Lacework closed a $525 million funding round that pushed its valuation “well over $1 billion,” CEO Dan Hubbard said.

Cyber Risk Ratings Leader NormShield Rebrands to "Black Kite" (NormShield) Relocates Headquarters to Boston with Plans to Double Size Again in 2021 BOSTON – January 11, 2021 Black Kite, the cyber risk ratings company formerly known as NormShield, today revealed its new name,

Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos have started a cyber consulting firm (TechCrunch) And they already have their first client: SolarWinds.

SolarWinds Fights Back With Chris Krebs, Alex Stamos Hires (CRN) SolarWinds has brought in two of the world’s most famous security minds to help the embattled vendor pick up the pieces after the colossal Russian hacking campaign.

Our Plan for a Safer SolarWinds and Customer Community (Orange Matter) I joined the SolarWinds family earlier this week as the new Chief Executive Officer. Although I accepted the position to become CEO before the Company was notified of the cyberattack, I feel an even greater commitment now to taking action, ensuring we learn from ...

Bellingcat breaks stories that newsrooms envy — using methods newsrooms avoid (Washington Post) How a global collective of sleuths unmasked Alexei Navalny’s assailants via data bought on the Russian black market. Their next target: The mob that attacked the Capitol.

Twitter bans Trump’s account, citing risk of further violence (Washington Post) The suspension amounted to a historic rebuke for a president who had used the social-networking site to rise to political prominence.

Twitter Bans President Trump’s Account Permanently (Wall Street Journal) Twitter cited the risk of further incitement of violence in the wake of this week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump (Twitter) Suspension of @realDonaldTrump

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Trump tweets video after Twitter's lock on his account expires (CNET) The outgoing president's account was locked for 12 hours due to tweets that violated Twitter's rules and amid a pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill.

Google suspends Parler from app store after deadly U.S. Capitol violence (Axios) The tech company has dropped the app in light of its "ongoing and urgent public safety threat."

Apple Suspends Parler From App Store (Wall Street Journal) Apple has suspended Parler from the App Store amid concerns the app’s owner hasn’t done enough to address threats of violence on the platform.

Amazon employees call for company to cut ties with Parler after deadly U.S. Capitol riot (CNBC) "We cannot be complicit in more bloodshed and violent attacks on our democracy," the employee advocacy group wrote in a tweet.

Parler CEO Says Service Dropped By “Every Vendor” And Could End His Business (Deadline) Parler CEO John Matze said today that his social media company has been dropped by virtually all of its business alliances after Amazon, Apple and Google ended their agreements with the social medi…

Parler jumps to No. 1 on App Store after Facebook and Twitter ban Trump (TechCrunch) Users are surging on small, conservative, social media platforms after President Donald Trump’s ban from the world’s largest social networks, even as those platforms are seeing access throttled by the app marketplaces of tech’s biggest players. The social network, Parler, a networ…

Trump Responds to Twitter's Permanent Account Suspension (Epoch Times) President Donald Trump responded to Twitter's move to permanently suspend his account from its platform late Friday, saying that the big tech giant does not stand for free speech.

A farewell to @realDonaldTrump, gone after 57,000 tweets (AP NEWS) @realDonaldTrump, the Twitter feed that grew from the random musings of a reality TV star into the cudgel of an American president, died Friday. It was not quite 12 years...

Conservative #WalkAway Facebook page removed along with hundreds of thousands of videos and followers (Washington Examiner) Conservative activist Brandon Straka announced that Facebook has removed his page with over half a million followers and also banned members of his team.

Reddit bans subreddit group "r/DonaldTrump" (Axios) It's one of Reddit's largest political communities dedicated to support for President Trump.

Discord bans pro-Trump server ‘The Donald’ (The Verge) "We have a zero-tolerance policy against hate and violence of any kind on the platform."

YouTube bans Steve Bannon's War Room podcast channel (CNET) The ban comes as social platforms have cracked down on misinformation and content that could incite violence following the storming of the Capitol.

