More Signal. Less Noise.

V5 | Issue 15 | 4.12.23

Frequentis acquires Frafo. Two companies see $20 million Series A rounds. Labor market turbulence: a boon to the federal government.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

Frequentis acquires Frafo.
Two companies see $20 million Series A rounds.
Executive moves.
Company news.
Labor market turbulence: a boon to the federal government.

Mergers and acquisitions.

Austrian technology company Frequentis has acquired German IT solutions company FRAFOS, Security Informed reports. "Software solutions in virtualized environments require enhanced security and network monitoring, to protect against potential cyber-attacks. With FRAFOS we have found an expert in VoIP Firewalls to support us in our solutions for safety-critical domains, allowing advanced prevention of denial-of-service attacks (DoS) and fraud attempts on the border of communication networks,” says Norbert Haslacher, CEO of Frequentis.

Investments and exits.

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) company Fivecast has raised $20 million in Series A funding, led by Ten Eleven Ventures, with investments from Main Sequence, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO) innovation fund, and the South Australian Venture Capital Fund. Security Week reports that the Australian company intends to use this funding to further develop its portfolio and expand into new markets, including such regions as the United States, United Kingdom, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, and to expand its development, sales, and marketing teams.

California's NetBox Labs has announced a $20 million Series A funding round from a multitude of investors. The company plans to use the capital to transform networking by scaling "the development and delivery of both open source NetBox and NetBox Cloud, our enterprise-grade managed NetBox offering."

Executive moves.

NinjaOne has announced Joe Lohmeier as the first Global Channel Chief for the company.

Sylvia Acevedo has joined Titaniam's Board of Advisors.

True I/O has added Karl Turner to its Board of Advisors.

WatchGuard Technologies has appointed HoJin Kim as the company's Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer.

Orca Security has named James Love as the company's new President of Field Operations.

Trellix has appointed Ash Parikh to the position of Chief Marketing Officer.

Sevco Security has named Brian Contos as the company's new Chief Strategy Officer.

Very Good Security has welcomed Chuck Yu as the new Chief Executive of the company.

Benchmark Executive Search has named four new Advisory Board Members, which includes: the Honorable Ellen McCarthy, Lt Gen (ret) Bob Ashley, Lt Gen (ret) Scott Howell, and Kevin Higgins.

Cavelo has appointed Eldon Sprickerhoff as the Founding Board Member of the company's newly-minted Technology Advisory Board.

SecureAuth has appointed Kelly Wenzel Appointed as Chief Customer Officer, and has added Howard Greenfield as an Advisory Board member.

Company news.

Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Twitter, intends to rebrand the company as X Corp, and get rid of the Twitter name entirely, Quartz reports. This comes amidst an interview released today with the BBC, in which Mr. Musk says that running the company has been painful and stressful. "It's not been boring. It's been quite a rollercoaster," Musk said to the outlet. He poked fun at himself, saying in reference to tweets he's made, "Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes." He continues, noting that his tweeting after 3 in the morning may not be the best idea.

Labor market turbulence: a boon to the federal government.

The turbulent nature of the cybersecurity and big tech labor markets has been a boon to the United States government, as the National Security Agency reports that they've seen recruitment boosts, the Record reports. “We’ve gotten some uptick,” the NSA's Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce said during an event, the outlet shares. “What I would say is we got some people with an experience level we didn't often see. We're seeing mid-career people looking to come to, one, the stability, but, two, also the opportunity to come into the intel community.” This follows on the heels of last week's news of cuts at Apple, and earlier slashes at companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Google.

Selected Reading

Marketplace

CRITICALSTART® Closes Fiscal Year with Accelerated Growth Amid Sharp Rise in Demand for its Technology-Based Approach to MDR (PR Newswire) Today, Critical Start, a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) cybersecurity solutions, announced continued expansive...

Elon Musk tells BBC that owning Twitter has been quite painful (BBC News) The multi-billionaire defends his running of the firm in a hastily-arranged interview from Twitter HQ.

