Thoma Bravo completes acquisition of ForgeRock. SentinelOne may be exploring a sale. SpyCloud secures $110 million.

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

Thoma Bravo completes acquisition of ForgeRock.
SentinelOne may be exploring a sale.
SpyCloud secures $110 million.
Grip Security raises $41 million in Series B round.

Mergers and acquisitions.

Thoma Bravo has completed its $2.3 billion acquisition of identity and access management firm ForgeRock. The private equity firm has combined ForgeRock into its portfolio company Ping Identity, stating, "The combined company is positioned to better serve customers across the dynamic and fast-growing Identity and Access Management market by providing enhanced products and services, broader geographic support, and increased innovation. The combined company will seek to accelerate the delivery of identity security experiences for the customers, employees, and partners of companies worldwide."

San Francisco-based cloud computing services provider Fastly last Thursday "announced two major developments in its domain name API and Transport Layer Security (TLS) capabilities: the acquisition of Domainr, an ICANN-accredited real-time domain availability API provider, as well as general availability of Certainly, Fastly’s publicly-trusted TLS Certification Authority (CA)." Fastly's CEO Todd Nightingale stated, "Through the availability of Certainly and the acquisition of Domainr, we are continuing to empower our customers to own and control what they create, and how they create it – all backed by the most trusted and reliable domain availability and TLS experience possible. By offering these fundamental building blocks alongside our industry-leading content delivery network, Compute@Edge, and beyond, Fastly is proud to be an engine for the best builders and the best platforms on the internet."

Zurich Holding Company of America, a subsidiary of Zurich Insurance Group, has acquired Missouri-headquartered cyber counterintelligence firm SpearTip, Reinsurance News reports. David Shluger, VP of Cyber Risk Services for Zurich Resilience Solutions, stated, “For more than two years, we have worked closely with SpearTip and have seen firsthand their impressive cyber technical capabilities. The combination of their technical capabilities with Zurich’s service excellence extends the capabilities of the Zurich Resilience Solutions’ Cyber Services Team to bring a full suite offering to our customers."

London-headquartered unified communications firm Gamma has acquired cybersecurity services company Satisnet. David Macfarlane, Managing Director at Gamma Enterprise, stated, "We are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to Satisnet as we join forces to address the pressing concerns of cyber security in today's boardrooms. Recognising the increasing significance of cyber security, we are excited to enhance our portfolio with the expertise and solutions on offer. This enables us to cater to the growing needs of our expanding enterprise and public sector community, providing them with comprehensive security solutions to safeguard their digital infrastructure. Together, we are well-positioned to tackle the evolving landscape and deliver exceptional value to our customers."

Reuters, citing "people familiar with the matter," says publicly traded cybersecurity firm SentinelOne is considering a sale to a private equity firm.

The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that Broadcom plans to complete its $69 billion acquisition of VMware by October 31st, and will invest $2 billion per year into research and development at the company.

Investments and exits.

Austin, Texas-based digital identity protection firm SpyCloud has secured $110 million in a growth round led by Riverwood Capital. The company plans to put the funding toward the following goals:

"Accelerate innovations across Enterprise Protection, Consumer Risk Protection, and Investigations use cases
"Release authentication bypass prevention solutions that protect businesses and consumers from compromised passkey
"Grow its industry-leading database of recaptured malware assets, delivering new insights to help customers and partners stay ahead of the most advanced cyber threats
"Evolve analytic capabilities that link exposures of personal and corporate identity and authentication data to promote an identity-centric view of security that goes beyond the device-centric limits of most corporate security teams
"Bolster its growing list of integrations, which already includes Active Directory, Okta, and Tines, among others – partnering with leading identity, incident response, orchestration, and directory services tools
"Expand its go-to-market teams globally to help organizations adapt to the heightened interest in identity protection"

Boston-based SaaS identity risk management firm Grip Security has raised $41 million in a Series B round led by Third Point Ventures, with participation from YL Ventures, Intel Capital, and The Syndicate Group. The company says it "plans to expand investment in its go-to-market teams, research and development, and operational functions to scale the company in both Israel and the United States. The infusion of funds will also be used to expand into untapped geographic regions and solidify its position as an industry leader."

