CrowdStrike Elevates Data Protection, Buys Flow Security

CrowdStrike is adding a specialist in data security posture management (DSPM) through its acquisition of Flow Security this week.

This is technology M&A deal number 60 that MSSP Alert and sister site ChannelE2E have covered so far in 2024. See more than 2,000 technology M&A deals for 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 listed here.

The purchase price will be paid predominantly in cash, with a portion delivered in the form of equity subject to vesting conditions, according to a statement from CrowdStrike. The proposed acquisition is expected to close during CrowdStrike’s fiscal first quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, the company said.

Founded in 2020, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Flow Security lays claim to the “industry’s first and only cloud data runtime security solution.” CrowdStrike plans to fully deliver native Flow Security DSPM capabilities in CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security as part of the Falcon platform.

Adding Flow Security’s DSPM capabilities enables CrowdStrike to accelerate and expand its data security innovation with new capabilities to discover, classify and protect data from the risk of exposure wherever it moves or resides, CrowdStrike president Michael Sentona wrote in his company blog.

Sentona noted that Flow Security’s technology will provide organizations with full visibility into their critical cloud data flows, insight into how their data interacts with applications and the ability to detect when data is at risk or unintentionally leaving the environment.

“In our extensive evaluations of the cloud data security market, Flow Security stood out as the most differentiated technology,” he said. “While many cloud data security providers offer data discovery and classification, Flow Security goes a step further by providing real-time visibility into risk for data both at rest and in motion. Flow Security provides a perfect complement to CrowdStrike’s industry-leading cloud security offerings by extending runtime level threat analysis to the data layer.”

Pushing Toward the Forefront of Data Security

With the acquisition of Flow Security, leaders for both companies believe Falcon is poised to become the industry’s most comprehensive data security platform.

“Since our founding, Flow Security has focused on removing the complexity of securing the massive amounts of critical data businesses manage daily,” CEO Jonathan Roizin said. “We saw that the market lacked a solution that provided comprehensive protection of the flow of data as it traversed SaaS applications, on-prem, cloud infrastructure, third-party APIs, etc., and that this lack of visibility and control presented a critical risk to the enterprise.”

CrowdStrike, Dell Expand Partnership

Also announced this week is expanded partnership whereby Dell will deliver its managed detection and response (MDR) services within the CrowdStrike Falcon XDR platform.

"The Falcon platform has quickly become the market's cybersecurity platform of record,” said Daniel Bernard, chief business officer for CrowdStrike. “By expanding our strategic alliance with Dell to power their MDR services, we're gaining access to more customers to bring them industry leading protection,"

Dell MDR is now available for global customers with the CrowdStrike Falcon XDR Platform as a direct solution and through channel partners.

CrowdStrike Reports Strong Earnings

On March 5, CrowdStrike announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024, ended January 31, 2024. CrowdStrike delivered an “exceptionally strong” and record fourth quarter with net new ARR growth accelerating to 27% year-over-year, reaching a new high of $282 million and ending ARR growing 34% year-over-year to reach $3.44 billion, CrowdStrike CEO and president George Kurtz said in a prepared statement.

The next day, CrowdStrike shares surged 23% before the opening bell, sparking a rally in cybersecurity stocks after the company's upbeat annual forecasts, Reuters reported.