Palo Alto Networks advances attack surface management with Expanse

Palo Alto Networks has announced its intent to acquire Expanse, the attack surface management company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Palo Alto Networks will acquire Expanse for a total purchase price of approximately $670 million to be paid in cash and stock, and approximately $130 million in replacement equity awards, each such amount subject to adjustment.

The proposed acquisition is expected to close during Palo Alto Networks' fiscal second quarter, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

On the reasoning behind the acquisition, Palo Alto Networks states, as companies embark on digital transformation, they often leave critical IT assets exposed to the internet, creating vulnerable points that attackers can exploit.

This exposure has only accelerated with the rapid shift to the cloud and remote working.

Expanse's internet collection and attribution platform constantly monitors the global internet to map exposed and untracked assets that comprise customers' attack surfaces, evaluate and prioritise risk, and provide mitigation.

Expanse's data provides CISOs with a view of the enterprise from the outside, representing the view an attacker sees as they probe for points of weakness.

Once combined, the Expanse platform will be used to enrich the Cortex product suite and create the ability to stitch together external, internal and threat data to provide organisations with a complete, integrated view of the enterprise.

Expanse customers include Fortune 500 organisations in the financial, healthcare, entertainment and technology industries as well as government organisations, including the US military.

Expanse co-founders, Dr. Tim Junio and Dr. Matt Kraning, will join Palo Alto Networks, the company wrote in a statement.

Palo Alto Networks CEO and chairman Nikesh Arora says, "We are thrilled to add the Expanse platform to our Cortex product suite.

"By integrating Expanse's attack surface management capabilities into Cortex after closing, we will be able to offer the first solution that combines the outside view of an organisation's attack surface with an inside view to proactively address all security threats.

"We believe this will be a game-changer in security operations."

Expanse CEO and co-founder Tim Junio says, "Expanse's mission is to discover and mitigate risks for our customers that no one else can find.

"The world's largest and most complex organisations trust Expanse to continuously discover, inventory, monitor, and report against their dynamically changing attack surface.

"Matt and I look forward to joining forces with Palo Alto Networks to help secure the internet for enterprises and governments around the world."

Palo Alto Networks is a multinational cybersecurity company that specialises in advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings.