Global cybersecurity software provider CyberFOX recently announced the acquisition of Microsoft 365 security provider Optimize365. This deal follows the company’s June purchase of SASE provider Timus Networks, and both acquisitions are funded on the back of February’s nine-figure growth investment led by Level Equity and Radian Capital. The financial terms of the Optimize365 acquisition are not mentioned in the announcement.
CyberFOX’s Current Standing
Optimize365’s coverage is built around endpoints, credentials, web traffic, and network access, accounting for a wide range of security cases. The company’s existing stack includes AutoElevate for privileged access management (PAM), CyberFOX Password Manager, DNS Filtering for web protection, and the recently added Timus SASE. Microsoft 365 configurations and permissions are left outside the perimeter of CyberFOX’s purview.
The addition of Optimize365’s capabilities is an important step in protecting a continuously expanding access attack surface. “IT teams are facing an increasingly complex access attack surface, from endpoints and identities to Microsoft 365 and beyond,” says David Bellini, CEO of CyberFOX. “Our goal is to give them a comprehensive suite of security platforms that protects the full access attack surface, without adding more complexity.”
Exposure Without an Exploit
The ongoing growth and evolution in attack surfaces and threat trends present a demand for changes in how detection and defense work. Systems feature settings and permissions that change rapidly, accumulate over time, and often go unmonitored and unmanaged. Configuration drift provides a quiet path to compromise in many enterprise environments. Risk is multiplied across every tenant managed by a given MSP.
Optimize365 customers note that a key part of defense is understanding that the walls built up will not be impregnable. “Cybersecurity isn't just about building walls, it's about knowing exactly where the cracks are before someone else finds them,” according to Charles Love, COO at ShowTech Solutions.
Why Lean Teams Cannot Watch It Manually
The need for more sophisticated defenses is in part due to the volume and pace of evolving threats and technologies. Microsoft security changes are outpacing the capabilities of small teams, and reactive defense that comes down to putting out fires after an incident has become the default operating mode. The scale of managing multiple tenants turns review into an impossible workload for a traditional staff without enough manpower.
What Optimize365 Offers
The addition of Optimize365 to CyberFOX’s existing stack offers a variety of benefits to aid against modern threats. Continuous tenant monitoring and configuration hardening add significant functionality to complement the portfolio’s PAM, password management, and DNS filtering.
The technology prioritizes high-risk changes, lowering the time and resource cost of chasing down less pressing issues. Automated remediation in place of manual review also saves human teams time and energy, freeing them up for tasks that must be handled by a human user. Optimize365 also brings its existing MSP footprint and Microsoft Marketplace co-sell listing.
One Portfolio but Two Brands
In the short term, Optimize365 will retain its name within the CyberFOX portfolio, with plans to integrate into the company’s partner program and product roadmap over time. Current Optimize365 customers will not experience any disruption in service, support, or contracts, easing the transition. Licensing, partner access, and product integration questions remain undefined at this time.
What MSPs and Security Leaders Should Watch
The announcement of this acquisition leaves a number of questions in the air, such as whether consolidation reduces complexity or simply relocates it. Automated remediation poses challenges regarding control over sensitive changes. Tenant configuration is important as a standing part of access security. The execution of CyberFOX’s integration of Optimize365 over time will be the test of the company’s acquisition strategy.
