New cyber security firms take step up in power rankings

Companies are investing more and more in cyber security as they begin to see the necessity to protect themselves against threats. Further, new cyber security firms are making themselves known with companies such as Tanium, which has revealed that it increased its funding by $120m in just five months.

Having secured the funding, the firm, which sells systems that enable IT departments to reach computers within a matter of seconds, has increased its value to $3.5bn.

The funding secured is among the largest of any new private cyber security firm in a year, with venture capital having been heavily utilised in technology investment. Security advisers are warning businesses that they need to have a security budget in place in light of significant attacks making recent headlines, such as in the Ashley Madison case.

Orion Hindawi, CTO and co-founder of Tanium, said:

“A year ago, everybody who had a good idea was getting funded, whether they had any capacity to execute on that idea. We’re starting to see, especially in the higher echelons of the VC community, people recognising that they were overfunded and a lot didn’t do anything but spend a lot of money on sales and marketing.”

The more power that cyber security firms have, the better for the SME, as many businesses still need to be convinced of the importance of in-house security. With high-profile cases continuing to make the news, firms are given regular reminders of the need to prioritise their IT security recruitment policies.