WSJ News Exclusive | Stripe Stops Processing Payments for Trump Campaign Website (Wall Street Journal) The financial-technology company is cutting off the president’s campaign account for violating its policies against encouraging violence.

All the platforms that have banned or restricted Trump so far (Axios) Platforms are rapidly removing Trump’s account or those affiliated with pro-Trump violence and conspiracies.

Not Easy, Not Unreasonable, Not Censorship: The Decision To Ban Trump From Twitter (TechDirt) When I started writing this post, it was about Facebook's decision to suspend Trump's account indefinitely, and at least until Joe Biden is inaugurated in a couple weeks. I had lots to say on that... and then Friday afternoon, Twitter decided to ban Trump's Twitter account permanently. This is a bigger deal, not just because it's permanent, rather than indefinite, but because so much of Trump's identity over the last four years (and before that) is tied up in his Twitter account and followers.

The Deplatforming of President Trump (New York Times) He is running out of places to post.

In Pulling Trump’s Megaphone, Twitter Shows Where Power Now Lies (New York Times) The ability of a handful of people to control our public discourse has never been more obvious.

In silencing president, two tech giants show where power now lies (Silicon Valley Business Journal) In the end, two billionaires from California — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Jack Dorsey — did what legions of politicians, prosecutors and power brokers had tried and failed to do for years.

'Strong political activists' will stay on Twitter, BofA says, reiterating Buy (NYSE:TWTR) (SeekingAlpha) BofA Securities is keeping its Buy rating on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), with a price target of $58/share in the wake of the company's decision to ban President Donald Trump.There is a near-term 1Q threat to daily active user count (DAUs) from "churn from the conservative community", although DAUs on Parler are 0.37% of Twitter's U.S.

Sci-Hub Founder Criticises Sudden Twitter Ban Over Over "Counterfeit" Content (TorrentFreak) Twitter suspended the account of Sci-Hub, often referred to as the Pirate Bay of science, for violating the counterfeit policy.

Sex workers say 'defunding Pornhub' puts their livelihoods at risk (BBC News) Credit card companies are blocking payments to adult site Pornhub, which is hitting sex workers' earnings.

Trump’s Ban on Chinese Stocks Roils Investors (Wall Street Journal) U.S. investors have borne the brunt of an executive order signed by President Trump that was meant to hit the Chinese military by curtailing access to American dollars.

Wall Street firms reduce exposure to Chinese telcos as U.S. ban approaches (Reuters) Wall Street firms in Hong Kong including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have set out plans to reduce exposure to Chinese telecom companies named in a U.S. ban on investments in companies Washington considers linked to China's military.

It’s Boom Time For ‘White Hat’ Hackers As Indian Payments Go Digital (BloombergQuint) Rajshekhar Rajaharia brought the Juspay data breach to light. Is it boom for time for ethical hackers as digital payments surge?

Top 10 Cybersecurity Interview Questions and Answers (SearchSecurity) Are you getting ready for a cybersecurity job interview? Here are the top 10 cybersecurity interview questions you should know the answers to.

Managed Intelligence Provider Nisos Raises $6 Million to Counter Disinformation and Cyber Threats (BusinessWire) Managed intelligence provider Nisos announces funding to counter disinformation and cyber threats. Company names new CEO to propel expansion.

F5 to Acquire Volterra in Deal Valued at $500 Million (SecurityWeek) F5 Networks agreed to acquire Volterra, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of tools that help customers deploy applications and build clouds across multiple cloud providers or their own edge location

RedHat is acquiring container security company StackRox (TechCrunch) RedHat today announced that it’s acquiring container security startup StackRox . The companies did not share the purchase price. RedHat, which is perhaps best known for its enterprise Linux products has been making the shift to the cloud in recent years. IBM purchased the company in 2018 for …

Fairfax tech company acquires Herndon intelligence services firm (Virginia Business) Fairfax-based federal technology company Axiologic Solutions LLC announced Thursday it has acquired Herndon-based intelligence services firm Knowledge Link. It is Axiologic’s first acquisition. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the acquisition will nearly double the size of Axiologic, according to a company statement. “Through the combination of Axiologic and Knowledge Link, we’ll…

It’s time to deplatform Trump (The Verge) After today, platforms should finally see the moral clarity about their role in world events.

