Darktrace buys attack surface management firm Cybersprint

Netherlands-based Cybersprint, a specialist in attack surface management tools and services, is to be acquired by cyber security artificial intelligence (AI) firm Darktrace for £39.7m (€47.5m/$53.7m) for a cash and equity consideration, adding complementary technology sets and a new R&D centre in The Hague into the bargain.

Cybersprint’s technology provides “continuous, real-time insights from an outside-in perspective” to help its customers detect risks to their networks and systems, and eliminate blind spots. Darktrace believes this is complementary to its vision of delivering a “continuous cyber AI loop” and its self-learning tech and inside-out view.

“We are very excited to welcome the Cybersprint team to Darktrace,” said Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson – who last year became the 10th winner of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK IT title. “Bringing inside-out and outside-in visibility together is critical and having access to the robust, rich, real-time external dataset, combined with Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI means that customers get a holistic view of prioritised cyber risks to harden the parts of their organisation that are most vulnerable.

“With this acquisition, we are able to leverage Cybersprint’s seven years of R&D to accelerate our Prevent product family, ultimately making it much harder for cyber attackers to carry out successful missions.”

Cybersprint CEO Pieter Jansen added: “I’m very excited about this fantastic step in the journey of Cybersprint. We are passionate about automating manual tasks in cyber security from an outside perspective. We believe attackers never sleep and operate without scope.

“When we began conversations with Darktrace, we felt an instant connection on vision, culture and technology. That’s why we are looking forward to joining Darktrace and working together to accelerate state-of-the-art innovations to make organisations more cyber secure.”

Cybersprint’s technology will ultimately be folded into the product suite, underpinned by attack path modelling, enriching its services with external vulnerability data and helping push Darktrace into new areas, such as proactive security. Its capabilities will first be introduced as a new module in the Darktrace Prevent product to feed organisation-specific web data to Darktrace’s attack path modelling tech.

It also adds a second European R&D centre to its existing Cambridge-based facility, and expertise in real-time internet data modelling and ethical hacking.

Darktrace is currently one of the UK’s hottest security properties, having achieved coveted “unicorn” status and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. Some of its more notable customers include F1 team McLaren, real estate firm British Land, power infrastructure company Drax and bicycle manufacturer Trek.

Cybersprint, meanwhile, boasts a host of customers with a strong focus on the Dutch market, including the likes of financial services firms ING and Rabobank, email security outfit Zivver, and the Dutch national Olympic team.