Facebook Wants To Buy A Cybersecurity Firm. Which One?
Just weeks ago Facebook revealed a massive security flaw on its website. That flaw allowed hackers to compromise tens of millions of accounts. Ever since the hack went down Facebook has been scrambling to shore up its defenses. Now it looks as though the company has come up with a solution. According to a report from The Information, Facebook is currently talking to a number of major cybersecurity firms about an acquisition.
Sources familiar with company plans say that Facebook wants to close the deal by the end of this year. That leaves just 70 days to get a deal finalised.
Facebook reportedly wants to get its hands on security tools that will easily integrate with its current services. Those tools could potentially be used to better secure users' accounts or automatically detect, report, and even mitigate hacking attempts.
An acquisition like this would certainly make sense for Facebook, and not just for the most obvious reason of boosting security.
Hackers are getting more skilled all the time. The job of protecting its users and their data is only going to get more difficult in the future. Acquiring a cybersecurity company and weaving its defenses directly into Facebook's digital fabric certainly seems like a good response. Beyond that, however, there's public opinion to consider. Making a splashy cybersecurity acquisition would show Facebook users, investors, and government regulators that the company is serious about learning from its missteps... and making sure they aren't repeated.
An acquisition of a reputable cybersecurity firm could be another a huge stride toward silencing critics. Facebook is also, like all companies operating in Europe, now subject to new EU rules that have a lot to say about data breaches.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a company can get into serious trouble if it does not disclose breaches soon after finding out about them, and if its security isn’t up to scratch.
With the sheer scale of its user base, and therefore the scale of potential breaches, perhaps Facebook is taking a better-safe-than-sorry approach in its acquisition plans.
Here at Cyber Security Intelligence we think there are up to 20 possible Cyber Security companies that Facebook might be considering and in no particular order they are as follows :
Rapid7, Citicus, Herjavec Group, Darktrace, Silobreaker, Mimecast, Recorded Future
FireEye, Cyber Ark, Sophos, Wandera, SentryBay, Forepoint, Tanium, RiskIQ
Active Risk Management, DFLabs, Sera-Brynn. Crowdstrike, Alien Vault.
If you have any inside information, please let us know: Contact Us
You Might Aso Read:
Alphabet Launches A Cybersecurity Company - Chronicle:
Darktrace - From Cybersecurity Start-Up To Unicorn:
