Introduction:
Investments in cybersecurity firms are turning the corner. According to Crunchbase, VC funding for security firms witnessed a tiny (12%) increase from Q3 despite a difficult summer, rising to approximately $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion in the Cybersecurity Service previous quarter. That is a 30% yearly decline. However, it’s a meager indication that business is rekindling its hunger for cyber.
Budget increases for enterprise cybersecurity may be the cause.According to a survey conducted by IANS Research, a noteworthy 6% rise in corporate IT security budgets from 2022 to 2023 marked a modest yet significant growth. Most respondents identified “increased risk” and “digital transformation”—digitizing legacy apps, goods, and services—as the driving forces for the expenditure increases.
Censys, a company with expertise in providing clients with crucial insights into vital internet-connected infrastructure, is strategically positioned to take full advantage of these developments. Today, Censys announced its achievement of securing a substantial $178.1 million in funding, consisting of $25 million from a financing round and an additional $50 million from a Series C funding round.
With the involvement of G.V., Greylock, and Intel Capital, Decibel Partners led the round. Ascension Ventures, Four Rivers Partners V, L.P., and accounts overseen by Hamilton Lane were among the additional participants.
ZMap, an internet scanning program created by the company’s head scientist Zakir Durumeric, in 2013, is where Censys got its start. By 2015, Durumeric had put up a team to hone and enhance ZMap’s capabilities after realizing that the program might be used to enhance rather than only monitor the level of security online.
Censys now provides several tools for monitoring internet hosts, services, and security postures. Customers also receive a platform for tracking and evaluating their internet-facing assets (such as servers and workstations) and a database of vulnerable equipment “enriched with context.”
According to Brooks, the platform is primarily used by customers to seek threats or signals of security breaches and to prioritize exploits found using Censys’ asset monitoring technology. According to Brooks, some also use Censys to comprehend the effects of their security activities, including the duration and seriousness of hazards.
According to Brooks, the data and tools needed to remain ahead of sophisticated threat actors are provided to leaders and their teams by Censys, which is powered by top internet intelligence. They can produce industry-standard measurements and track performance over time using Censys’ benchmarks.
Censys just released a chatbot that enables customers to conduct searches throughout its security database in natural language, joining the generative AI hype train. They can, for instance, ask the platform to “Show me all servers in Australia that have both FTP and HTTP services,” and the platform will expose the relevant information.
Cybersecurity Service:
Cybersecurity Service [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
Alternatively, they can instruct the chatbot to convert the search syntax from a threat-hunting platform used by a third party, such as Zoomeye or Shodan, into a language that Censys can comprehend.
The revenues from the most recent fundraising will increase the 134-person workforce at Censys, which claims to have 350,000 users of its free service and over 180 paying customers, including federal agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Censys, situated in Ann Arbor, Michigan, anticipates having 150 workers by the end of 2023.
Censys faces a challenging task as it navigates increasingly strong headwinds. The outlook for venture funding in the cybersecurity sector is still being determined, with expectations of remaining stagnant or potentially even declining for the remainder of the year, primarily due to issues involving Europe and the ongoing tensions between the United States and China. The combination of higher interest rates creates difficulties for investors seeking to secure new capital and businesses aiming to raise funds.
Concerns about a potential recession and disruptions in the broader tech industry have led hedge funds, late-stage investors, and crossover funds that typically invest in public and private companies to scale back their involvement in the cybersecurity market.
However, this situation has a silver lining, as mentioned earlier. In the face of prevalent worries about a potential recession in 2024, a recent Spiceworks report unveiled that a robust 66% of businesses maintain a solid inclination to boost their year-over-year IT investments, including cybersecurity, while only 4% intend to curtail their expenditures. Furthermore, according to IDC’s projections, global spending on cybersecurity is anticipated to reach $219 billion this year and is forecasted to approach the $300 billion mark by 2026.
