Content, Channel investors

M&A Deal: Aerospace and Defense Specialist Yulista Adds Cybersecurity Capabilities With StraitSys Acquisition

Bent arrow of two red and white ones merging on turquoise blue background. Partnership, merger, alliance and joining concept

Yulista, an aerospace and defense component manufacturing company, has acquired StraitSys, a provider of big data analytics, IT services, counter-insider threat, cybersecurity and program management.

This is technology M&A deal number 744 that MSSP Alert and sister site ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2022. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A Closer Look at StraitSys

Founded in 2007, StraitSys is a Certified Woman Owned Small Business with offices in Washington, D.C. and Huntsville, Alabama, and has 17 employees, according to its LinkedIn profile. StraitSys’s past clients include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Merrill Lynch and Shelby Country Criminal Courts.

StraitSys focuses cybersecurity offerings in the areas of:

  • Governance – audits, policies, compliance and procedures
  • Risk assessments – penetration tests focused on social engineering, infrastructure identification, offering reviews and data recovery recommendations
  • Secure engineering – development of application, cryptography, network and cloud security; enhanced data protections; and access/identity controls
  • Standards – working with government or government-funded entities to define best practices and make recommendations on impacts of implementation
  • Security operations – performing daily monitoring, detection, protection, incident response, vulnerability management and prevention.
  • Training – recommendations for training, conferences, certifications and general awareness for security improvements to the entire employee base
  • Threat – working with internal (SOC/insider threat) and external (threat intelligence) to better understand potential adversaries and contextualize all source threat data.

Tim Strait, StraitSys co-founder and president, noted advantages to the Yulista acquisition:

“StraitSys is thrilled to join the Yulista family as their commitment to supporting the national security mission is perfectly aligned with ours. We chose Yulista not only because of the strategic benefits to our customers, but because we share similar business culture and values.”

Acquisition Boosts Yulista’s Cybersecurity Offerings

Yulista, based in Huntsville, Alabama, has 680 employees, according to LinkedIn. Yulista’s business is focused on the modernization and service life extension of rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft. Its core services are in the areas of aviation, ground, logistics, training, base/operations management support, and engineering and technical services. Yulista offers a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certified Repair Station.

Yulista's acquisition of StraitSys will advance its cybersecurity and technology portfolio geared toward the national security industry, Yulista said in a prepared statement. As such, StraitSys's capabilities will grow Yulista’s technology group and allow the company to support federal and commercial customers in defense of critical business systems and U.S. national security.

Josh Herren, Yulista President and CEO, expressed his enthusiasm for the deal:

“We are very excited to bring another innovative technology solution into our operations and our portfolio of services. StraitSys’ industry-leading capabilities will enhance our technology group and allow us to protect our customer’s critical assets.”

Jim Masters

Jim Masters is Managing Editor of MSSP Alert, and holds a B.A. degree in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. His career has spanned governmental and investigative reporting for daily newspapers in the Northwest Indiana Region and 16 years in a global internal communications role for a Fortune 500 professional services company. Additionally, he is co-owner of the Lake County Corn Dogs minor league baseball franchise, located in Crown Point, Indiana. In his spare time, he enjoys writing and recording his own music, oil painting, biking, volleyball, golf and cheering on the Corn Dogs.