27 Aug 15. Niteworks contract extended to 2018. The MOD has reaffirmed the valuable contribution of the Niteworks partnership to generating military capability for the UK Armed Forces, with the announcement of a two-year extension to the current service. The contract which was due to run until 31 March 2016 will now be extended out to 31 March 2018.
Established by the MOD in 2003, the Niteworks partnership comprises more than 150 organisations including the MOD, Dstl, large defence primes, broader suppliers, research establishments and specialists.
Niteworks Managing Director Simon Jewell said: “In the face of the evolving security situation, the decision to extend the Niteworks partnership is timely given the need for MOD and industry to work as a whole force to de-risk and accelerate the provision of military capability. Niteworks offers a tried and tested construct through which MOD can mobilise industry and academia to gain impartial advice in support of its business and operational imperatives.” Air Cdre Mike Quigley, Director Technical at DE&S said: “I am pleased that the Niteworks contract has been extended out to 31 March 2018. This gives MOD a capability to help understand the level of risk in the complex systems we procure and to pull through innovation into service. I am encouraged by the health of the partnership, especially the number of SMEs that have chosen to join.”
The Niteworks approach enables the MOD to rapidly assemble expertise in an impartial environment, with access to prior knowledge and industry Intellectual Property from across the Defence community. It brings together knowledge of the problem and solution space which enables a better understanding both of the feasibility of recommendations and allows them to be rigorously tested and challenged from a range of perspectives – blending incumbent knowledge with the fresh thinking of new suppliers – be they generated by SMEs or a global company.
24 Aug 15. Investors Pour $Billions in to Cybersecurity. The worldwide cybersecurity market is defined by market sizing estimates that range from $77bn in 2015 to $170bn by 2020. Globally, venture-backed cybersecurity companies raised $1.9bn last year, a record, according to Dow Jones Venture Source. CB Insights reported that in the first half of 2015, venture firms invested $1.2bn into cybersecurity startups.
Allegis Capital, a leading seed and early stage venture capital investor in companies building disruptive and innovative cybersecurity solutions for the global digital economy, has raised a $100 m fund to back cybersecurity startups. “There is a substantial need for new and promising cyber security startups and a huge investment opportunity in them,” said Allegis Founder and Managing Director Robert Ackerman.
CrowdStrike, provider of the first true Software-as-a Service (SaaS) based next-generation endpoint protection platform, completes a $100m Series C financing round, led by Google Capital. Rackspace, a CrowdStrike customer, also participated in the round along with existing investors Accel and Warburg Pincus. This brings the company’s total funding raised to $156m.
Checkmarx, a global leader in software application security, secures an $84m investment from New York-based venture capital and private equity firm, Insight Venture Partners. The new round of capital will be primarily used to further accelerate growth through product innovation and global expansion.
Tanium, the company that has redefined security and systems management, announced that Andreessen Horowitz invested an additional $52m in the company. This subsequent investment in Tanium is a follow-up to Andreessen Horowitz’s initial financing of $90m in May 2014 and constitutes one of its largest investments to-date.
Cylance, the first next-generation endpoint protection company to successfully apply artificial intelligence to predictively identify and stop cyber attacks before they ever execute, has closed more than