More Signal. Less Noise.

V5 | Issue 22 | 5.31.23

Agile Security acquires XOR Security. Loews Corp invests over $10.5 million in CrowdStrike. Executive moves.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

Agile Security acquires XOR Security.
Loews Corp invests over $10.5 million in CrowdStrike.
Executive moves.
Company news.
Labor markets.

Mergers and acquisitions.

Virginia’s large-scale US Department of Defense and national security provider Agile Security has acquired fellow Virginian cybersecurity company, XOR Security, Intelligence Community News reports. XOR is a provider of cybersecurity for commercial and federal government enterprise systems, and the acquisition has allowed Agile access to an employee base of over 1,000 personnel. “The acquisition of XOR Security bolsters our already comprehensive suite of enterprise IT solutions with additional cutting-edge cybersecurity talent,” said Jay Lee, CEO of Agile Defense. “We are thrilled to welcome XOR Security’s talented employees, sophisticated capabilities, and customers to the Agile Defense family.”

Investments and exits.

Loews Corporation has invested approximately $10.53 million in CrowdStrike, purchasing 100,000 shares of stock in the company, MarketBeat reports. The CrowdStrike stock is reportedly the corporation’s 15th largest following the investment.

Denver, Colorado’s authID has closed its $8.2 million registered direct offering and private placement and $8.9 million notes exchange, the company reports. The direct offering and placement were led by existing investors. The company intends to use the proceeds for “working capital and general corporate purposes.”

Moving target cloud defense security company Hopr has raised $500,000 in funding from the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), who has added $300,000 to their initial investment last year of $200,000. “The outlook for startups has been rocky over the past 12 months due to liquidity and profitability concerns, but TEDCO’s second—and increased—investment in our company is evidence of strong investor confidence, which is a testament to both our company and its technology’s ability to generationally improve cybersecurity,” said Tom McNamara, Founder and CEO of Hopr.

Executive moves.

Darktrace has welcomed Chris Kozup as the company’s chief of marketing.

Avalon has promoted Jon Bates to chief executive officer of the company.

Christopher Shafer has been appointed as vice president and head of North American cyber underwriting at OdysseyRe.

Lantronix chief executive Paul Pickle is resigning, effective on a date yet to be determined in June. If Mr Pickle’s last day ends without a replacement CEO, Lantronix chief of finance, Jeremy Whitaker, will serve as chief executive in the interim.

Avalon has welcomed Stephen Lee as the company’s new chief of sales.

Gregg Smith has joined the MISI team as CEO.

Bishop Fox has named Kevin Tonkin as the company’s first chief product officer.

Company news.

Moody’s Investors Service discussed the credit impact of the actions of the Volt Typhoon advanced persistent threat (APT) actor. A joint cybersecurity advisory from global cybersecurity authorities was issued on May 24 on the activities of the state-sponsored Volt Typhoon, seen infiltrating critical infrastructure networks in the United States. Moody’s says that the advisory is credit negative for critical infrastructure, as well as related fields in the United States, such as communications, energy, utility, and transportation. “It exposes their vulnerability to unauthorized system use, which can affect operations. A cyber disruption could lead to reduced revenue and liquidity during an event, as well as longer-term reputational harm, increased regulatory oversight and litigation exposure.”

Online accelerator promising aid to startups, Newchip, has filed for bankruptcy and is facing insolvency, TechCrunch reports. Employees staged a walkout under the demand that chief executive Andrew Ryan step down, after a laundry list of complaints from eight former employees that boiled down to “mismanagement.” Complaints also included aggression against employees, and poor decision making in leadership.

Labor markets.

Security Brief Australia has highlighted this past week some reasons that cybersecurity is a field worth taking interest in. They note that cybersecurity is always a field where there are positions in demand, as well as boasting competitive salaries. Opportunities for learning and growth are plentiful, and work within the industry itself can be rewarding. Cyber is also a welcoming field, with a strong sense of diversity and inclusion. To further expand on that point, the Upper Cumberland Business Journal reported significant growth in interest in careers within the cybersecurity field. An increased awareness of cybersecurity, growing from the beginning of 2022 to an all-time high this month, has “fueled a desire to protect personal and organizational data, hence growing interest in cybersecurity careers,” says Tech Digest.

