Highlights:

  • Rapid7 Inc., a publicly traded cybersecurity provider, has acquired Minerva Labs Ltd., a startup that assists businesses in detecting and blocking ransomware.
  • Rapid7 declared that it will pay around USD 38 million for Minerva. The acquisition will be financed with a combination of cash and company shares.

Rapid7 Inc., a publicly traded cybersecurity provider, has acquired Minerva Labs Ltd., a startup that assists businesses in detecting and blocking ransomware.

Rapid7 declared that it will pay around USD 38 million for Minerva. The acquisition will be financed with a combination of cash and company shares.

Rapid7, headquartered in Boston, supplies cybersecurity tools that allow enterprises to identify malware and infrastructure weaknesses. In addition to its software solutions, it provides a managed service for threat detection and response. The service enables businesses to have the company’s cybersecurity experts monitor their networks for possible attacks and take corrective action as required.

More than 10,000 organizations globally utilize Rapid7’s technology. Bloomberg LP, Qlik Technologies Inc., and other big corporations are among its clients.

Minerva provides a ransomware-detection-focused cybersecurity platform. According to the firm, hundreds of organizations utilize the platform to secure more than 1.5 million computers.

Advanced ransomware strains conceal themselves deliberately to evade detection. After infecting a computer, several varieties of ransomware may lie dormant for weeks or months before activating. In other instances, harmful malware deactivates itself upon antivirus software detection.

When ransomware programs detect an opportunity to encrypt sensitive files, they activate. According to Minerva, its platform dissuades ransomware from believing it is safe to activate. Hence, the harmful code remains inactive, and data loss is prevented.

To prevent cyberattacks, Minerva hides sensitive data from applications that cannot access them. Hence, it becomes more difficult for ransomware to discover data that may be encrypted. It claims that its platform forces bad code to either remain inactive or take actions that simplify identification.

Rapid7 will strengthen its managed threat detection and response service using Minerva’s technologies. According to the corporation, the technology will enable cybersecurity experts to identify ransomware in client settings more efficiently.

Jeremiah Dewey, senior vice president of managed services delivery at Rapid7, said, “Today, our MDR customers benefit from our proprietary detection and response technology, a fully integrated, world-class team of 24×7 security engineers, and leading security data science to detect, assess and respond to emerging threats. With Minerva, we are further extending our MDR capabilities with more advanced anti-evasion and malware prevention and orchestration from the endpoint to the cloud, as well as providing seamless support of existing, leading endpoint protection infrastructure.”

Last quarter, Rapid7’s professional services revenue increased by 11% year-over-year to USD 11.6 million. The company’s cybersecurity software solutions produced USD 172.9 million in sales, a 22% increase over the previous year.

The acquisition of Minerva occurred a few weeks following rumors that Rapid7 may be bought. According to Reuters, many possible bidders, including private equity companies, have expressed interest in acquiring the company.