More Signal. Less Noise.

V4 | Issue 39 | 9.28.22

Allurity acquires Aiuken Cybersecurity. Malwarebytes receives $100 million in funding. Moody’s releases new report detailing cyber risk.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

Allurity acquires Aiuken Cybersecurity.
Malwarebytes receives $100 million in funding.
Moody’s releases new report detailing cyber risk.

Mergers and acquisitions.

Swedish cybersecurity provider Allurity has acquired Spanish Aiuken Cybersecurity. Juan Miguel Velasco, CEO of Aiuken Cybersecurity, said, “We are proud to join forces with this flourishing European group that has big ambitions to have a long-term impact and drive our growth in the cybersecurity sector. We believe they will be truly valuable and contribute towards our continued rapid expansion with a shared vision to help organisations secure their digital assets via security solutions that combine the best of human and machine intelligence.”

Application security and controls automation provider Pathlock, based out of Dallas, has acquired United Kingdom-based Grey Monarch, a specialist SAP consultancy company. Pathlock says that the acquisition will “strengthen Pathlock's vision of providing the industry's most complete 360-degree platform for application security and controls automation for the SAP ecosystem.”

Investments and exits.

Cybersecurity company Malwarebytes has received $100 million in funding from Vector Capital. Despite a recent layoff of about 125 employees, the company says that cash flow is positive and they are continuing to hire. The company says the funding will be used to “consolidate its ownership structure and to further build out its product portfolio.”

Decentralized data platform Space and Time has raised $20 million in funding, led by Microsoft’s M12, with investments from Framework Ventures, HashKey, SevenX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon and Avalanche’s ecosystem fund Blizzard. Nate Holiday, Space and Time’s co-founder and CEO, said to TechCrunch, “Our mission is to make smart contracts smarter and expand the use cases of business logic through smart contracts. We see a world where smart contracts will operate the business logic of the world through advanced automation.”

Executive moves.

AttackIQ has appointed George Tomic as the company’s Chief Development Officer.

NetWitness has appointed Tod Ewasko as the company’s Chief Product Officer.

BioCatch has named Jonathan W. Daly as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Forter has named Eran Vanounou as the company’s Chief Technology Officer.

OPSWAT has promoted Stephen Gorham to Chief Operating Officer for the company.

SecurityScorecard has appointed Susan M. Gordon to their Board of Directors.

Optiv Federal has named John Trauth as the company’s General Manager.

Cobalt has appointed Jeri Allan as the company’s Chief Sales Officer.

Blackbird.AI has appointed Douglas Lute to the company’s Advisory Board.

Seerist Federal has appointed Robert Cardillo to its Board of Directors.

BedRock Systems has appointed Sean Plankey as Chief Architect for Energy and Critical Industries.

Coalfire has appointed Merri Chandler as Chief Financial Officer, and Aparna Dasai Williams as General Counsel.

Traceable AI has named Richard Bird as the company’s Chief Security Officer.

Revelstoke has added Ben Christensen and John Sharpe to its Advisory Board.

Company news.

Moody’s Investors Service has released a report detailing cyber risk. It has been found that there is a worldwide rise in cyber risk across more than 70 sectors. Critical infrastructure was found to have a very high cyber risk exposure, with banks, telecommunications, technology, chemicals, energy and transportation services also facing high risk. Analyst and lead author of the report, Steven Libretti, said in a press release, "Cyber risk is rising. However, we are witnessing correlated growth in robust security program investments, as industries prioritize the need to assess and quantify the risk to inform key strategy decisions, mitigate supply chain risk, and ensure investor confidence.”

Selected Reading

Marketplace

Bitdefender Launches Multi-Year Formula One Partnership with Scuderia Ferrari (Business Wire) Bitdefender announced it has entered into a multi-year partnership with Ferrari S.p.A., to become Cybersecurity global partner of Scuderia Ferrari.

Optus smart to get cyber insurance (Australian Financial Review) Optus will be able to mitigate a portion of the costs of a cyberattack that looks to have left the details of up to 9.8 million customers floating around on the dark web.

Teleport Recognized by Inc. and Great Places to Work for Rapid Growth and Company Culture (PR Newswire) Teleport, the market leader in Identity-native Infrastructure Access, has been recognized for its growth, product and company culture in the...

CyberGRX Recognized With Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Market Leadership Award (Business Wire) CyberGRX today announced that Frost & Sullivan named the company the 2022 North America Market Leader in the cyber risk management industry.

VPN Providers Remove Servers From India In Wake Of New Data Collection Laws (Techdirt) VPN providers remain a primary target of governments around the world (authoritarian leaning and otherwise) that don’t much like their citizens chatting privately or avoiding government surve…

Another VPN service leaves India, defies Indian Govt laws: Know why (HT Tech) Proton VPN service leaves India for the same reasons as Nord and Express VPN services. Here are all the details.