Michelle Obama calls on Silicon Valley to permanently ban Trump and prevent platform abuse by future leaders (TechCrunch) In a new statement issued by former First Lady Michelle Obama, she calls on Silicon Valley specifically to address its role in the violent insurrection attempt by pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. Obama’s statement also calls out the obviously biased treatment that …

Facebook and Instagram block #StormTheCapitol, lock Trump out of posting for 24 hours (TechCrunch) After removing a video in which President Trump praised a violent group of his supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol building, Facebook is rolling out a new set of rules in response to the day’s shocking events. Both Facebook and Instagram also announced that the president would be locke…

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Facebook Forced Its Employees To Stop Discussing Trump's Coup Attempt (BuzzFeed News) “What excuse did we use not to ban him this time?”

Even Mark Zuckerberg Has Had Enough of Trump (Wired) By freezing the president’s accounts, social media platforms finally drew a line. It only took a violent insurrection in the Capitol to get them there.

YouTube says it will punish Trump and other channels that continue to spread election lies (The Verge) YouTube is taking more aggressive action against 2020 election misinformation.

Twitch disables Trump’s account indefinitely (The Verge) The company says it will reassess Trump’s account after he leaves office.

TikTok bans videos of Trump inciting mob, blocks #stormthecapital and other hashtags (TechCrunch) For obvious reasons, Trump doesn’t have a TikTok account. But the president’s speeches that helped incite the mob who yesterday stormed the U.S. Capitol will have no home on TikTok’s platform. The company confirmed to TechCrunch its content policy around the Capitol riots will see…

Shopify Takes Trump Organization and Campaign Stores Offline (Wall Street Journal) Online stores run by the Trump Organization and Trump campaign were taken offline on Thursday by the e-commerce software provider, which said President Trump violated company policy against promoting violence.

Data compliance startup Hyperproof raises $4M as pandemic puts spotlight on security and privacy (GeekWire) Hyperproof, a Bellevue, Wash.-based startup that helps companies comply with state and international privacy and data protection laws, has raised a $4 million seed round. "We are growing fast and this…

Lacework lands $525M investment as revenue grows 300% (TechCrunch) As the pandemic took hold in 2020, companies accelerated their move to cloud services. Lacework, the cloud security startup, was in the right place at the right time as customers looked for ways to secure their cloud native workloads. The company reported that revenue grew 300% year over year for t…

Md. cybersecurity company acquires Fairfax company's product line (Virginia Business) Columbia, Maryland-based cybersecurity company Owl Cyber Defense Solutions LLC announced Tuesday it has acquired Fairfax-based Trident’s Assured Collaboration Systems (ACS) product line. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The ACS product line includes voice over IP, video teleconference, cross domain solution and full-motion video filtering capabilities. The acquisition adds network defense services to…

Managed Intelligence Provider Nisos Raises $6 Million to Counter Disinformation and Cyber Threats (BusinessWire) Managed intelligence provider Nisos announces funding to counter disinformation and cyber threats. Company names new CEO to propel expansion.

Israeli cyber firm NSO Group mulls Tel Aviv IPO at $2 billion value - reports (Reuters) Israeli cyber surveillance firm NSO Group is considering an initial public offering (IPO), most likely in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported, citing sources close to the matter.

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European Commission makes its first equity investments into startups (Sifted) The European Commission has made its first direct equity investments into startups — backing 42 companies from around Europe.

