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Data Security Management Company Acquires Another Stamford, Conn., Firm

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 20--In a move that will enable Stamford-based Protegrity Corp. to broaden its product offerings, the data security management company acquired Kavado, a another Stamford firm that provides complementary security technology services.

While Protegrity develops and markets encryption software that protects data in company databases from hackers and unauthorized access, Kavado is a provider of Web application security products. Its software protects Web applications from external and internal threats, as well as internal abuses of authority.

"The acquisition of Kavado now gives us the ability to protect sensitive data wherever it resides -- in applications, databases, backups, and storage -- and across any technology infrastructure," said Gordon Rapkin, Protegrity's chief executive officer.

"Protegrity protects the database, but if you have an application in front of that database you are still vulnerable to a hacker doing something at the application level," he said.

For example, if an organization has a Web site where customers are required to type in their credit card information to purchase something, that card data is vulnerable to hackers who may break into the application to get the card number. Kavado's software prevents that from happening, he said. The combined company has nearly 300 customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Rapkin said Protegrity will add a dozen Kavado employees to its payroll of about 60.

"Protegrity, as we know it, is a leader in database encryption," said Noel Yuhanna, a senior analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research. "Extending its offerings beyond just database encryption, I think, is going to be very, very attractive to customers."

Last week, Forrester recognized Protegrity as the top-ranked vendor in the database encryption market. The company's Secure.Data product received the highest scores in usability and encryption options, according to Forrester's report.

The company is already doing a good job with database security, Yuhanna said. "I think that this is the next step for Protegrity to progress and get market share."

That what Rapkin hopes. Currently, he said, the security technology industry is fragmented with lots of little companies offering piecemeal services. "This lets Protegrity be a much more strategically important vendor to a corporation," he said. "It helps us to really step up with working with corporations to be more of a partner instead of being just a vendor of a part."

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Source: The Stamford Advocate, Stamford, Conn.

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