Elon Musk is rebranding Twitter as X Corp (Quartz) The name change is part of the billionaire's goal to make an "everything app"

OpenAI Will Pay People to Report Vulnerabilities in ChatGPT (Bloomberg) Many in tech have tried to find workarounds in AI systems. New bug bounty program will offer rewards from $200 to $20,000.

Cybersecurity Firm Zscaler Loses Coveted Spot in Gartner Ranking Due to ‘Sales Arrogance’ (The Information) Competition between the two of the biggest cybersecurity firms selling software monitoring employee access to cloud applications and data is set to intensify after influential market research firm Gartner cut its ranking on the market leader, Zscaler. In a regular update about the best ...

Tech industry’s pain is NSA’s gain, cyber leader says about layoffs (Record) Rob Joyce, the NSA's cyber director, says that the agency has seen an "uptick" in job interest as the tech industry has laid off tens of thousands of people in recent months.

OSINT Company Fivecast Raises $20 Million (SecurityWeek) Australian OSINT software company Fivecast has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Ten Eleven.

Announcing the NetBox Labs Series A and Our Plans to Upend Network Management and Automation Forever (Blog | NetBoxLabs) Learn how NetBox Labs will make network automation easier than ever, and empower teams to tackle complexity at any scale, thanks to its Series A funding.

Inside-Out Defense Launches with Industry’s First Platform to Provide Real-Time Detection and Remediation to Privilege Access Abuse (Inside Out Defense) Start-Up Funded by Bain & Company Delivers Holistic Approach to Solving Privilege Access Abuse

TikTok Struggles to Enlist U.S. Merchants for Shopping Service (The Information) As TikTok tries to win over U.S. politicians, it may have kneecapped its shopping service, TikTok Shop. Relatively few U.S. merchants are showing interest in signing up for the nascent service, both because they’re more focused on expanding in bricks and mortar and because they’re concerned the ...

Keeper Security and KnowBe4 Sponsor European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2023 (IT Security Guru) The European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards 2023 are back for a tenth successive year. This year’s sponsors include KnowBe4, provider of the leading security aw

FREQUENTIS Strengthens Cyber Security Competence With The Acquisition Of FRAFOS (Security Informed) "Software solutions in virtualized environments require enhanced security and network monitoring, to protect against potential cyber-attacks. With FRAFOS we have found an expert in VoIP Firewalls to support us in our solutions for safety-critical domains, allowing advanced prevention of denial-of-service attacks (DoS) and fraud attempts on the border of communication networks,” says Norbert Haslacher, CEO of Frequentis.

The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: HeartFlow And Cybereason Lead Another Down Week (Crunchbase News) For the third week in a row, rounds were down in the U.S. Only two rounds hit nine figures, and we wonder if there are other factors than SVB's collapse.

Barracuda honored by Comparably for Best HR Team (PR Newswire) Barracuda Networks, Inc., a trusted partner and leading provider for cloud-first security solutions today announced it has been again honored...

CrowdStrike Takes Big Swing at Microsoft (Wall Street Journal) The cybersecurity star addresses a competitive threat from the software giant, but financial targets still imply caution.

Acalvio Named a Leader for Deception Technology (Business Wire) Recognized as the leading ‘Fast Mover’, Acalvio commended for bringing both breadth and depth to dynamic deception capabilities

Versa Networks Recognized with 2023 Globee Cybersecurity Award for its Industry-Leading SASE Solution (Business Wire) International Judging Panel Honors Versa for Offering Industry’s Only Complete Unified SASE with Tightly Integrated Secure SD-WAN, Secure Web Gateway, Cloud Access Security Broker, Zero Trust, and Network Firewalling

Push Security Raises $15 Million in Series A Funding (SecurityWeek) Push Security has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Google Ventures.

Products, Services, and Solutions

Schneider Electric doubles down on sustainable, digital industrial transformation at Hannover Messe (PR Newswire) Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, will unveil an array of new technologies and...