Codebase vulnerability detection company ProjectDiscovery has raised $25 million in a Series A round led by CRV, with participation from Point72 Ventures, SignalFire, Rain Capital, Mango Capital, Accel, Lightspeed, Guillermo Rauch, Caleb Sima, Talha Tariq, and others. The company has also "announced the launch of its ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform, a fully-managed SaaS platform built on top of ProjectDiscovery's most popular open source tools to enable enterprises to discover and remediate vulnerabilities at scale."

Alameda, California-based Cerby, a company that provides an access management platform for nonstandard applications, has raised $17 million in Series A funding led by Two Sigma Ventures, with participation from Outpost Ventures, Ridge Ventures, Founders Fund, Bowery Capital, AV8, Salesforce Ventures, Tau Ventures, Okta Ventures, Incubate Fund, and Ben Johnson, co-founder of Obsidian Security and Carbon Black. The company says the funds "will be used to scale Cerby's go-to-market efforts, including expanding sales and marketing efforts; accelerating innovation of Cerby's access management solution for nonstandard applications; further building on customer momentum and industry research; continued investment in generative AI to enhance development speed and maintenance of integrations; and reinforce international teams and customers with additional support."

Executive moves.

UnitedHealth Group has appointed Tammi Morton as Chief Security Officer, Becker's Payer reports. Morton has previously served as CSO at Raytheon Technologies and HP.

Eclypsium has hired John Ewert as CFO and COO, Portland Inno reports.

MITRE has appointed Deborah Youmans as Chief Information Officer. Youmans previously served as VP and Deputy CIO at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Vectra AI has appointed Scott Dussault as Chief Financial Officer. Dussault most recently served as CFO at Workhuman.

Conversant Group has hired Tod Grantham as VP of Professional Services.

LogicGate has appointed Jonathan Skinner as Chief Marketing Officer. Skinner previously served as CMO at Sectigo.

Censys has named Briana Gulley as its Vice President of Global Channel.

Qrypt has added Ken Dixon, CEO of Tillman FiberCo LLC, to its board of advisors.

Labor markets.

Intel is laying off 226 employees at its locations in Santa Clara and San Jose, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports. According to the Economic Times, "The company is reportedly laying off 10 GPU software development engineers, eight system software development engineers, six cloud software engineers, six product marketing engineers, and six system-on-chip design engineers, along with others."

Marketplace

Ping Identity Recognized as an Overall Leader in 2023 KuppingerCole Access Management Report (News Release Archive) Ping Identity, provider of seamless and secure digital experiences, announced it has been named a leader in the 2023 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass report for Access Management for the fourth...

BIRD to strengthen critical cybersecurity infrastructure with $3.8m. (The Jerusalem Post) Hailing from both Israeli and American tech hubs, four projects have been given the green light by the Cyber Project.

Telos Corporation Awarded Five-Year Contract with Defense Information Systems Agency (Telos Corporation) Ashburn, Va. – August 22, 2023 – Telos Corporation (NASDAQ: TLS), a leading provider of cyber, cloud and enterprise security solutions for the world’s most security-conscious organizations, announced today a five-year contract with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for the Telos Automated Message Handling System (AMHS) to support the distribution and processing of various... Read more

Next Joins the MITRE Engenuity Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Next DLP) Next DLP Joins MITRE Engenuity Center for Threat-Informed Defense to enhance the center's ability to develop resources to protect against cyberattacks.

IBM: employees who use AI will replace those who don't (Computing) The impact of AI on the global workforce will be significant, and will result in shifts in employee roles and skill requirements in the coming years.

Qualys Drives Responsible Business Practices and Sustainability Through Inaugural ESG Report (Qualys) Qualys, Inc (NASDAQ: QLYS), a pioneer and leading provider of disruptive cloud-based IT, security and compliance solutions, today announced the publication of its inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report, showcasing its robust adherence to responsible business practices and sustainable operations.