3 Top Cybersecurity Stocks For 2021 As The Sector Heats Up (Investing.com) Stocks Analysis by Investing.com (Jesse Cohen/Investing.com) covering: ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF, First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF, Okta Inc, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. Read Investing.com (Jesse Cohen/Investing.com)'s latest article on Investing.com

The Hot 150 Cybersecurity Companies To Watch In 2020 (Cybercrime Magazine) Annual list of the world’s hottest pure-play cybersecurity companies Selection Criteria

Interview with Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security (TechRound) We caught up with Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security to discuss all things Keeper and what advice Darren Guccione...

Products, services, and solutions.

PC Matic Selected to Join NIST ‘National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence’ (PC Matic TechTalk) Cybersecurity firm joins public-private partnership for cyber-innovations; Center facilitates cross-sector creation of cybersecurity solutions; Aims to deliver standards-based and easy to implement cyber-solutions for businesses Myrtle Beach, SC – Today, American cybersecurity firm, PC Matic, announced it has been named a partner to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE). The public-private partnership, launched in 2012, is

Confluera Announces Interoperability with VMware Carbon Black to Expand XDR Capabilities (BusinessWire) Confluera, the leading provider of Extended Detection and Response (XDR), today announced interoperability with VMware Carbon Black that will further

HaystackID™ Launches ReviewRight Protect™ to Provide Companies with Faster, More Efficient Data Breach Discovery and Review (PR Newswire) Companies suffering from data breaches can now assess their exposure, identify the at-risk data, and get back online more quickly with a new...

NetCraftsmen® and Gluware Launch Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Adoption of Intelligent Network Automation (Herald Mail) NetCraftsmen, LLC today announced that it has launched a strategic partnership with Gluware, Inc., the leading provider of Intelligent Network Automation for global enterprises.

Experian Selected as Leading Provider of Digital Identity Solutions (BusinessWire) Juniper Research acknowledges Experian's pedigree in the digital identity industry and gives high marks for strength of product.

Synamedia Partners With Akamai to Speed Pirate Take Downs (MarTech Series) Synamedia, the world's largest independent video software provider, announced that its security and watermarking solutions are now integrated with Akamai, the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences, to protect customers' streaming OTT content.

SmartSearch U.S. Launches Enhanced Anti-fraud Solution (PR Newswire) In response to Congress passing some of the most significant anti-money laundering (AML) legislation in decades, anti-fraud specialist...

Coalfire Federal Becomes CMMC Registered Provider (Coalfire.com) Leading Cybersecurity Services Provider to DIB Announces a Comprehensive Portfolio of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Advisory Services

Source Defense Partners With PCI Security Standards Council to Help Secure Payment Data Worldwide (PR Newswire) Source Defense, the market leader in client-side website security, announced today it has joined the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)...

ThreatLocker Elevation Control Adds Privileged Access Management (PAM) to Application Control Suite to Help MSPs Streamline Management of Local Admin Rights (BusinessWire) ThreatLocker today announced ThreatLocker Elevation Control, a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution that provides MSPs with the ability to quic

RangeForce Partners with Managed Detection and Response Provider CRITICALSTART (BusinessWire) Under terms of the agreement, CRITICALSTART will provide the RangeForce interactive cybersecurity training platform to its customers.

AlgoSec Strengthens and Simplifies Cloud and SDN Security Management (GlobeNewswire) New A32 version of Network Security Policy Management Suite deepens visibility and control over hybrid environments, enables secure micro-segmentation deployment and delivers enhanced SDN and SD-WAN integrations

Cybereason and Intel Drive New Silicon Enabled Ransomware Protections (PRWeb) Cybereason today announced a collaboration to adopt new Intel® Hardware Shield protections for Ransomware available on the 11th Gen Intel® Core™ vPro® mobile platf

Cowbell Cyber Adds Highly Anticipated Excess Cyber Insurance Line (PR Newswire) Cowbell Cyber, the industry's first AI-powered cyber insurance provider for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the...

QuoLab Introduces New Reporting Functionality Feature for Security Operations Platform (BusinessWire) QuoLab has released a new capability for its platform that allows users to generate reports that translate complex data into actionable intelligence.

