IBM announced it plans to acquire Randori, a leading attack surface management (ASM) and offensive cybersecurity provider based in the Boston area. Randori helps clients continuously identify external facing assets, both on-premise or in the cloud, that are visible to attackers - and prioritize exposures which pose the greatest risk. Today's news further advances IBM's Hybrid Cloud strategy and strengthens its portfolio of AI-powered cybersecurity products and services.

Investigations into recent data breaches have shown that despite increased investment, companies continue to struggle with managing their attack surface. In fact, 67% of organizations saw their external attack surface expand over the past two years due to the rising use of cloud, third-party services, the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems. And 69% have been compromised via unknown, unmanaged, or poorly managed internet-facing asset in the past year.

"Our clients today are faced with managing a complex technology landscape of accelerating cyberattacks targeted at applications running across a variety of hybrid cloud environments - from public clouds, private clouds and on-premises," said Mary O'Brien, General Manager, IBM Security. "In this environment, it is essential for organizations to arm themselves with attacker's perspective in order to help find their most critical blind spots and focus their efforts on areas that will minimize business disruption and damages to revenue and reputation."

Randori is IBM's fourth acquisition in 2022 as the company continues to bolster its hybrid cloud and AI skills and capabilities, including in cybersecurity. IBM has acquired more than 20 companies since Arvind Krishna became CEO in April 2020.

Assuming the Role of Attackers

Randori is a hacker led company, with software to help security teams discover gaps, assess risks, and improve their security posture over time by delivering an authentic attack experience at scale. Designed to help security teams zero in on previously unknown exposure points, Randori's unique attack surface management solution takes into account the logic of an adversary based on real-world attacks - and is the only one to prioritize based on level of risk as well as the attractiveness of an asset to potential attackers using their proprietary scoring system.

Their unique approach has led to the development of a cloud native solution that provides better prioritization of vulnerabilities and reduces noise by focusing on customers' unique attack surface.  By simply entering an email domain, Randori will begin mapping a customer's attack surface, helping to identify shadow IT risks and potential entry points for ransomware. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, with offices in Denver, CO, Randori is backed by Accomplice, .406 Ventures, Harmony Partners and Legion Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.  The transaction is expected to close in next few months, subject to customary closing conditions and any required regulatory reviews.

"We started Randori to ensure every organization has access to the attacker's perspective," said Brian Hazzard, Co-Founder & CEO at Randori. "To stay ahead of today's threats, you need to know what's exposed and how attackers view your environment - that's exactly what Randori provides. By joining forces with IBM, we can greatly accelerate this vision and strategy - leveraging IBM's deep expertise in AI, threat intelligence, offensive security and global reach. Together, we can arm the industry with the attacker's perspective - helping to give every organization the visibility and insight needed to get in front of the next wave of attacks."

Upon close of the acquisition, IBM plans to integrate Randori's attack surface management software with the extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities of IBM Security QRadar. By feeding insights from Randori into QRadar XDR, security teams will be able to leverage real-time attack surface visibility for intelligent alert triage, threat hunting, and incident response. This can help eliminate the need for customers to manually monitor new critical applications and respond quickly when new issues or emerging threats arise on their perimeter.

Randori also provides businesses with a solution that uniquely combines attack surface management with continuous automated red teaming (CART) to stress test defenses and incident response teams. Upon close, IBM will leverage Randori to compliment X-Force Red's elite hacker lead offensive security services while further enriching QRadar XDR detection and response capabilities. This will allow more global customers to benefit from a top-tier attack experience that helps uncover where organizations are most vulnerable. Randori insights will also be leveraged by IBM's Managed Security Services to help improve threat detection for thousands of clients.