USTRANSCOM Selects Electrosoft for $21M SISO Support Services Contract (PR Newswire) Electrosoft Services, Inc., an award-winning federal IT and professional services firm specializing in cybersecurity, announced today it has...

Akamai Turns Up Linode Past 11 (Akamai) First phase to double the scale of Linode global footprint

M&A Technology Stalwart Goes All in on Cybersecurity (Mergers & Acquisitions) An Interview with Thoma Bravo’s Chip Virnig.

Cyber Threat Alliance Extends Membership to 6+ Leading International Cybersecurity Companies (Cyber Threat Alliance) Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), a nonprofit organization working to improve the cybersecurity of the global digital ecosystem, is announcing a recent growth in membership that expands our reach to a total of 36 active members across the world. We are pleased to announce our newest members include: Blueliv, Cloudbric, DataDome, […]

Check Point scales Singapore base to bolster cyber headcount (Channel Asia) Check Point has expanded its Singapore office to house more than 100 staff in Singapore and another 750 employees across 16 countries in Asia Pacific.

Palo Alto Networks Stock Split: The Real Reason It Matters (Nasdaq) Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) recently completed its three-for-one stock split.

‘What Am I Going to Do Now?’: Fired Crypto Workers Weigh Life After the Boom (The Information) On July 14, James Hu was sitting in his “fabulously expensive” apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He had just returned from the Soho offices of OpenSea, the non-fungible token marketplace, where he had been laid off from his job and locked out of his work computer. The event was not exactly a ...

Mandiant, Google, And The Future Of Cloud Cybersecurity (Forbes) Google recently acquired Mandiant for $5.4 billion as they continue to invest heavily in the cloud cybersecurity sector. Let’s break down Mandiant, Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and the future of securing the cloud.

BlackRock backs CyberTech Deep Instinct (FinTech Global) Deep Instinct, a US threat prevention technology business, has raised $62.5m in new funding.

Nordic private equity firms pursue cyber security acquisitions (ComputerWeekly) Increasing interest in the security sector from Nordic private equity firms is a reflection of growing threats and increasing enterprise security budgets.

WSJ News Exclusive | Proton CEO Is Shutting Down India VPN Servers to Protest Cybersecurity Rules (Wall Street Journal) Switzerland’s Proton VPN is pulling its servers from India, the latest provider to protest the country’s new cybersecurity rules.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz bets on community immunity for breach protection (SiliconANGLE) Should cybersecurity companies offer warranty protection in the event of a breach?

The $8.6 Billion Startup That Helps Governments Trace Crypto (Bloomberg) Chainalysis software puts the lie to the idea that Bitcoin guarantees anonymity.

Products, Services, and Solutions

UserTesting’s New Templates Help Companies Humanize Data Privacy and Security (Business Wire) UserTesting’s New Templates Help Companies Humanize Data Privacy and Security

StackHawk Launches Deeper API Security Test Coverage to Improve the Security of APIs (PR Newswire) StackHawk, the company making application security testing part of software delivery, today announced its Deeper API Security Test Coverage...

Secure Code Warrior Unveils Coding Labs (Business Wire) Coding Labs, an industry-first experiential learning mechanism enabling developers to write and test code in an integrated development environment.

NetWitness Announces New Managed Detection and Response Service (Business Wire) NetWitness, a globally trusted provider of threat detection and response technology and incident response services, today announced the availability o

RackTop Named Leader for File-Based Primary Storage Ransomware Protection in GigaOm Sonar Report (Business Wire) RackTop Systems, a leading and innovative provider of Cyberstorage, an unstructured data solution which actively defends against ransomware and inside

Prancer Enterprise announces today the release of the Zero Trust Secur (PRWeb) Prancer Enterprise, a visionary cloud security startup specializing in offensive and defensive security tools, announced today the release of the Zero Trust S

Cinchy Launches Data Liberation Solution for Credit Unions (Business Wire) Cinchy, the dataware pioneer that reduces organizational complexity by liberating data, today launched a solution to help credit unions maximize limited resources, reduce operating and project costs, and optimize the member experience.

NetWitness Announces New Managed Detection and Response Service (NetWitness) Small to mid-size enterprises can now leverage more comprehensive threat detection & response technology delivered remotely

Erase the Unknown with AI-Driven Threat Detection and Response with Vectra® for CrowdStrike (PR Newswire) Vectra AI, the leader in AI-driven cyber threat detection and response for hybrid and multi-cloud enterprises, today announced its...

GroupSense Significantly Expands its Partner Ecosystem (GroupSense) We are proud to announce the expansion of our partner ecosystem to include service providers and value-added resellers.

Lookout Extends Partnership With Verizon to Bring Data-Centric Cloud Security to Business Customers (PR Newswire) Lookout, Inc., a leading provider of endpoint and cloud security solutions, today announced the expansion of its partnership with Verizon to...

