Splunk recently acquired cybersecurity startup Caspida Inc. for $190M. The acquisition of Caspida enhances Splunk’s breach response capabilities with Caspida’s machine learning-based behavioral analytics for breach detection. Caspida’s technology attempts to solve the problem of breach detection with particular attention to cases where breaches occur by means of attackers with valid credentials. Because Caspida’s behavioral analytics facilitate the detection of anomalous user activity even if the user has valid credentials, Splunk customers now have access to best in class breach response and breach detection functionality. Caspida launched in 2014 with funding from First Round Capital, Redpoint Ventures and True Ventures under the leadership of CEO Muddu Sudhakar, a former executive at EMC, VMware and Pivotal. The deal underscores the intensity of contemporary interest in cybersecurity solutions and, in this case, the value of algorithmic, predictive modeling of user activity to proactively identify anomalous behavior, or behavior of interest, particularly given the preponderance of security breaches initiated by valid credentials. The larger point, of course, is that cybersecurity is red hot as illustrated by Splunk’s decision to enter into a partnership with an advanced analytics-focused security startup. The industry should expect analogous acquisitions of hot cloud and cybersecurity startups as breaches proliferate and cloud adoption accelerates further.
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