Resecurity Recognized for Ethical Vulnerability Disclosure in Products of Apple, Oracle and Schneider Electric (Yahoo Finance) Resecurity, Inc. (USA), a global cybersecurity solutions provider protecting Fortune 500 and government agencies worldwide, is proud to announce that its esteemed HUNTER unit experts have been acknowledged for their exemplary ethical vulnerability disclosure in software products of major tech giants including Apple, Oracle, and Schneider Electric. These recognitions underline Resecurity's commitment to fostering a safer digital landscape through responsible collaboration with software vendors an

Fortinet Named a Challenger in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Single-Vendor SASE (Fortinet) Fortinet delivers unified management using a single console while delivering seamless integration of SD-WAN and cloud-delivered AI-powered security to secure the hybrid workforce

British Army Struggling to Recruit Cybersecurity Experts (Defense Post) The British Army’s attempt to bolster its cyber defense capabilities is facing a major obstacle.

Rapid7 Restructures Amid New Focus On Partnerships (NASDAQ:RPD) (Seeking Alpha) Rapid7, Inc. reported Q2 2023 financial results, beating revenue and EPS estimates. Click here to find out why RPD stock is rated as a hold.

Intel is laying off 226 people in Silicon Valley — dozens more than expected Email Share (Silicon Valley Business Journal) The semiconductor giant is laying off workers in San Jose and at its Santa Clara headquarters.

Palo Alto shares rise on earnings beat, surprising investors who worried about a Friday report (CNBC) Palo Alto's better-than-expected earnings report was a relief to investors who were concerned about potentially bad numbers due to a late Friday announcement

This AI Stock Darling Crashed Nearly 20% Just Because It’s Reporting Earnings On A Friday Afternoon (Forbes) Nobody likes working late on a Friday in August, not even Wall Street analysts, who described Palo Alto Networks’ earnings timing as “unprecedented.”

Why is Palo Alto Networks reporting earnings Friday afternoon? The strange timing draws speculation. (MarketWatch) Wall Street wonders why the cybersecurity company decided to report earnings and hold its conference call after the close of markets on a Friday.

Alabama-based Sentar gets federal grant to boost cybersecurity for nuclear plants (UPI) A federal grant will help with the development of a proof-of-concept study targeting potential cybersecurity threats at the nation's nuclear power plants, Alabama-based Sentar said Thursday.

Call for Applications Open for DataTribe’s Sixth Annual Cybersecurity Startup Challenge (Business Wire) Finalists split a $20,000 prize and winner is eligible for up to $2 million in seed financing

Meta Platforms gets tough with its return-to-work plan, warns employees they could be fired if they don't comply (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Meta Platforms Inc. on Thursday delivered a message to employees: management will be watching how they comply with the company's return-to-office rules and workers could be fired if they don't, according to a report in Insider.

NTT Research CIS Lab Director Wins Second IACR Test-of-Time Award for Paper on Oblivious Transfer (Business Wire) NTT and NTT Research Also Contribute 15 Papers to Crypto 2023

Joe Rohner: Booz Allen Gets Workforce Ready for AI - ExecutiveBiz (ExecutiveBiz) Looking for the latest Government Contracting News? Check out our story: Joe Rohner: Booz Allen Gets Workforce Ready for AI. Click to read the full story!

More Cyber Companies Announce Layoffs (Wall Street Journal) Vendors have cut hundreds of employees in recent weeks.

ISC2 Announces Major Milestone as Community Grows to Half a Million Strong (PR Newswire) The world's leading nonprofit member organization for cybersecurity professionals, formerly known as (ISC)², has today announced that it is now...

Orders flooding in on Pentagon’s $9 billion cloud contract (Defense News) The Pentagon in late 2022 tapped Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle for its potential $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC.

Cynomi Study Reveals Number of MSPs Providing Virtual CISO Services Will Grow Fivefold By Next Year | Cybersecurity Dive (Cybersecurity Dive) Cynomi, the leading AI-powered virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) platform vendor for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and consulting firms, has published the results of its first annual report, “The State of the Virtual CISO 2023”. The report, conducted by Global Surveys on behalf of Cynomi, reveals critical insights into MSPs and MSSPs’ recent shift towards vCISO services.

Products, Services, and Solutions

Thales Launches Cloud-based Payment HSM Service to Help Accelerate Adoption of Cloud Payments Infrastructure (Business Wire) Cloud-based payment HSM delivers greater flexibility, scalability and speed-to-market

Seclore and Nagarro Unveil Joint Secure Collaboration Solution for Enhanced Data Security and Compliance (Seclore) Today Seclore, the leading provider of data-centric security solutions, announced in partnership with Nagarro, a

Security Journey Attains SOC 2 Type II Compliance Setting Industry Benchmark (GlobeNewswire News Room) Security Journey, a leading secure coding training provider, announces its achievement of SOC 2 Type...

