Responsible Cyber acquires Secucial in S$7m deal

Singapore cyber security startup Responsible Cyber has acquired Secucial, a digital identity wallet specialist for S$7m in a move to bolster its capabilities and expand its footprint across the globe.

Founded in 2016, Responsible Cyber offers a cyber security platform called Immune that helps organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), assess their cyber risks, and security controls, as well as monitor breaches.

It also provides cyber security as a service through the cloud-based platform and customisable cyber security services, including risk management, secure code training, penetration testing, incident response and business continuity.

Magda Chelly, founder and managing director of Responsible Cyber, said the Secucial acquisition will enable the company to offer access control management capabilities on the Immune platform.

“A small business owner will not need to hustle anymore to approve access to their administrator accounts when needed,” Chelly said, adding that this can be done through a mobile app which manages privileged accounts, including authorising and revoking access to those accounts if necessary.

With the acquisition, Responsible Cyber has also gained NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore, and Singtel Innov8, the venture capital arm of the Singtel Group, as new shareholders.

NUS Enterprise and Innov8 had co-founded a cyber security entrepreneur hub which runs an accelerator programme from which Secucial was started.

“We welcome NUS Enterprise and Singtel Innov8 as our shareholders, especially during uncertain times like these. We live in an age where cyber security is no longer an option. It is a necessity that ensures the long-term survival of SMEs,” said Chelly.

Since its inception, Responsible Cyber has secured business customers with employee sizes ranging from nine to 600 employees. About 40% of its customers are in Asia.

In Singapore, its main clients are SMEs that are required to comply with technology risk management guidelines set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state’s financial industry regulator.

Calling the acquisition of Secucial a “substantial booster”, Mikko Laaksonen, Responsible Cyber’s co-founder and technical chief information security officer, said the move will enable the company to speed up product development and tap the talent it needs to expand its business.

Chelly added: “We have big plans – we target to grow the platform and serve SMEs around the world, ensuring that they can raise their own capabilities and reduce their cyber risks. As our platform is cloud-based, we are not restricted to a region.”

According to a recent global study by Oracle and KPMG, 59% of organisations reported that employees with privileged cloud accounts have had those credentials compromised by a spear phishing attack.

The most common types of misconfigurations were over-privileged accounts (37%), exposed web servers and other types of server workloads (35%) and the lack of multi-factor authentication for access to key services (33%).