Corvus and Core Specialty to Deliver Expansion of AI-Powered Excess Tech E&O and Cyber Product (Business Wire) Core Specialty’s first in the Cyber and Tech E&O market

Contrast Security to Address Challenges of Code Security with Roll Out of New "Shift Smart" Strategy at RSAC 2023 (PR Newswire) Contrast Security (Contrast), the code security platform built for developers and trusted by security, today announced it will unveil "Shift...

Akamai Makes Partner Program Even More Rewarding and Simpler (Akamai) Program enhancements boost financial incentives for partners while making it easier to do business with Akamai

Pax8 secure industry vet David Powell as new sales strategy VP (CRN) Powell brings a background on both the MSP and vendor side of the business

DirectDefense and Claroty Partner to Secure Customers’ Cyber-Physical Systems (Business Wire) Partnership bolsters DirectDefense’s Real-Time Monitoring Services with Claroty’s Visibility, Protection, and Threat Detection Platform for the XIoT

Baffle Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program (GlobeNewswire News Room) Data-Centric Security Platform Helps Amazon Web Services Customers Reduce the Risk of Data Breaches, Improve Compliance...

Entrust Launches Zero Trust Ready Solutions for Passwordless Authentication, Next-Generation HSM, and Multi-Cloud Key Compliance (Business Wire) Company adds new passwordless, certificate-based authentication with smart keys and FIDO2 passkeys to IAM solution.

Cerbos Supercharges the Ability to Manage and Enforce Authorization Policies at Limitless Scale, Closes $7.5 Million in Seed Funding (GlobeNewswire News Room) Introduces Cerbos Cloud, a Managed Service Offering for Popular Open Source Product Cerbos Used by 100s of Organizations in Production Today With 10s of...

Wazuh Releases the Latest Version of the Industry’s Leading Open Source Security Platform (GlobeNewswire News Room) Wazuh 4.4 Features Include IPv6 Support for the Enrollment Process and Agent-Manager Connection, as well as Enhanced Azure Integration in Linux Agents...

Descope Launches Startup Program For Frictionless, Secure Authentication (Descope) Descope today announced its Hello World Startup Plan through which eligible startups can use Descope’s Pro Tier free of charge for one year.

Cymulate Ups the Game on Exposure Management (Business Wire) Company closes risky gaps between Vulnerability Scanning and Attack Surface Management across hybrid infrastructure

Zigbee PRO 2023 Improves Overall Security While Simplifying Experience (PR Newswire) The Connectivity Standards Alliance, an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open global standards for...

Hackuity’s New Smart Exposure Explorer Provides Unified Vulnerability Encyclopedia (Hackuity) Hackuity, the risk-based vulnerability management provider, today announced the newest feature to its platform to help organizations evaluate the real threats associated with CVEs.

Concentric AI Launches Channel Partner Program to Enhance Partner Revenue Opportunities with Leading Data Security Posture Management Platform (Business Wire) AI-based Semantic Intelligence Platform Uses Deep Learning to Discover, Monitor and Protect Unstructured and Structured Data Delivering Unique Value for Channel Partners’ Customers

Palo Alto Networks Achieves DoD IL5 Provisional Authorization for Prisma Access Zero Trust Solution (Palo Alto Networks) The Department of Defense can now protect its distributed mission-critical infrastructure with cloud-delivered security of Prisma Access SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- To...

Metomic Launches Free Tool to Show Users Sensitive Data Hiding in Their Google Drive Account (Business Wire) In a matter of seconds, the free tool identifies “high-risk” files that may include sensitive data stored within a Google Drive account and who has access to them

Infinidat Announces Tight Integration with Kasten by Veeam for Container-Based Workload Backup, Veeam Data Platform v12 Certification (GlobeNewswire News Room) Infinidat, a leading provider of enterprise storage solutions, today announced the expansion of its...

