Flexera Software, the leading provider of next-generation software licensing, compliance, security and installation solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today the acquisition of Secunia, a leading provider of Software Vulnerability Management solutions that protect organizations against cybersecurity risks.

“As cybersecurity threats continue to grow, leading companies will not only proactively manage these threats but will also integrate Software Vulnerability Management into core software asset management processes,” said Mark Bishof, Flexera Software’s Chief Executive Officer. “Secunia’s products deliver the Software Vulnerability Management capabilities enterprises urgently need today while complementing our existing market-leading solutions for Software License Optimization and Application Readiness.”

Cybersecurity and Software Vulnerability Management
Cybercriminals routinely use vulnerabilities in software as gateways to exploit corporate networks, using techniques like commercialized underground “exploit toolkits” to infect machines and perform malicious activities. A typical, documented cybersecurity breach costs organizations between $2.5 million to $5 million[1]. However, massive breaches, such as the highly publicized Target, JPMorgan, Home Depot, Sony, and Best Buy cybercrimes, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars – not to mention damage to reputation and brand. Secunia products help IT security and operations teams proactively identify, assess and remediate software vulnerabilities. Secunia products include:

  • Vulnerability Intelligence Manager, which gives IT security teams verified, accurate and comprehensive vulnerability intelligence from Secunia Research, along with workflow management, alerts and reporting
  • Corporate Software Inspector, which provides IT operations teams multi-platform assessment of software vulnerabilities and cost-effective patch creation and deployment to reduce enterprise software security risks

Speed is of the essence during a cyberattack to minimize damage. Secunia products stand alone in their ability to immediately identify known vulnerabilities, their potential impact based on the mission criticality and dependencies of the affected business applications, and then quickly resolve the issue through the deployment and verification of the appropriate patches.

Software License Optimization & Software Vulnerability Management Synergies
Secunia’s Software Vulnerability Management solutions are highly synergistic with Flexera Software’s Software License Optimization solution, FlexNet Manager Suite, and underscore the critical relationship between Software Asset Management (SAM) and cybersecurity. Both disciplines require at their foundation the accurate and continual discovery and inventory of software assets within an organization’s environment. Today IT asset management and security teams (and projects) are usually siloed within organizations, increasing the likelihood that security threats will slip through the gap. For instance, discovery and inventory of software assets are critical to both asset management and security teams – but are currently undertaken separately in most organizations.

Flexera Software is changing the game by connecting the strategic dots between Software Asset Management and cybersecurity. And by harnessing the synergies between SAM and Software Vulnerability Management, Software License Optimization takes on even greater critical importance in centralizing core software asset management functions while minimizing software spend, software license non-compliance, and cybersecurity risk. Organizations will be able to leverage asset management insights combined with vulnerability data to rapidly address the most relevant cybersecurity threats. Other IT disciplines will all immediately benefit from the success and maturity of Software License Optimization and IT asset management processes that are developed and applied for cybersecurity.