Selected Reading

Marketplace

Booz Allen dinged for management plan in lost $2.5B NSA contract (Washington Technology) The National Security Agency liked CACI International's bid for the FocusedFox cyber and intelligence contract for more reasons than just price.

GAO Rejects 2nd Protest Over CACI's $2.5B NSA Contract (Law360) The Government Accountability Office has rejected Booz Allen Hamilton's protest over a $2.49 billion National Security Agency contract for analyst services awarded to CACI Inc.-Federal, saying that Booz Allen failed to timely challenge the agency's alleged failure to follow a rule requiring discussions with bidders.

Introducing The Daily Record’s 2023 Cybersecurity Power List (Maryland Daily Record) Those chosen for The Daily Record's first Cybersecurity Power List are at the cutting edge of technological advances to protect our digital assets.

BIO-key International, Inc. Receives Notice of Non-Compliance from Nasdaq (GlobeNewswire News Room) BIO-key International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and...

Impact on Fortinet after cybersecurity incident will be minimal, says Goldman Sachs By Investing.com (Investing.com) Impact on Fortinet after cybersecurity incident will be minimal, says Goldman Sachs

Decoding SentinelOne's AI Edge: Next Big Leap In Cybersecurity (NYSE:S) (Seeking Alpha) SentinelOne demonstrates strong growth with a 92% YoY revenue increase in Q4 2022. Click here to learn more about S stock and its prospects in AI & cybersecurity.

SolarWinds Transforms Brand to Signify Ongoing Evolution, Portfolio Expansion, and Customer Empowerment (Business Wire) Refreshed version of iconic SolarWinds logo and vibrant new brand color palette honor company’s historic success while highlighting future vision

CrowdStrike adds generative AI assistant to security tools (Axios) CrowdStrike is the next major cybersecurity firm bringing generative AI into its product stack. Driving the news: CrowdStrike — a publicly traded company that provides a mix of cloud security tools, endpoint security, and incident response and threat intelligence products — rolled out its own generative AI assistant for customers Tuesday.

Why Palantir's Latest AI Initiatives Make It a Screaming Buy (The Motley Fool) Management says it has already seen "unprecedented demand" for its latest product.

Loews Corp Invests $10.53 Million in CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) (MarketBeat) Loews Corp purchased a new position in shares of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD - Get Rating) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 100,000 shares of the company's stock, value

Thales wins cyber security deal with Indonesia’s Cyber and Crypto Agency (APDR) In the first quarter of 2023, Indonesia’s Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN) took a major step in this direction with the signing of a Memorandum-of-Understanding (MoU) with Thales,

Lowell to Spend $1M on LifeLock After Cyber Attack (GovTech) The city and school district of Lowell, Mass. have allocated more than $1 million combined to purchase LifeLock protection for all city and school employees impacted by a ransomware attack earlier this month.

Q&A with ReversingLabs COO Peter Doggart: With software supply chain security, 'your brand is at stake' (ReversingLabs) The new Chief Operating Officer at ReversingLabs, Peter Doggart, talks about the challenge of securing software supply chains — and the promise ReversingLabs offers.

Interest in cybersecurity and career opportunities surge in May 2023 (Upper Cumberland Business Journal) People are becoming increasingly aware of the potential consequences of cyber threats

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI says has no plans to leave Europe (Reuters) OpenAI has no plans to leave Europe, CEO Sam Altman said on Friday, reversing a threat made earlier this week to leave the region if it becomes too hard to comply with upcoming laws on artificial intelligence.

Bytes thrives from demand for security and cloud with double-digit growth (CRN) The reseller’s FY23 results were propelled by both public sector and corporate clients

WSJ News Exclusive | Israeli Cyber Company NSO Group Has New Ownership After U.S. Blacklist (Wall Street Journal) The Israeli maker of the controversial Pegasus software used to target government officials and activists has been pushed into a restructuring by its lenders.

Castellum, Inc. Set to Join Russell Microcap® Index (GlobeNewswire News Room) BETHESDA, Md., May 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Castellum, Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE-American: CTM), a cybersecurity and electronic warfare services...

Hopr Raises $500K to Revolutionize API Protection (Business Wire) Maryland-based startup develops technology to secure workloads, APIs and data across all cloud environments; Funding to accelerate product-led go-to-market strategy

authID INC. Announces Closing of $8.2 Million Concurrent Registered Direct Offering and Private Placement led by Existing Shareholders and $8.9 Million Notes Exchange (GlobeNewswire News Room) authID to Continue Efforts to Eliminate Authentication Fraud and Deliver 100% Zero Trust Identity Protection on the Internet DENVER, May 26, 2023 ...