Aryaka Hits the Road to Celebrate New PoP Launches in the USA and Europe (PR Newswire) Aryaka®, the leader in Unified SASE solutions, today announced that it is organizing a global roadshow to coincide with the launches of its...

SentinelOne® Leads the Way in XDR (Business Wire) Company ranked as clear Growth Index Leader in Frost Radar™: Extended Detection and Response, 2023 ahead of Microsoft, Crowdstrike, Palo Alto Networks and others

MDR & Gen AI Cybersecurity Leader eSentire Announces New Cyber… (eSentire) eSentire’s LLM Gateway implementation framework, available now on GitHub, enables security teams with visibility and control to improve their governance and operational monitoring of ChatGPT and other LLMs

Forescout Joins MISA and Announces Integration with Microsoft Sentinel to Provide Automated Threat Management Across the Extended Enterprise (Forescout) Forescout, a global cybersecurity leader, today announced integrations with Microsoft Sentinel as part of a broader initiative to support the Microsoft Security portfolio. These integrations will deliver real-time visibility, threat management, and incident response across the extended enterprise: campus, datacenter, remote workers, cloud, mobile, IoT, OT and IoMT endpoints.

BeyondID Launches BeyondID Security Operations Center (IT News Online) BeyondID, a leading managed identity services provider, today announced the BeyondID Security Operations Center (SOC). This 24/7/365 security monitoring and threat detection service is designed to help organizations maintain the security of their systems in real-time.

Dragos Honored With Two Prestigious 2023 SC Media Awards for Best Industrial Security Solution and Most Promising Unicorn (Business Wire) Dragos recognized for Operational Technology, global expansion, and technical excellence

CrowdStrike Dominates SC Awards 2023 Winning Best Enterprise Security Solution and Best Managed Detection and Response Service (Business Wire) CrowdStrike (Nasdaq: CRWD) today announced that the company took home two key wins in the 2023 SC Awards as the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform won Best Enterprise Security Solution and CrowdStrike Falcon® Complete won for best Managed Detection and Response Service.

Veridas Drives Biometric Inclusivity Mission by Joining OIX Community • Veridas (Veridas) Veridas Drives Biometric Inclusivity Mission by Joining OIX Community Veridas looks to play a key role in developing biometric adoption Veridas, a leading global provider of AI-driven identity verification solutions, is pleased to announce it has joined Open Identity Exchange (OIX), a global community driving positive and inclusive developments for trusted digital identities. Veridas Digital […]

Paperclip SAFE® Adds Data Masking to its Breakthrough Searchable Encryption Solution (GlobeNewswire News Room) Paperclip, Inc. (OTCMKTS:PCPJ) announced today that its SAFE® searchable encryption solution now...

Rubrik Brings Power of AI to VMware Customers to Accelerate Cyber Recovery (Rubrik) Data security leader announces generative AI capabilities to further bolster organizations’ cyber resilience.

Sonatype Drives Intelligent Software Security with New Product Enhancements (GlobeNewswire News Room) Company Unveils Boosted Product Capabilities and Evolved Platform to Meet Continuing Demand for Software Supply Chain Security Solutions...

IBM Extends Cloudflare Alliance to Combat Bots Using Machine Learning (Security Boulevard) IBM extends its alliance with Cloudflare to combat malicious bot attacks growing in volume and sophistication.

Axiad Offers Passwordless Authentication for Air Gapped and Critical Environments (MSSP Alert) Axiad brings passwordless authentication to air gapped and critical infrastructure environments that integrate Microsoft Security solutions.

Exclusive Networks Announces Global Distribution Partnership with Thales (Exclusive Networks) Broadens existing presence across EMEA, APAC, and expands into North America

Versa Delivers New AI-Assisted Enhancements Across SASE, SD-WAN, Security Service Edge (SSE), Zero Trust Everywhere (ZTEA), and SD-LAN Products (Business Wire) Suite of AI Technologies Supporting All Products is Integrated into the Versa Unified SASE Platform

New infosec products of the week: August 18, 2023 (Help Net Security) The featured infosec products this week are from: Action1, MongoDB, Bitdefender, SentinelOne and Netskope.

