News

Microsoft Enhances IoT Security with CyberX Acquisition

• By Kurt Mackie
• 06/23/2020

Microsoft is acquiring Waltham, Mass.-based industrial cybersecurity company CyberX, the two companies revealed this week. CyberX provides security for the combined Internet-of-Things (IoT) and operations technology (OT) space (IoT/OT) with its namesake security platform.

"By joining forces with Microsoft, we will rapidly scale our business and technology to securely enable digital transformation for many more organizations," said Nir Giller, CyberX co-founder and CTO. "Together, CyberX and Microsoft provide an unbeatable solution for gaining visibility and a holistic understanding of risk for all IoT and OT devices in your enterprise."

The CyberX agentless security platform is already integrated with Microsoft's Azure IoT stack, Azure Security Center for IoT, and Azure Sentinel, the first security information and event management (SIEM) solution with native IoT support. The integrated solution is currently available from Microsoft's Azure Marketplace.

Microsoft explained in its announcement that, although it already provides Azure security solutions for IoT implementations, its customers still have problems in two areas:

• Giving customers visibility into what IoT devices are already connected to their networks.
• Managing the security on existing IoT devices (brownfield devices) that have been historically difficult due to a myriad of custom protocols.

Microsoft's acquisition of CyberX is expected to solve those problems, Microsoft has said.

"With CyberX, customers can discover their existing IoT assets, and both manage and improve the security posture of those devices," CyberX CTO Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk CVP Sam George explained in a blog post. "With CyberX, customers can see a digital map of thousands of devices across a factory floor or within a building and gather information about their asset profile and vulnerabilities. Gaining this visibility is not only critical for understanding where security risks may exist and then mitigating those risks, but it is also a fundamental step to securely enable smart manufacturing, smart grid and other digitization use cases across production facilities and the supply chain."

In a separate announcement, CyberX explained that its team will be under the business unit managed by Yuval Eldar, Microsoft's general manager of IoT security. Eldar formerly served as the founder and president of Secure Islands, another company that was acquired by Microsoft.
Other CyberX personnel are joining Microsoft and will continue to service the product.

"CyberX's founders will join Microsoft and the platform will continue to be enhanced and supported by CyberX personnel," CyberX's announcement explained. "In addition, Microsoft is committed to the channel and will continue working with CyberX's strategic reseller and technology partners worldwide. The CyberX platform will continue to be available in a hybrid model supporting both cloud-connected and air-gapped networks."

The financial terms of the deal were not available at press time.