M&A is in the atmosphere with Check Point's latest acquisition

Vendor set to buy SaaS security vendor Atmosec

NASDAQ-listed cybersecurity vendor Check Point Software Technologies has announced its acquisition of start-up Atmosec.

Founded in 2021 with a headcount of 17 employees, Atmosec bills itself as a specialist in the discovery and disconnection of malicious SaaS applications, preventing third-party SaaS communications, and rectifying SaaS misconfigurations.

Check Point said the buy "reinforces its commitment" to enhance its SaaS security offering and address the security gaps and blind spots in SaaS applications.

The adoption of SaaS applications has exposed organisations to an increased array of cyber threats, the vendor said.

Workflow automation firm BetterCloud reports an aver 130 SaaS applications by organisations globally.

However, Atmosec's research shows there are approximately 700 additional SaaS applications in use without IT's knowledge.

"The shift to SaaS applications introduces specific challenges, notably in the realm of malicious SaaS-to-SaaS communications," said Check Point CPO and head of R&D, Nataly Kremer.

"Atmosec´s capabilities in SaaS discovery, risk assessment, and full visibility are instrumental in addressing these challenges.

"Integrating Atmosec's technology into Check Point Infinity sets us to deliver one of the industry's most secure SASE solutions, enabling organisations to effectively manage SaaS security, prevent data leaks, unauthorised access, and malware dissemination, and ensure a robust, adaptive zero trust environment."

The addition of Atmosec will offer SaaS security with continuous SaaS posture management, prevention of malicious communications, and a security stack for SaaS apps including threat prevention, data protection, and adaptive zero-trust access controls for both users and devices.

The acquisition of Atmosec is expected to close by mid-September 2023.

Check Point's new global channel chief

In March this year, Check Point announced the appointment of former TD SYNNEX senior vice president Francisco Criado as its new global channel chief.

In an interview with CRN US, Criado highlighted "protecting the user" as an opportunistic area.

"If you look at the market opportunity, it's SASE, it's zero trust, it's protecting the user. Cloud security is big."

For Check Point, "selling beyond the firewall is one of the priorities" for channel efforts going forward, he said.