Security Vendor CyberArk To Buy Viewfinity For $30.5 Million

Taking closer aim at cyberattacks within corporate networks, security vendor CyberArk Software is buying a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in privilege management and application control software.

CyberArk, based in Israel, revealed Wednesday that it will pay $30.5 million to buy privately held Viewfinity of Waltham, Mass. The all-cash deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

The deal will enable CyberArk to remove administrative privileges from business users, and limit the privileges available to users and applications to only what’s needed, allowing only trusted applications to run. CyberArk’s offerings include SSH key controls, access monitoring and protection of privileged passwords.

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According to a statement from CyberArk, the Viewfinity offering enables organizations to stop the progression of most malware-based attacks at the endpoint, limiting an attacker’s ability to move beyond its initial point of entry. These types of capabilities have come to the forefront in recent months, with a focus on privilege management and expanding security inside the perimeter and across the network.

CyberArk has been selling Viewfinity’s software. ’This was the one … space we had in which we were selling another solution,’ Cyberark President and CEO Udi Mokady told CRN. He said the Viewfinity solution -- available both as an on-premise offering and as a Software-as-a-Service product -- is ’very easy to implement’ and will be an ’exciting expansion’ for CyberArk’s channel partners.

Recent surveys have pointed to the security holes within corporate networks.

A 2015 report by telecommunications giant Verizon cited ’insider misuse’ as the fourth-leading cause of security incidents in 2014, accounting for 10.6 percent of all reported incidents. (The top three, in order: point-of-sale systems intrusions, ’crimeware’ -- malware used to carry out illegal online activity -- and cyberespionage, according to the report.)

Cyberark's Mokady acknowledged those insider vulnerabilities in a statement announcing the deal: ’Privilege vulnerabilities exist all throughout an organization’s IT infrastructure … and are exploited in 80-100% of advanced attacks,’ he said.

Mokady touted the Viewfinity acquisition as a solution that can help lessen ’the probability of wider infection and lateral movement’ in a corporate network.

’By having this technology in-house,’ he said in the statement, ’our customers will benefit from a single, trusted partner with an integrated solution addressing all of their privileged account security needs.’

The timing of the acquisition seems right, given several recent attacks on the networks of such prominent companies as Sony, Anthem and Target, along with government organizations such as the federal Office of Personnel Management.

In the latter incident, according to a report on the website FCW.com, investigators found that stolen credentials ultimately led to the compromise of personal information of more than 21.5 million federal workers and contractors last year.

Demand for security solutions is coming from a variety of vertical industries, whereas it would have come primarily from financial services a few years ago, Mokady told CRN.

Viewfinity, founded in 2007, has about 300 customers and a ’good, healthy team’ of around 30 coming into the CyberArk fold, he added.

’With CyberArk, Viewfinity’s customers will gain from the company’s global presence and support capabilities,’ Viewfinity co-founder and President Gill Rapaport said in the statement distributed by CyberArk.

CyberArk’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol CYBR, outperformed the market Wednesday, gaining 1.26 percent to close at $52.86 a share.

Analysts at stock brokerage Piper Jaffray, which issued an analysis of the transaction Thursday, reacted positively, saying CyberArk can grow the addition to its business "significantly ... as they drive it into larger enterprises within the Fortune 1000."

PUBLISHED OCT. 7, 2015