Searchlight Cyber Announces Secure Virtual Browser for Cyber Investigators to Safely Access the Dark Web (Business Wire) Stealth Browser enhances award-winning Cerberus investigation platform by allowing investigators to isolate their infrastructure from malware on the dark web

Armis and TrueFort Announce Strategic Partnership (Armis) Armis and TrueFort have announced a strategic partnership and integration to empower customers with improved visibility, intelligence, and control of connected assets, including IoT and operational technology (OT) environments. The collaboration will enable better security and segmentation policies to increase operational resilience and prevent unauthorized lateral movement. Customers can discover and map IT and OT environments to enforce intelligent policies, preventing malicious actors from moving undetected between the two.

CampusGuard‘s Rebranded RedLens Infosec Unit Delivers Array of Cybersecurity Services (MSSP Alert) RedLens InfoSec provides penetration testing, vulnerability assessments and scanning, password auditing and more.

Keeper Security Debuts Sleek New User Interface for its Password Management Platform (Fast Mode) FW: Press Release: Keeper Security Debuts Sleek New User Interface for a Friendlier, More Intuitive Experience

Data Theorem’s Leading Supply Chain Security and Cloud Security Solutions Win Multiple 2023 Govies Government Security Awards (Business Wire) Independent Panel of Judges Honors Supply Chain Secure with Top Application Security Award; Cloud Secure Earns Gold Award in Cloud Solutions & Services Awards Category

Sumsub releases transaction monitoring guide to advise businesses on fighting fraud and staying compliant (Business Wire) Experts from Sumsub and Pismo offer practical insights on setting rules for transaction monitoring and handling its typical challenges

Cohesity Collaborates with Microsoft to Simplify How Businesses Protect and Secure Their Data from Cyber Threats Including Ransomware Attacks (Business Wire) Cohesity Unveils Key Security and Cloud Integrations with Microsoft and Announces an Expanded AI Vision

NSA Adds DIGISTOR® FIPS 140-2 L2 SSDs to the Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) Component List as a Hardware Full Drive Encryption Component (DIGISTOR) DIGISTOR FIPS SSDs are the first and only commercial SSDs to be listed by the NSA, making them the only affordable, secure storage option for building secure DAR solutions that meet top-secret NSA-level requirements.

Syxsense’s Latest Product Release Gives Organizations Robust Capabilities to Easily Automate Complex Security and IT Management Playbooks (Business Wire) Other platform updates include performance enhancements around device scanning, unmanaged device discovery, agent lockdown, Bitlocker encryption key storage, and more.

Ontinue Launches New SecOps Cost Optimization Capabilities to Help Organizations Better Predict, Optimize and Manage their Data Ingestion (PR Newswire) Ontinue, a leading managed detection and response (MDR) provider and winner of the 2022 Microsoft Security MSSP Partner of the Year award,...

IONIX Wins Best Attack Surface Management (ASM) Solution in the 2023 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards Program (PR Newswire) IONIX, the leader in Attack Surface Management, announced today that it has won the Best Attack Surface Management (ASM) solution award in the...

1Kosmos integrates with ForgeRock to add biometric passwordless authentication to apps (Help Net Security) ForgeRock customers can now seamlessly integrate 1Kosmos BlockID into all their user journeys without any coding.

What Is Personal Cyber Insurance—and Should You Buy It? (Wall Street Journal) Before you do, make sure you know the answers to these common questions.

Thuraya enters agreement to offer the Archon GoSilent Cube encryption solution (ACE Times) The GoSilent Cube client is the smallest, lightest, and most cost-effective hardware encryptor for secure communications

Leonardo, Siemens sign deal to create cybersecurity platform (Reuters) Leonardo and Siemens on Thursday said they signed a memorandum of understanding to offer cybersecurity solutions for infrastructure in the energy, oil and gas and industrial sectors.

ZeroFox Enhances Executive Protection Offering with PII Removal (GlobeNewswire) Updated solution includes multiple tiers of protection, hardens customers’ attack surface and reduces breach risk by removing online personal information...

