Palo Alto Networks acquires container security company Twistlock

Palo Alto Networks acquires Twistlock for 410 million dollars (368 million euros). Twistlock is a startup that focuses on container security. The acquisition will give the company a container security platform, as well as 120 employees with a lot of knowledge about that security and 400 customers who use it.

In recent years, developers have quickly switched to the use of containers, but security has not been able to keep up with this development. Companies like Twistlock and Aqua Security are trying to change that, says TechCrunch. Twistlock was founded in 2015 and thus entered the world of container security relatively early on. The founders saw that this new way of developing software also needed a new way of security.

This is partly because of the short-term nature of containers, but especially because containerisation also involves a high level of automation. Since there are no people touching the process, it is easier for hackers to penetrate without anyone realising it.

Security

CTO John Morello states that his company works with the cloud-native community to help define security standards and then builds them into the application. “With Twistlock, we literally have more than five hundred checks to comply with the Center for Internet Security benchmarks for Linux, Docker and Kubernetes.

These checks also provide insight into security. “So you can see what the configuration status of your environment is, but we also give you a preventative option. If the environment is unsafe, we do not allow an application to be deployed,” says Morello.

The acquisition by Palo Alto Networks is expected to be completed in the fourth fiscal quarter of this year.

PureSec

Palo Alto Networks also announced the acquisition of PureSec, a serverless security company. The amount of money involved in this acquisition is unknown. The two companies will provide Palo Alto Networks with a set of tools for modern development approaches.

This acquisition is also expected to be completed in the fourth fiscal quarter.