AWS acquires threat hunting startup Sqrrl
Amazon Web Services announced Tuesday it acquired Boston-area threat hunting startup Sqrrl.
Terms were not disclosed. Sqrrl CEO Mark Terenzoni wrote on the company’s website that he and his co-workers were “thrilled.”
“For now, it is business as usual at Sqrrl. We will continue to work with customers to provide advanced threat hunting capabilities,” Terenzoni said. “And, over time, we’ll work with AWS to do even more on your behalf. Thank you for your support. We really appreciate the trust customers have put into Sqrrl over the past five years, and we are excited about the next phase of our journey.”
The deal, which has been rumored for weeks, comes as the cloud computing behemoth continues to boost its secure offerings. In November, AWS announced its Secret Region, which can handle data up to the Secret level of security classification — the second-highest level behind only Top Secret. The new product filled a gap in the company’s product line — Amazon already was offering a cloud region for Top Secret.
Sqrrl (pronounced “squirrel”) was created in 2012, born out of an NSA database project known as Accumulo. In late 2011 NSA open-sourced Accumulo, and in the spring of 2012 Accumulo become a top-level project at the open-source database nonprofit Apache Foundation. Sqrrl’s enterprise offering is built on top of Accumulo.
Ely Kahn, Sqrrl’s co-founder and vice president of business development, served as director of cybersecurity for the National Security Council from May 2009 to June 2010.
Terenzoni told CyberScoop last year the product has seen growth in the government, financial, telecom and retail industries, but the company caters to “anyone with a SOC or a SIEM.”
Axios first reported the rumored deal in December.
