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Endpoint security company Lookout has acquired CipherCloud, a cloud-native cybersecurity startup focused on the burgeoning secure access service edge (SASE) security sphere. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2007, Lookout offers a range of mobile security products spanning the consumer and business realms. For enterprises, Lookout delivers a cloud-based platform designed to detect and respond to cyberattacks through workers’ mobile devices, such as phishing attacks, ransomware, and data breaches. The San Francisco-based company claims a number of notable clients, including Landis+Gyr, Henkel, Nasdaq, and Schneider Electric.
Among its products is Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security, which gives organizations visibility into the risks associated with their workers’ smartphones and tablets and lets them apply policies to reduce those risks. Given its direct reach into both the consumer and enterprise verticals, the company has access to a significant amount of data from across 185 million mobile devices, which helps Lookout adapt its machine learning algorithms to align with new threats.
Above: Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security
Founded in 2010, CipherCloud has increasingly focused on an emerging concept in cybersecurity known as SASE (pronounced “sassy”), a term coined in 2019 by Gartner. SASE is concerned with ensuring users and their devices have secure, speedy access to their applications and data wherever they reside by adopting a single cloud service located at the network edge. At its core, SASE sets out to address the siloed security measures that are currently spread between on-premises and the cloud. As mobile, cloud, and edge computing have increasingly replaced desktops, local area networks (LANs), and datacenters, it makes sense to transition security to minimize latency and other performance issues.
CipherCloud currently operates across various SASE-related categories, such as zero-trust network access (ZTNA), cloud access security broker (CASB), secure web gateway (SWG), and data loss prevention (DLP). The company had raised around $80 million in external funding from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and has amassed an impressive roster of clients, including Renault, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, and EY.
Endpoint to cloud
Looker plans to combine CipherCloud’s SASE technologies with the Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security platform. A press release says this will put the company in a strong position to “deliver the industry’s first end-to-end platform that secures an organization’s entire data path from endpoint to cloud.” This integrated approach will help it “close the gaps” that emerge when companies use multiple products from different security vendors.
Having CipherCloud on board will also help Looker diversify its product offerings ahead of a major evolution in cybersecurity. Gartner predicts that SASE will be an $11 billion market by 2024, with “at least 40% of enterprises having explicit SASE strategies.”
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