Posted by New Delhi: Check Point Software Technologies has announced the acquisition of an early-stage startup Atmosec, which specialises in the rapid discovery and disconnection of malicious SaaS applications, preventing risky 3rd party SaaS communications, and rectifying SaaS misconfigurations. The Atmosec acquisition reinforces Check Point’s commitment to enhancing its SASE (Secure access service edge) security offering and addressing the security gaps and blind spots in SaaS applications. Founded in January 2021 in Israel, Atmosec has 17 employees.
The widespread adoption of SaaS applications has exposed organisations to an increased array of cyber threats. Statista reports an average use of 130 SaaS applications by organisations globally. Yet, Atmosec’s research reveals that there are approximately 700 additional SaaS applications in use without IT’s knowledge.
Within popular enterprise SaaS platforms like O365 and Slack, hundreds of third-party apps are connected. This ever-expanding SaaS landscape not only increases the potential attack surface but also introduces many apps that could be harmful or misused to leak sensitive information, often bypassing proper IT authorisation.
“The shift to SaaS applications introduces specific challenges, notably in the realm of malicious SaaS-to-SaaS communications. Atmosec´s capabilities in SaaS discovery, risk assessment, and full visibility are instrumental in addressing these challenges,” Nataly Kremer, CPO and Head of R&D – Check Point Software Technologies commented on Atmosec acquisition.
“Integrating Atmosec’s technology into Check Point Infinity sets us to deliver one of the industry’s most secure SASE solutions, enabling organisations to effectively manage SaaS security, prevent data leaks, unauthorised access, and malware dissemination, and ensure a robust, adaptive zero trust environment,” added Kremer.
Key features of Atmosec’s technology include:
- Quick discovery and disconnection of malicious SaaS applications, completed in under 10 minutes
- Prevent third-party SaaS applications from communicating with an enterprise’s SaaS environment
- Provide full visibility into authorised and unauthorized SaaS applications
- Fix misconfigurations within SaaS applications such as publicly exposed repositories,
- Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access the application and many more.
With Atmosec’s technology, Check Point Infinity will offer SaaS security with continuous SaaS posture management, prevention of malicious communications (SSPM), and a full security stack for SaaS apps including threat prevention, data protection, and adaptative zero-trust access controls for both users and devices (CASB).
New capabilities will be incrementally released based on roadmap milestones, through the Check Point Infinity platform, which will enable organisations to utilise these critical enhancements via the same platform.
The Atomsec acquisition is expected to close by mid-September 2023.