Mastercard launches cybersecurity centre for SMEs (Finextra Research) Small businesses are the backbone of economic growth. The needs of small businesses have not changed during the pandemic, but they have grown more acute.

Fortinet promises free cybersecurity training until skills gap trend reverses (Security Brief) We are committed to continue offering the entire catalogue of self-paced Network Security Expert training at no cost until we see the skills gap trend reverse.

Signal has better privacy policies than WhatsApp or Telegram — here’s why (Plugged | The Next Web) WhatsApp made one of its most controversial changes to its privacy policy last week. The new policy gives the app more freedom to integrate with Facebook and let users chat with businesses easily; this also means the app will collect a lot of your data. Because of this change, there has been a lot of […]

Radware’s Cloud DDoS Protection Service Selected by Fortune 100 Industrial Company (GlobeNewswire) Radware Protects Customer’s Global Data Centers to Mitigate Current and Future Threats

Zero Security Research Labs Tops Cyber Security Field Through Its Exceptional Proactive Techniques in Unmasking Criminals (Yahoo Finance) In 2020 alone, statistics have shown that about 78% of companies in the United States encountered cyber attacks. Data breaches in American enterprises have led to an average of $392 million in losses, and in 2019, there had been over 1,000 data breaches exposing 147 million records.

HORIZON Lab Systems Receives Elite Cyber Verify AAA Risk Assurance Rating (PR Newswire) HORIZON Lab Systems today announced that it has received the MSPAlliance® Cyber Verify™ Risk Assurance Rating for Managed Services and Cloud...

Facial-Recognition Startup Clearview Moves to Limit Risk of Police Abuse (Wall Street Journal) The controversial startup that provides facial-recognition technology to law enforcement is rolling out new compliance features aimed at preventing misuse of the technology, CEO Hoan Ton-That said.

NeoSystems Reaches CMMC-AB Registered Practitioner Organization Status (PR Newswire) NeoSystems, a full service strategic back-office outsourcer, IT systems integrator and managed services provider, announced today that it has...

Actionable Threat Intelligence Available for Sunburst Cyber Attacks on SolarWinds (Anomali) On Dec. 13, FireEye published a detailed analysis about the attack carried out against SolarWinds, which appears to have compromised its Orion IT monitoring and management platform to spread the Sunburst Backdoor malware.

Detecting Sunburst (AKA the SolarWinds Compromise) With RITA and AI-Hunter (Active Countermeasures) Intro By now you’ve seen multiple news reports that FireEye, NASA, the Pentagon, the Treasury and Commerce departments, and possibly even the White […]

Kubernetes Security Essentials Course Now Available (Linux Foundation - Training) Today Linux Foundation Training & Certification and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation are announcing the availability of our newest training course, LFS260 – Kubernetes Security Essentials. The course provides skills...

Motorola (MSI) Enhances Cybersecurity Services for Public Safety (Nasdaq) In a bid to curb the rising incidences of cyber threats, Motorola Solutions, Inc. MSI recently announced the inclusion of additional services to its cybersecurity services portfolio.

Texas Security Bank increases cybersecurity precautions (Dallas Business Journal) The bank has partnered with several third-party vendors to up its defense against cyber attacks.

Computex Technology Solutions Achieves Nutanix Cloud Champion Status — The Highest Tier in the Nutanix Elevate Partner Program (Computex) Computex Demonstrates Exceptional Depth and Breadth of Technical Product, Services and Support Expertise Across Nutanix Portfolio of Cloud Software and Hyperconverged Infrastructure Solutions Houston, TX (January 6, 2021) – Computex Technology Solutions — an American Virtual Cloud Technologies Inc. company, IT solutions provider and one of CRN’s Tech Elite 250 — today announced it has […]

4C Announces Partnership with AppOmni to Help Enterprises Simplify Security of Mission-Critical SaaS Applications (4C) 4C, a Wipro Company, is excited to announce its partnership with AppOmni, a leading provider of advanced SaaS security software.

