Flexera acquires Secunia. SAM meets cyber security

“Software Vulnerability Management”

Flexera Software has acquired Secunia, a provider of software vulnerability management software.

Secunia highlights software vulnerabilities and highlights patching priorities based on discovery within an enterprise environment.

As both companies touch every piece of software on very large networks (for Risk, but for different purposes) this acquisition is a great strategic fit for Flexera and further validates the business case for proactive SAM.

As we mention on a recent podcast, security has long been ancillary support in the business case for SAM, but the rise of cyber security threats has emphasized the importance of this link.

Flexera stated in their acquisition news:

“Cybercriminals routinely use vulnerabilities in software as gateways to exploit corporate networks, using techniques like commercialized underground “exploit toolkits” to infect machines and perform malicious activities. A typical, documented cybersecurity breach costs organizations between $2.5 million to $5 million. However, massive breaches, such as the highly publicized Target, JPMorgan, Home Depot, Sony, and Best Buy cybercrimes, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars – not to mention damage to reputation and brand.”

Secunia brings two core products to the Flexera family under the mission to “help IT security and operations teams proactively identify, assess and remediate software vulnerabilities” :

• “Vulnerability Intelligence Manager” – which gives IT security teams verified, accurate and comprehensive vulnerability intelligence from Secunia Research, along  with workflow management, alerts and reporting
• “Corporate Software Inspector” which provides IT operations teams multi-platform assessment of software vulnerabilities and cost-effective patch creation and deployment to reduce enterprise software security risks

Mark Bishof, Flexera’s CEO, commenting on the acquisition said:

“As cybersecurity threats continue to grow, leading companies will not only proactively manage these threats but will also integrate Software Vulnerability Management into core software asset management processes,”

A very interesting milestone for the SAM market and further support for the business value of SAM.