CrowdStrike made a significant announcement today, confirming its acquisition of Bionic, a pioneering player in Application Security Posture Management (ASPM). This strategic move extends CrowdStrike’s already prominent Cloud Native Application Protection Platform by incorporating ASPM capabilities. This integration aims to provide an all-encompassing risk assessment and security solution for the entire cloud ecosystem. It covers everything from cloud infrastructure to the applications and services hosted within it. This development positions CrowdStrike as the first cybersecurity company to offer complete end-to-end cloud security, from code to runtime, all through a unified platform.
This acquisition was unveiled at CrowdStrike’s premier cybersecurity event, Fal.Con 2023, and follows the company’s Q2 FY24 financial results announcement, where it achieved record-breaking performance in its rapidly growing cloud security segment. Notably, as of July 31, 2023, CrowdStrike’s Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) for modules deployed in public cloud environments reached $296 million, showcasing a remarkable 70% year-over-year growth—an achievement surpassing that of most cloud security vendors.
George Kurtz, CrowdStrike’s co-founder and CEO, emphasized the current cybersecurity landscape: the cloud has emerged as the new battleground, yet the industry’s response has primarily been disjointed security tools or so-called ‘platforms’ that come with multiple consoles and agents. CrowdStrike aims to address this by providing comprehensive and modern cloud security through a unified platform. With Bionic joining their ranks, CrowdStrike further solidifies its leadership in cloud security, staying true to its mission of preventing breaches. The alignment of values and the shared commitment to customer-focused innovation make Bionic an excellent addition to the CrowdStrike family.
The move to the cloud has brought about a significant shift in the battle against cyber breaches. According to CrowdStrike’s 2023 Global Threat Report, cloud-based exploits saw a substantial 95% increase, and the number of threat actors focusing on cloud environments tripled in the past year. Concurrently, the rapid development pace of cloud applications, the agility of DevOps, and the growing use of low code and no code development platforms have led to an explosion of applications and microservices operating within cloud environments. This dynamism makes it exceedingly challenging for organizations to maintain a comprehensive view of their applications, dependencies, and interactions within their cloud environment. It creates a substantial risk profile that cyber adversaries well-versed in cloud technologies continually seek to exploit.
Bionic enhances CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform by offering unprecedented visibility into application behavior and vulnerability prioritization across server-based and serverless infrastructures, all without interrupting the development process. Key features of Bionic include:
Real-time, frictionless application visibility: It enables the discovery and mapping of all application services, databases, microservices, third-party integrations, APIs, and data flows across various cloud service providers and both hybrid and on-premises application deployments. This is accomplished through an agentless approach that automatically deconstructs applications and seamlessly integrates with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, eliminating the need for access to sensitive source code.
Instant prioritization of application-level vulnerabilities: Bionic minimizes vulnerability noise by up to 95%, enabling teams to focus on the most critical vulnerabilities that could be exploited in production applications. These prioritizations are based on business impact, allowing organizations to address high-risk issues promptly.
Complete visibility for serverless infrastructure: Bionic extends its risk assessment capabilities to serverless infrastructures like Azure Functions and AWS Lambda. CrowdStrike plans to offer Bionic ASPM as a standalone offering and integrate it fully into Falcon Cloud Security, a component of the AI-powered CrowdStrike Falcon platform. This integration provides customers with comprehensive cloud security that spans Cloud Workload Protection (CWP), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), and now ASPM.
Idan Ninyo, CEO of Bionic, emphasized their core belief that you can’t protect what you can’t see when it comes to application risk. Bionic has created a solution that provides a comprehensive view of application security risk without interfering with the development process. CrowdStrike, widely recognized as a modern cybersecurity platform of choice and a leading innovator in the cloud security market, is expected to accelerate the adoption of ASPM through this acquisition.
CrowdStrike customers and partners attending Fal.Con 2023 have the opportunity to witness Bionic ASPM in action by visiting the CrowdStrike demo booth. Additionally, insights into this development will be shared during the keynote session and the investor briefing at Fal.Con, both scheduled for Wednesday, September 20th.