Endpoint Security , Governance & Risk Management , Internet of Things Security

Forescout to Buy Threat Detection and Response Vendor Cysiv

Cysiv's Cloud-Native Data Analytics Will Help OT and IoT Customers Address Threats
Forescout to Buy Threat Detection and Response Vendor Cysiv
Forescout CEO Wael Mohamed (Image: Forescout)

Forescout has agreed to purchase startup Cysiv to help OT and IoT customers analyze, detect and respond to threats using cloud-native data analytics.

See Also: OnDemand | OT Automated Detection and Response

The San Jose, California-based internet of things security vendor says its proposed acquisition of Irving, Texas-based Cysiv will make it easier for customers to mine and cross-reference data that's stored on Forescout's platform, according to CEO Wael Mohamed. This will allow Forescout to launch proactive strikes against potential threats and reduce the attack surface for customers, Mohamed says (see: M&A Roundup: Delinea Debuts, Forescout & Check Point Expand).

"We believe data-powered security is extremely important for companies to be able to improve their security posture and have more insight into what's going on," Mohamed tells Information Security Media Group. "We believe Cysiv's best in-class engine with the scalability, the precision and the ability to be singularly minded should help them meet those objectives."

Cysiv was founded in 2018, employs 150 people, and has raised $26 million of outside money, according to Crunchbase and Mohamed. The company was incubated within Trend Micro before being spun out as an independent entity. Mohamed says he was very familiar with the Cysiv team from his years as Trend Micro's president and COO and was impressed with their cloud-native and vendor-agnostic approach.

"At first we thought maybe we'd do a partnership with Cysiv, but it was so strategic that we decided to acquire," Mohamed says. "The culture fit was amazing, and our customer validation was pretty positive, so it made the decision a lot easier."

Bringing Automation to Analytics

Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed, and the deal is expected to close by the end of June. All Cysiv employees, including co-founder and CEO Partha Panda, will join Forescout, according to Mohamed. The deal comes just four months after Forescout bought CyberMDX to safeguard internet of medical things devices and 22 months after Forescout was taken private by Advent International for $1.4 billion.

"We are a growth company," Mohamed says. "The reason we actually went private was to allow the company to be able to invest in the future for the long-run of our customers. We serve some of the largest companies on the planet."

Mohamed is impressed by Cysiv's ability to help customers retain and visualize data in a way that adds value to the overall organization, and he plans to further enhance the product under Forescout's ownership by leveraging service providers and adding automated response capabilities. Customers are dealing with a shortage of people and an incredible number of alerts, and he says there's a need to automate more.

Forescout wants to improve the precision and automation around Cysiv's technology so that the customer is asked to do less work, Mohamed says. Cysiv allows Forescout to take data on the company's platform and mine it in such a way that threats can be detected, and Mohamed says Forescout wants to improve Cysiv's ability to autonomously respond to the insights it has generated.

"There's tons of data we generate on regular basis," Mohamed says. "Most of this data either goes to a server or to a SIEM somewhere. We felt that we needed to have our own cloud-native data analytics engine that can take the data and make sure that it actually is stored in such a way that it's enriched."

Accelerating Global Expansion

Mohamed also wants service providers to do the last mile of delivery around Cysiv's technology as the product goes international, taking full advantage of the intelligence the system produces, Mohamed says. As customers accelerate their cyber investments, he says, there's an increased need for partners who understand the local market and are able to provide local, on the ground personnel.

Forescout does 70% of its business in the United States today, and Mohamed says Cysiv should be able to help the company expand globally. Cysiv is also expected to help Forescout accelerate its market share expansion in both the OT and internet of medical things spaces and boost its wallet share from existing customers by helping them protect their infrastructure and strengthen their security posture.

Mohamed says Cysiv will continue to be offered on a stand-alone basis as well as embedded into Forescout's platform. Cysiv is able to work with both Forescout and non-Forescout sensors to provide customers with visibility into modern container and cloud-based architectures. And going forward, he says, the market slowdown should make more acquisition opportunities available to Forescout.

"From day one, we set ourselves the goal that we want to be a high-growth company that's profitable," says Mohamed, who started as CEO in March 2021. "Our overall company is moving in the right direction, and we're very happy about the progress."


About the Author

Michael Novinson

Michael Novinson

Managing Editor, Business, ISMG

Novinson is responsible for covering the vendor and technology landscape. Prior to joining ISMG, he spent four and a half years covering all the major cybersecurity vendors at CRN, with a focus on their programs and offerings for IT service providers. He was recognized for his breaking news coverage of the August 2019 coordinated ransomware attack against local governments in Texas as well as for his continued reporting around the SolarWinds hack in late 2020 and early 2021.




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