Cyxtera Technologies to acquire offensive cyber firm Immunity

Internet infrastructure company Cyxtera Technologies has acquired Miami-based Immunity Inc., a penetration testing technology development and vulnerability research firm founded by former NSA analyst Dave Aitel.

Cyxtera Technologies decided to acquire the startup in order to expand its product portfolio, which will now include various offensive-oriented tools to test defensive systems. The new offerings will be packaged into a “threat analytics solution” to be sold by Cyxtera Technologies later this year, based on a press release distributed by the company.

Terms for the acquisition were not disclosed. It is expected to close by the end of the first fiscal quarter.

“In the security industry, it’s rare that you can blend together offense and defense-oriented capabilities,” Christopher Day, chief cybersecurity officer of Cyxtera, said in a release. “The advantages of combining Immunity’s products and services with Cyxtera’s portfolio creates an opportunity to approach cybersecurity in a truly holistic manner.”

Cyxtera Technologies offers data center colocation, enterprise application cloud computing, hybrid cloud, cybersecurity and analytics products. The company currently boasts more than 3,500 customers, globally.

“For too long, security has lagged behind advances in technology, which has left enterprises far too exposed,” Day told CyberScoop. “As Cyxtera finds opportunities to enhance its secure infrastructure portfolio, we will take action quickly. Immunity’s differentiated portfolio of offense-oriented solutions is highly complementary to our existing capabilities.”

In an interview with CyberScoop, Aitel said he will be named as Chief Technical Security Officer, working directly under Day. His full team of 35 employees will be joining Cyxtera.

Immunity Inc. previously worked closely with IT infrastructure and cloud services provider Terremark, which was founded by Manuel Medina, the current CEO of Cyxtera.

Aitel told CyberScoop he’s known Medina and Day for the better part of a decade, and this familiarity with Cyxtera ultimately convinced him to sign a deal.

“This was by no means a fire sale. We have been doing well for a long time, but this will give us new opportunities,” said Aitel. “Immunity was self-funded and so we were sort of limited … we couldn’t just hire 10 additional developers for a single project. I am excited about what we can achieve together.”

Immunity was a past member of the DARPA-led Cyber Fast Track program. Aitel is a prominent figure in the information security community as the host of the annual security conference Infiltrate.

Aitel said he will continue to organize and host Infiltrate while in his new role.

In July 2017, Cyxtera hired former U.S. Chief Information Security Officer Gregory Touhill to lead the newly launched Cyxtera Federal Group (CFG), based on a public statement. The CFG was created exclusively to market and sell Cyxtera products to federal and state agencies.