Castellum, Inc. Announces $6 million Cost Reduction Plan (GlobeNewswire News Room) Castellum, Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE-American: CTM), a cybersecurity and electronic warfare services...

An Accelerator Implodes, Leaving Founders in Shock (The Information) If you ask a startup founder what they look for in an accelerator program, they’d probably hope for access to startup veterans and connections to prominent venture capitalists.By all accounts, they didn’t get much of that from Newchip, whose parent Astralabs last week entered into Chapter 7 ...

OpenText Celebrates 10th Consecutive Year as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Application Security Testing (PR Newswire) OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX), (TSX: OTEX) announced today it has been recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant review for...

Why aren't venture capitalists flocking to fund cybersecurity startups? (TechCrunch) Cybersecurity companies are enjoying stellar growth and multiples, but VCs are still hesitant to invest in these startups. What's going on?

Ransomware is being excluded from cyber insurance policies (Security) According to a recent report, some cyber insurance policies aren't covering ransomware attacks as the volume of attacks continues to rise.

Agile Defense acquires XOR Security (Intelligence Community News) Agile Defense, an end-to-end provider of large-scale, digital transformations solutions to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other national security customers, announced today that it has acquired Falls Church, VA-based XOR Security.

High Wire Launches Cybersecurity Job Training Program for Military Service Members and Veterans in Partnership with U.S. Department of Defense (GlobeNewswire News Room) High Wire Networks, Inc. (OTCQB: HWNI), a leading global provider of managed cybersecurity and technology...

Five reasons why a career in cybersecurity is worth pursuing (SecurityBrief Australia) The demand for cybersecurity professionals has increased exponentially, and the trend is expected to continue as the world becomes more digital.

Products, Services, and Solutions

New infosec products of the week: May 26, 2023 (Help Net Security) The featured infosec products this week are from: Axiado, Delinea, Netscout, Radware, and Veriff.

Datacipher Announces New Service Offering, Security Audit, Which Will Keep Track of Organisation's Cyber Security Health (Yahoo Finance) Mumbai, India--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2023) - Datacipher, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions, is proud to announce the launch of its newest service offering, "Security Audit". The program helps organizations maintain and enhance cybersecurity by proactively identifying vulnerabilities and ensuring robust protection against evolving threats.Developed to address cyber threats at their earliest stages, Datacipher's Security Audit assists businesses in assessing their cybersecurity hea

ClassNK endorses fleet cyber security solution (Riviera) Fleet Secure Endpoint provides cyber security and threat detection for IT networks on ships

Infinite Blue Improves Cybersecurity Solution Providing Users... (Enterprise Security) One of the leaders in total enterprise resilience, Infinite Blue, revealed that it had enhanced the real-time threat intelligence feature in Cenari....

Cyber startup Onwardly builds consortium to bolster cyber resilience (Reseller News) Auckland Cybersecurity SaaS startup Onwardly is partnering with Brightly, SafeAdvisory and Theta to "democratise" security and privacy.

New infosec products of the week: May 26, 2023 (Help Net Security) The featured infosec products this week are from: Axiado, Delinea, Netscout, Radware, and Veriff.

Tufin Enables Enterprises to Unify Network Visibility and Control Across On-Premise and Cloud Environments with Launch of R23-1 (Business Wire) Latest Release Prevents Security Blind Spots with Improved Network Access Automation, Enhanced Policy Management and New Network Topology Capabilities

Black Ink Tech and Incode Partner to Make Everywhere Identity a Reality (Yahoo Finance) Black Ink Technologies Corp, a digital pioneer connecting physical objects, services, and events to a permanent graded data record through immutable ledger technology, is pleased to partner with Incode on a transformative solution that delivers validated global identity. Incode is the leading provider of digital biometric verification and world-class identification authentication solutions. Operating within Black Ink Tech's ChainIT platform, this powerful solution creates a global, ubiquitous di

Socure Makes Progress Toward Helping More State and Local Governments Deliver Accurate and Inclusive Identity Verification (Business Wire) “Progressing” status designation marks next step toward full authorization under StateRAMP certification program for cloud security

WinMagic partners with Lumen Technologies to offer mission-critical cybersecurity solutions (GlobeNewswire News Room) New partnership leverages expertise in network, security and cloud solutions...