Cybereason Redefines Next-Generation Antivirus by Delivering Nation-St (PRWeb) Cybereason, the XDR company, today announced new advancements in Cybereason NGAV (Next-Generation Antivirus) that deliver nation-state level protection for organ

Securing Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Against Cyber Threats with Dragos & Palo Alto Networks Integration | Dragos (Dragos | Industrial (ICS/OT) Cyber Security) Read more about the integration of the Dragos Platform with Palo Alto Networks' Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) to better manage IT/OT industrial cyber threats.

People

Two Leading MDR Pros Join Revelstoke's New Advisory Board (Revelstoke SOAR | Security Orchestration Automation & Response) Discover what led Ben Christensen and John Sharpe of Pondurance to be the first to join Revelstoke’s technical advisory board.

Coalfire Names New CFO and General Counsel (PR Newswire) Coalfire, the largest global cybersecurity firm, recently appointed Merri Chandler as chief financial officer, and Aparna Dasai Williams as...

Traceable AI Taps Richard Bird as Chief Security Officer (PR Newswire) Traceable, the industry's leading API security and observability company, announced the appointment of Richard Bird as Chief Security Officer...

COALFIRE NAMES NEW CFO AND GENERAL COUNSEL (PR Newswire) Coalfire, the largest global cybersecurity firm, recently appointed Merri Chandler as chief financial officer, and Aparna Dasai Williams as...

BedRock Systems Inc. Appoints Sean Plankey as Chief Architect for Energy and Critical Industries (Accesswire) BedRock Systems, the leading software company delivering an unbreakable foundation for secure computing from edge to cloud, today announced the addition of Sean Plankey as Chief Architect for Energy and Critical Industries. A veteran of the US Coast Guard and former Department of Energy Executive with extensive cyber security experience, Plankey will lead efforts to define and deliver

Cybersecurity Firm Saepio Hires Former Mimecast Director (Law360) U.K.-based Saepio Information Security hired away Mimecast's account director for legal and accountancy to serve in the same capacity at the cybersecurity firm, Saepio confirmed to Law360 on Friday.

Optiv hires new federal leader (Washington Technology) The information security company is looking for growth with agencies and through partnerships.

Robert Cardillo Among Notable Intelligence Executives to Join Seerist Federal Board of Directors; Jim Brooks Quoted (ExecutiveBiz) Looking for the latest Government Contracting News? Check out our story: Robert Cardillo Among Notable Intelligence Executives to Join Seerist Federal Board

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Deputy National Security Advisor Douglas Lute Appointed to Blackbird.AI Advisory Board (PR Newswire) Today, Blackbird.AI, a global leader in narrative analytics and risk intelligence, is pleased to announce the appointment of Douglas Lute to...

Meet Cobalt’s New Chief Sales Officer, Jeri Allan (Cobalt) Jeri Allan has joined Cobalt as Chief Sales Officer. Her resume shows an obsession with driving alignment and transformation throughout sales orgs.

Optiv Becoming Market Leader in Federal Services, Names John Trauth General Manager of Optiv Federal (Optiv) Optiv Becoming Market Leader in Federal Services, Names John Trauth General Manager of Optiv Federal.

SecurityScorecard Appoints Former U.S. National Intelligence Deputy Director and Cybersecurity Expert Susan M. Gordon to Board of Directors (Business Wire) SecurityScorecard, the global leader in cybersecurity ratings, today announced that The Honorable Susan M. Gordon, former Principal Deputy Director of

Stephen Gorham Promoted to Chief Operating Officer at OPSWAT (GlobeNewswire News Room) New role reflects Gorham’s security initiatives and operational impact to global critical infrastructure protection organization over the past year...

Forter Appoints High-Growth Tech Executive Eran Vanounou as Chief Technology Officer (Business Wire) Eran Vanounou joins Forter as Chief Technology Officer.

BioCatch Appoints Jonathan W. Daly Chief Marketing Officer (PR Newswire) BioCatch, the global leader in fraud detection and pioneer of behavioral biometrics, today announced that Jonathan W. Daly has joined the...

Deep Instinct appoints Lane Bess as CEO (Help Net Security) Deep Instinct has named Lane Bess as CEO, and he will lead the company to further its disruptive threat-prevention technology.

NetWitness Names Tod Ewasko as Chief Product Officer (NetWitness.com) NetWitness, a globally trusted provider of cybersecurity technologies and incident response services, today announced Tod Ewasko as the new Chief Product Officer.

AttackIQ Grows Leadership Team with Appointment of George Tomic as Chief Development Officer (Business Wire) AttackIQ®, the leading independent vendor of Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) systems, today announced the appointment of George Tomic as Chief Deve

Deep Instinct Appoints Former Palo Alto CEO and Zscaler COO Lane Bess as CEO (Deep Instinct) NEW YORK, NY – September 20, 2022 – Deep Instinct, the first company to apply end-to-end deep learning to cybersecurity, today announced that Lane Bess, former Palo Alto Networks CEO and Zscaler COO, is taking over as CEO, effective immediately.