Apr 6, 2018

RSA to acquire insider threat detection startup Fortscale UPDATED 12:06 EST . 06 APRIL 2018 RSA Security LLC, the network protection business of Dell Technologies Inc., has  inked a deal  to buy a startup called Fortscale Security Ltd. that focuses on fighting so-called insider threats. The buyout was announced on Thursday ahead of the group’s popular RSA Conference for cybersecurity experts later this month. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, RSA did divulge that it plans to use Fortscale’s technology to bolster its NetWitness threat detection and response product. San Francisco-based Fortscale has developed a platform that uses machine learning to identify suspicious user behavior within corporate networks. That could mean, say, a hacker trying to use a worker’s legitimate login credentials to compromise sensitive data. The startup claimed its software can catch more subtle violations as well, such as if an executive shares an account with an employee who lacks the appropriate access permissions. Fortscale’s platform detects these kinds of incidents by using historical logs of users’ past activity to create a “baseline” of normal behavior. If a worker suddenly logs into a system from an unfamiliar location or shows some other sign of having been compromised, the software raises the alarm. Integrating Fortscale’s platform into NetWitness should be fairly straightforward for RSA. The startup offers a product called Presidio that is specifically built to let cybersecurity companies embed its insider threat detection capabilities into their solutions. The technology that RSA stands to gain via the Fortscale deal should complement NetWitness UEBA, one of the two new tools that it unveiled alongside the announcement of the acquisition. The offering provides user behavior analytic capabilities for identifying the same kind of threats on which the startup focuses. The other new tool, called NetWitness Orchestrator, is based on technology from another security startup called Demisto Inc. that has partnered with RSA. It analyzes how network protection teams have responded to different kinds of incidents in the past to provide advice on how to best handle a new situation. Fortscale raised $23 million in venture capital prior to signing the acquisition agreement with RSA. Image: Pixabay