ForeScout Technologies has acquired the leading operational technology (OT) network protection company, SecurityMatters for approximately $113 million in cash. The acquisition will bolster ForeScout’s global leadership position in agentless device visibility and control across the extended enterprise with expanded capabilities and advanced features to secure OT and industrial environments.
“ForeScout’s acquisition of SecurityMatters is a natural fit as it takes us deeper into a market where we have an established foothold and are seeing explosive customer demand,” said Michael DeCesare, CEO and president, ForeScout Technologies. “SecurityMatters’ technology and talent will accelerate our success in securing OT, expand our total addressable market and reinforce our solution as the industry’s only, end-to-end agentless device visibility and control platform.”
The convergence of IT and OT is driving a rapid rise of interconnectivity and introducing new risks for enterprises as OT networks may no longer be physically segregated from the IT network. Recent cyberattacks, such as WannaCry, NotPetya and Triton, demonstrated how vulnerable OT networks can result in significant business disruption and financial loss. According to Forrester research, 79 percent of organizations with a SCADA/ICS network have suffered a breach in the past 24 months.
“Virtually every company with OT needs to rethink its cybersecurity strategy,” said Damiano Bolzoni, founder and CEO, SecurityMatters. “After partnering with ForeScout for the last year, it became clear that we shared the same vision. Now as a single company, we will be able to accelerate our momentum and create the industry’s first capability to truly segment IT and OT environments.”