NordPass introduces advanced File Attachments functionality (GlobeNewswire News Room) On Wednesday, NordPass announced that its password manager now offers new features. NordPass Premium users can...

Corvus Insurance Unveils Corvus Signal™, a Cyber Risk Prevention Solution Shown to Reduce Cyber Breaches (Business Wire) Policyholders who engaged with Corvus Signal in the past three years saw a nearly 20% lower frequency and cost of cyber breaches

ThreatBlockr Announces Milestone of Blocking One Billion Threats Per Day (ThreatBlockr) The company also doubles down on support for higher education institutions as the industry continues to face rising threats

KnowBe4 and TDI Collaborate To Enhance Cyber Performance, Risk and Compliance Capabilities (KnowBe4) KnowBe4 and TDI Collaborate To Enhance Cyber Performance,Risk and Compliance Capabilities

Coro Named One Of Top 5 Security Solutions (Coro Cybersecurity) We are thrilled to announce that we’ve been recognized as a finalist for Best SME Security Solution in the 2023 SC Awards.

NordLayer launches a new and one-of-the-kind Browser Extension (GlobeNewswire News Room) The NordLayer team is happy to announce that from now on, people can access their business resources via a...

People

Stephen Lee Hired as New Chief Sales Officer at Avalon (Avalon) Avalon, which offers technology-based services like digital forensics, cybersecurity, and eDiscovery, as well as business-critical document services, announced today that proven sales leader and legal outsourcing industry veteran Stephen Lee will serve as the company’s new chief sales officer.

High Wire Appoints Seasoned Tech Executive, Curtis Smith, as Chief Financial Officer (GlobeNewswire News Room) BATAVIA, Ill., May 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- High Wire Networks, Inc. (OTCQB: HWNI), a leading global provider of managed cybersecurity and technology...

MISI Welcomes Veteran Technology Industry Leader Gregg Smith as CEO (Business Wire) USCYBERCOM’s successful Industry Days event held May 22-23 at MISI’s DreamPort facility highlighted the importance of collaboration between the private cybersecurity industry, academia and government

Bishop Fox Adds Cybersecurity Product and Engineering Veteran as Chief Product Officer (GlobeNewswire News Room) Kevin Tonkin joins as company’s first CPO to lead expansion of industry-leading Cosmos ASM and pen testing platform...

Lantronix Announces CEO Transition and Continuity Plan (GlobeNewswire News Room) Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRX), a global provider of secure turnkey solutions for the Industrial Internet...

Darktrace appoints Chris Kozup as CMO (Security Systems) Cybersecurity AI provider Darktrace has announced the appointment of Chris Kozup as their Chief Marketing Officer, effective June 6, 2023.

OdysseyRe names Shafer head of North American cyber (Insurance Day) Global reinsurer hires <span>Christopher Shafer from Guy Carpenter to provide facultative and treaty cyber coverage  </span>

Christopher Shafer Named Head of North American Cyber at OdysseyRe (Business Wire) Odyssey Reinsurance Company (OdysseyRe) today announced the appointment of Christopher Shafer as vice president and head of North American cyber underwriting. He will support the Company’s business partners in addressing cyber risk on both a facultative and treaty basis, offering rich product-line expertise in a critical and growing segment.

Rubrik appoints former Zscaler VP to head up UK and Ireland (CRN) Toby Keech will lead the go-to-market sales strategy as Rubrik eyes growth in the region

Sectigo Announces Executive Appointment of Christopher Bray as Senior Vice President of Partner and eCommerce Sales Channels (GlobeNewswire News Room) Former Symantec, McAfee Exec Hired to Scale Sectigo’s Partner Programme and eCommerce Offering...

Darktrace Appoints Chris Kozup as Chief Marketing Officer (PR Newswire) Industry veteran brings more than 20 years of experience leading high performance marketing teams for enterprise technology companies including...

Jon Bates Promoted to Chief Executive Officer at Avalon (Avalon) Avalon, which offers technology-based services like digital forensics, cybersecurity and eDiscovery as well as document services, announced today that former chief operating officer Jon Bates has been promoted to chief executive officer.