Kivu Launches New Managed Security Services for Cloud and Identity Threat Detection and Response (PR Newswire) Kivu Consulting, a premier global cybersecurity solutions provider, is proud to introduce two new managed security services: Cloud Detection...

How to Protect Your Cryptocurrency with a Cold Wallet | Trend Micro News (Trend Micro News) Why Do You Need a Cold Wallet to Protect Your Cryptocurrency? How to Set up Cold Wallets? What's the Common Risks?

Booz Allen Wins DISA's Thunderdome Production Agreement | WashingtonExec (Washington Executive) Kelly Rozumalski, Booz Allen Booz Allen Hamilton has won a follow-on production other transaction authority agreement to deploy Thunderdome, the Defense Inf ...

Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE Recognized as a Leader in Zero Trust Edge Solutions (PR Newswire) Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW), the global cybersecurity leader, announced today it has been positioned as a leader in the inaugural...

Deloitte and Claroty team for OT cybersecurity (CRN Australia) Vendor’s xDome to be built into Deloitte’s managed XDR.

ConnectWise and CompTIA Celebrate First Graduating Class from Ticket to Tech Program (GlobeNewswire News Room) Partnership Takes on Industry’s Hiring Crisis with Training Initiative That Bridges the Skills Gap ...

Axiad Launches New Passwordless Authentication Package for Government, Critical Infrastructure and Defense Industrial Base (PR Newswire) Axiad, a leading provider of organization-wide passwordless orchestration, today announced a new Unified Credential Management System (UCMS)...

Fortra Security Solutions Go on the "Offensive" (MSSP Alert) Fortra has repositioned its portfolio to advance its package of offensive security solutions, which are now interoperable.

Carlsberg Group Selects Cato Networks for Massive Global SASE Deployment (PR Newswire) Cato Networks, provider of the world's leading single-vendor SASE platform, announced Carlsberg Group as its latest enterprise customer. The...

Oracle Achieves Top Secret Cloud Authorization (Yahoo Finance) Oracle today announced the U.S. Intelligence Community has authorized Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to host Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) missions.

Claroty Brings Operational Technology Security to Expanded Deloitte Managed Extended Detection and Response Platform (Claroty) Collaboration to bring prevention, detection, and response capabilities to business-critical systems and assets across cyber-physical environments

Google Releases Security Key Implementation Resilient to Quantum Attacks (SecurityWeek) Google has released the first quantum-resilient FIDO2 security key implementation as part of its OpenSK project.

Beyond Identity Launches New Passkey Adoption Tool, The Passkey Journey (Business Wire) Tool Provides Advanced Insights to Accelerate Passkey Deployment and Optimize User Experience

People

Cyversity Announces Advisory Board to Shape the Future of the Cybersecurity Industry (PR Newswire) Cyversity, a 501(c)3 non-profit association dedicated to the academic and professional success of women, underrepresented minorities, and...

LogicGate Strengthens Executive Team with New Chief Marketing Officer to Drive Strategic Growth Initiatives (PR Newswire) LogicGate, a leading provider of next-generation Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions through its acclaimed Risk Cloud®...

O’Melveny Welcomes Former SEC Regional Director Michele Wein Layne to its Los Angeles Office (O’Melveny) O’Melveny announced today that Michele Wein Layne, formerly the director of the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has joined the firm’s Los Angeles office as of counsel in its White Collar Defense & Corporate Investigations Practice Group.

Security startup Eclypsium adds well-known CFO to its ranks (Portland Inno) Portland startup Eclypsium has hired a well-known finance executive for a top job.

Tammi Morton takes on Chief Security Officer role at UnitedHealth Group (Security Magazine) Experienced security executive Tammi Morton has been named the new Chief Security Officer at UnitedHealth Group.

Vectra AI Appoints Scott Dussault as Chief Financial Officer (GlobeNewswire News Room) Vectra AI, the leader in AI-driven cyber threat detection and response, today announced the...

Thoma Bravo completes acquisition of ForgeRock. SentinelOne may be exploring a sale. Grip Security raises $41 million in Series B round.