Okta recently acquired Israeli start-up Spera Cybersecurity for between $100 million and $130 million. With this, Okta aims to expand into the so-called identity threat detection and response (ITDR) market segment.
Okta has recently been significantly expanding its business in the identity threat detection and response (ITDR) market segment. With this, Okta aims to provide even more services that allow companies to securely access applications and business information.
Studies by market researchers such as Gartner show that companies are increasingly using specific ITDR software for even greater access security. This market segment will therefore grow by between five and 20 percent this year in the coming years, to as much as 90 percent by 2026.
Spera Cybersecurity acquisition
The acquisition of Spera Cybersecuity fits into this framework. Spera offers an ITDR platform that allows IT departments to map all user accounts within companies. In its own wording, it hopes to control the “identity jungle.” This applies to both on-premises and cloud-based environments. In the latter case, these are mostly public cloud platforms, but there are also integrations with Salesforce or GitHub, for example.
The platform can flag and check all accounts that have non-secure settings. IT management can then tinker with or remove these accounts. This can significantly reduce the attack surface for businesses by limiting the potential for privilege escalation.
Spera maps a wide range of configuration settings, including key user accounts that do not have MFA enabled or single-sign on (SSO).
It also prioritizes these insecure accounts based on the risk they pose, making it easier for security vendors to streamline their resolution processes.
Other Okta tooling
The acquisition of Spera Cybersecurity is not Okta’s first foray into ITDR. Back in November of this year, Okta made its Okta Privileged Access product generally available. This allows companies to secure administrative accounts for critical systems, among other things. Okta also released an AI tool that automatically detects suspicious and malicious account activity.
Also read: What is Okta AI and how does it help protect and secure identity?
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