Content by Michael Novinson

Why Is AT&T Cybersecurity Such a Good Acquisition Target?

Michael Novinson  •  February 22, 2023

AT&T wants to unload its cyber assets just five years after doubling down on security through its $600 million purchase of threat intelligence vendor AlienVault. The Dallas-based carrier has been working with British banking firm Barclays to solicit bids for its cybersecurity business, Reuters said.

Cyren Ceases Operations After Financing, Sale Efforts Fail

Michael Novinson  •  February 22, 2023

Cyren plans to cease operations and pursue liquidation after the email security and threat detection vendor failed to sell assets or raise more capital. The company terminated the employment of all remaining workers, commenced a bankruptcy proceeding in Israel and told Nasdaq to delist the company.

How the Economic Downturn Has Affected Security Funding, M&A

Michael Novinson  •  February 22, 2023

The cybersecurity industry experienced a dramatic drop-off in funding, stock prices and M&A activity as the economic downturn took hold in late 2022. Venture capital financing tumbled to $18.5 billion in 2022, 39% lower than the record-breaking $30.4 billion invested in 2021, Momentum Cyber found.

Nikesh Arora: ChatGPT Best Thing That's Happened to Security

Michael Novinson  •  February 21, 2023

The revolution ChatGPT drove in the consumer market has prompted enterprises to more closely examine how AI can help safeguard data, says Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora. The demands from AI in the enterprise are far more exacting, as firms insist AI be clean, comprehensive and in real time.

Darktrace Taps EY to Probe Finances Amid Short-Seller Claims

Michael Novinson  •  February 20, 2023

Darktrace has brought in Ernst & Young to review the cybersecurity AI vendor's financial process and controls following bombshell allegations from short seller Quintessential Capital Management. The review comes weeks after QCM claimed that Darktrace overstated its sales, margins and growth rates.

Imperva CEO on Maximizing Visibility Into Unstructured Data

Michael Novinson  •  February 20, 2023

The adoption of new technologies, multi-cloud architectures and multiple data storage sites has resulted in data residing in more places than ever before. That's why enterprises need a single pane of glass to know who's touching their data and why, says Imperva CEO Pam Murphy.

Airbus Bids for 30% Stake in Atos' Evidian Security Business

Michael Novinson  •  February 17, 2023

Airbus has made a formal offer to purchase a 29.9% stake in Atos' $4.8 billion Evidian cybersecurity, big data and digital business. Atos says it will initiate negotiations focused on both Airbus' offer and a long-term strategic and technological partnership between the two organizations.

Forcepoint CEO on How SSE Eases Unified Policy Application

Michael Novinson  •  February 16, 2023

Forcepoint's new Security Service Edge offering allows clients to apply access, threat or data loss protection policies across all channels as soon as they're implemented. The firm long offered DLP, SD-WAN, SWG and CASB tools, but the lack of full integration made it tough to apply unified policies.

Accenture Acquires Morphus to Take on Cyber Fraud in Brazil

Michael Novinson  •  February 16, 2023

Accenture has bought Morphus to get more intelligence around fraud and other cybercrimes Brazilian criminals are perpetuating in the digital world. The Morphus acquisition will help Accenture customers take on financially motivated cyber fraud and insider threats that are pervasive in Brazil.

Open Systems Splits Ontinue MDR Division From SASE Business

Michael Novinson  •  February 15, 2023

Open Systems has split its MDR and SASE businesses into separate divisions with unique executive teams to help each optimize its engineering stack and selling motion. The 300-person MDR division will be known as Ontinue and led by Geoff Haydon, who had served as Open Systems CEO since February 2021.

Deepwatch Raises $180M in Splunk-Backed Funding to Boost MDR

Michael Novinson  •  February 15, 2023

Managed detection and response titan Deepwatch has received a $180 million investment to strengthen its threat analytics, user interface and security scoring for clients. The money from Splunk, Springcoast and Vista will allow Deepwatch to invest in R&D, platform innovation and threat intelligence.

Demisto Founders Launch Passwordless Authentication Company

Michael Novinson  •  February 15, 2023

The founding team behind SOAR vendor Demisto has started a passwordless authentication and user management platform company that caters to the developer community. Descope helps developers embed authentication in the application build process and competes with Auth0 in the CIAM space.

Zscaler Buys Canonic Security to Thwart Supply Chain Attacks

Michael Novinson  •  February 14, 2023

Zscaler has agreed to purchase a startup established by a former Proofpoint executive to help organizations thwart SaaS supply chain attacks. The proposed acquisition of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Canonic Security will help customers streamline SaaS application governance and enforcement.

Check Point Finally Enters SD-WAN Space With Organic Product

Michael Novinson  •  February 13, 2023

Check Point has at last introduced an SD-WAN offering that supports more than 1,000 applications and is tightly integrated into the company's network security stack, CEO Gil Shwed says. The debut of Quantum SD-WAN makes Check Point Software the last major firewall vendor to enter the SD-WAN space.

Merck Germany Exec on Why FIDO is Still Such a Tough Sell

Michael Novinson  •  February 10, 2023

Identity verification and lack of WebAuthn implementation in legacy applications and smartphones are two of the biggest challenges associated with adopting FIDO authentication. Merck Germany's Andreas Pellenghar also says the current setup of jumping to a browser to log in is turning people off.