SentinelOne Releases Free SUNBURST Attack Identification Assessment Tool (BusinessWire) Tool Enables Enterprises to Emulate SUNBURST and Identify Cybersecurity Readiness

Wind River Labs Unveiled to Drive Developer Innovation at the Intelligent Edge (Wind River Labs) Developer-focused site provides access to software projects, proofs-of-concept, open source integrations, experimental software, and first-ever freely available VxWorks® SDK.

Cyberbit Leverages XSOAR to Power Orchestration and Automation on Cyberbit Skills Development Platform (Cyberbit) Cyberbit, the world’s leading provider of Cyber Skills Development Platforms, today announced that XSOAR, the world’s leading Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platform, is now available on Cyberbit and is integrated into hands-on incident response simulation exercises.

Telos Announces Latest Version of its Next-Generation Cyber Risk Management Platform (Telos Corporation) Xacta.io 1.5 expands support for scanning and compliance of AWS cloud resources

Constella Intelligence Upgrades Hunter for Efficient, Targeted and Intuitive Investigations (PR Newswire) Constella Intelligence ("Constella"), a leading global Digital Risk Protection business, today announced the release of Hunter, a platform for...

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HITRUST Announces Changes to Executive Leadership Team (Odessa American) HITRUST ®, a leading data protection standards development and certification organization, announced today strategic organizational changes in the form of new leadership appointments as well as new and expanded responsibilities for existing executive management.

SecurityWeek Names Ryan Naraine as Editor-at-Large (SecurityWeek) SecurityWeek has hired Ryan Naraine as Editor-at-Large, adding a veteran cybersecurity journalist and podcaster to its editorial team.

Forcepoint Snags Former Arista, F5 Exec Manny Rivelo As CEO (CRN) Forcepoint has named Manny Rivelo as CEO following the company’s $1.1 billion sale from Raytheon to private equity firm Francisco Partners.

Former KeyW Exec Kirk Herdman Appointed VTG National Security Solutions Business Head (GovCon Wire) Kirk Herdman, formerly executive vice president of business and corporate development at KeyW, has j

Hacking victim SolarWinds hires ex-Homeland Security official Krebs as consultant (Reuters) The company used by hackers as a springboard for the worst-known breach of U.S. government computers in at least five years has hired some of the biggest names in security to help it recover.

St. Louis Character: How Jarrett Kolthoff found his niche in cybersecurity (St. Louis Business Journal) Jarrett Kolthoff is president and CEO of St. Louis-based cybersecurity and counterintelligence firm SpearTip, which helps protect organizations from digital attacks.

Heather Hinton joins RingCentral as CISO (Security Magazine) RingCentral announced that industry security veteran, Heather Hinton has joined as the company’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Hinton joins RingCentral from IBM, where she spent 13 years in various leadership positions, most recently as vice president and IBM distinguished engineer, and CISO for the company’s Cloud and Cognitive Software business unit.

Malwarebytes promotes Thomas R. Fox to President (Help Net Security) Malwarebytes has announced Thomas R. Fox, its current chief financial officer, has been promoted to President.

Panaseer appoints Jonathan Gill as CEO (Information Age) Enterprise security platform Panaseer has appointed Jonathan Gill as its new CEO, with Gill succeeding its founder, Nik Whitfield

Malwarebytes Promotes Thomas R. Fox to President After Leading Transformative Change in the Business (PR Newswire) Malwarebytes™, a leading provider of advanced endpoint protection and remediation solutions, today announced Thomas R. Fox, its current chief...

Former GCHQ CIO strengthens Becrypt's Board (ResponseSource) Becrypt has announced the appointment of Nick Hopkinson to join as a non-executive director. The appointment is aimed at supporting and enhancing the company's focus on the development and delivery of...

Gary Cohn, Former Trump Adviser, Joins IBM (Wall Street Journal) IBM appointed the former Goldman Sachs executive and economic adviser to President Trump its vice chairman and a member of its executive leadership team as the tech company tries to revive its fortunes.