CrowdStrike Bolsters SaaS Security With Adaptive Shield Buy

CrowdStrike plans to purchase a startup led by an ex-Proofpoint threat researcher to deliver unified protection across identity and SaaS security within hybrid cloud environments.

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The Austin, Texas-based endpoint security behemoth said its proposed acquisition of Tel Aviv, Israel-based Adaptive Shield will enhance identity-based and SaaS application security across on-premises Active Directory, cloud-based identity providers and SaaS apps. The deal will enable comprehensive visibility and control across human and non-human identities for more than 150 SaaS apps.

“As SaaS and AI adoption grows, every new application brings additional complexity and the risk of misconfigurations across human and non-human accounts that create openings for sophisticated attacks,” said CEO George Kurtz. “With the acquisition of Adaptive Shield, CrowdStrike will continue to set the standard for identity-based protection in the cloud, delivering best-in-class SaaS protection.”

This is CrowdStrike’s first acquisition since it pushed a botched July 19 update that sent 8.5 million Windows computers into a self-perpetuating spiral of crashes. The outage resulted in canceled airline flights and major banks reporting difficulties in processing transactions. Delta Air lines sued for damages, provoking a counter suit from CrowdStrike. A company executive told Congress the root cause stemmed from a bad validation of the update (see: CrowdStrike Blames ‘Confluence of Factors’ for Global Outage).

Adaptive Shield was founded in 2019, employs 96 people and has raised $44 million, with Blackstone investing a reported $10 million in July 2023. The company has been led since inception by Maor Bin, who previously spent three-and-a-half years as research lead for Proofpoint’s threat systems products. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed, though Calcalist reported CrowdStrike will pay $300 million (see: SEC Alleges SolarWinds, CISO Tim Brown Defrauded Investors).

“Widespread adoption of SaaS applications has rapidly expanded the enterprise attack surface, as shared responsibility models and fragmented security controls make SaaS environments a prime target,” Bin said. “Our mission perfectly complements CrowdStrike, stopping SaaS breaches while further accelerating consolidation on cybersecurity’s most comprehensive platform.”

What Adaptive Shield Brings to the Table

CrowdStrike said the acquisitions makes itself the first cybersecurity provider to unify identity and SaaS protection. The goal is to address the complexities brought by SaaS growth – especially in managing access and configurations – by unifying fragmented security controls and reducing vulnerabilities created by misconfigurations.

Adaptive Shield’s SSPM will provide CrowdStrike customers with detailed oversight and control over SaaS configurations, entitlements and data exposure, enhancing security and compliance across applications. CrowdStrike said its focus on addressing misconfigurations and protecting both human and non-human identities in SaaS applications highlights its response to increasing identity-based cyber risks.

“Adaptive Shield empowers customers with comprehensive SaaS security posture management (SSPM),” CrowdStrike President Michael Sentonas wrote in a blog post. “Its technology provides full visibility into, and governance of, human and non-human identities and their permissions, entitlements, activity levels and public data across 150+ business-critical SaaS applications to strengthen identity security posture.”

Adaptive Shield’s approach to securing generative AI applications will address data leakage and shadow AI application proliferation by monitoring configurations and enforcing consistent security standards within AI-integrated SaaS applications. Companies must manage AI configurations, identify unauthorized AI apps and maintain strict data protection standards even as they expand AI usage in cloud settings.

“Adaptive Shield empowers organizations to enforce consistent security standards by detecting configuration shifts, controlling AI settings to prevent data leakage, and identifying shadow AI applications to revoke access based on their risk profile,” Sentonas wrote. “This approach ensures that AI-integrated applications remain aligned with security policies to protect sensitive data.”

Strengthening SIEM, Identity With Better SaaS Protection

Combining Adaptive Shield with Falcon Identity Protection will help CrowdStrike streamline managing identities and securing SaaS and cloud environments. CrowdStrike said the acquisition will strengthen its ability to provide consistent visibility and identity protection across the hybrid cloud estate, encompassing SaaS, on-prem AD, and cloud-based environments like Okta and Microsoft Entra ID.

“The powerful combination of Adaptive Shield and CrowdStrike Falcon Identity Protection will provide customers with comprehensive identity protection across SaaS, on-premises Active Directory and cloud-based environments,” Sentonas wrote in the blog. “CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security customers will also gain unified visibility and protection across the entire modern cloud estate.”

CrowdStrike said it will leverage Adaptive Shield’s integration with Falcon Next-Gen SIEM to enhance the company’s rapid detection and response capabilities across multiple security domains. Integration enables threat intelligence correlation and automatic real-time responses through Falcon Fusion SOAR, empowering security teams to address cross-domain threats, according to CrowdStrike.

“Adaptive Shield’s existing integration with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM provides rapid first-party detection and response across multiple security domains – endpoints, identities, workloads and applications – automatically correlating detections inline with the latest threat intelligence and Falcon Fusion SOAR delivering near real-time response,” Sentonas said.

CrowdStrike hasn’t been shy about making deals to widen its technology footprint, with the company purchasing data security posture management startup Flow Security in March for $96.4 million to guard information across endpoints and cloud. Six months earlier, the firm bought application security startup Bionic for $239 million to fuel risk visibility and protection across entire cloud computing environments.