KoolSpan Announces Release of TrustCall-X 10.5, the Latest Version of (PRWeb) KoolSpan, a leading provider of secure mobile communication solutions, today announced the release of TrustCall-X 10.5, the latest version of its trusted mo

Mitigating USB Data Exfiltration With Falcon Device Control (CrowdStrike) CrowdStrike announces extended file metadata for context and visibility. These new capabilities focus on enhanced identification and investigation data for data loss and exfiltration activities.

StackHawk Extends API Security Testing Capabilities to Address Large-Scale Enterprise Customer Needs (PR Newswire) StackHawk, the company making web application and API security testing part of software delivery, today announced its new enterprise...

Sumo Logic Achieves Monitoring and Observability Distinctions with AWS Cloud Operations Competency (GlobeNewswire News Room) Sumo Logic (NASDAQ: SUMO), the SaaS analytics platform to enable reliable and secure...

New infosec products of the week: April 7, 2023 (Help Net Security) The featured infosec products this week are from: Guardz, Malwarebytes, Obsidian Security, and Stamus Networks.

New GRC Platform TrustRegister Links Risk to Revenue Impact (Dark Reading) The application allows companies to proactively surface risks and remediation plans via programmatic risk assessments.

BlackBerry Introduces Integrated Solution to Assure Secure Bi-Directional Response Communications During Cyber Incidents (Dark Reading) BlackBerry integrates award-winning CylanceGUARD and BlackBerry AtHoc technologies for "combat-ready" cyber event continuity planning and response.

Obsidian launches new SaaS security and compliance tools (CSO Online) Obsidian’s multimodule security posture management offering comes with tools to secure SaaS interactions and ensure associated compliances.

People

Industry Veterans Join SecureAuth - A Leader in Authentication and Access Management to Support Global Expansion (SecureAuth) Kelly Wenzel Appointed as Chief Customer Officer, Howard Greenfield Added to Advisory Board as Customer Adoption Accelerates IRVINE, Calif. – April 12, 2023 – SecureAuth, a leader in authentication and access management, today announced the addition of two seasoned executives to support accelerating customer adoption of its passwordless continuous authentication with invisible MFA solution. Kelly […]

Cavelo Launches Technology Advisory Board (Cavelo) Cavelo Inc. announces the formation of its Technology Advisory Board and the appointment of Eldon Sprickerhoff as its founding member.

Benchmark Executive Search Names New Members to its National Security Advisory Board (Business Wire) In Conjunction with Benchmark Expanding its Board of Director Practice, Distinguished Security Experts Join Top Search Firm as Trusted Advisors

Very Good Security Appoints Chuck Yu as CEO (GlobeNewswire News Room) Very Good Security (VGS), the leading provider of payment security and compliance solutions for...

Sevco Security Expands Leadership Team with Appointment of Brian Contos as Chief Strategy Officer (Business Wire) Former ArcSight, Imperva, and Verodin Security Leader Brings More Than 25 Years of Experience to Disruptive CAASM Platform Company

Trellix Appoints Ash Parikh to Chief Marketing Officer (Business Wire) XDR leader’s addition brings three decades of marketing strategy and execution

Orca Security Appoints James Love as President of Field Operations (Business Wire) Former Illumio, Arxan Technologies and Imperva Global Sales Leader Brings Over 25 Years of Experience Driving Channel-Led Hypergrowth

WatchGuard appoints HoJin Kim as new SVP and chief revenue officer (IT PRO) The channel veteran will lead WatchGuard’s global sales organisation as it looks to its next phase of growth

True I/O Welcomes Crypto.com's Karl Turner to Advisory Board (PR Newswire) True I/O, a tokenization company and distributor of unique digital tokens across Financial Services and the Internet of Things, welcomes Crypto....

Cybersecurity Veteran and Women in STEM Advocate Sylvia Acevedo Joins (PRWeb) Titaniam, Inc., the industry’s leading data security and ransomware defense platform, today announced that Sylvia Acevedo, Qualcomm and Credo Technology board

NinjaOne Announces Joe Lohmeier as Company’s First Global Channel Chief (NinjaOne) Read first-hand accounts of how Ninja's products and superior support help companies deliver fast and effective IT management.