LookingGlass Buys Attack Surface Management Startup AlphaWave

‘AlphaWave’s cloud-native foundation enables them to clearly understand the nuances of managing one’s attack surface across the cloud and containers,’ says LookingGlass CEO Gilman Louie.

LookingGlass Cyber Solutions has purchased early-stage vendor AlphaWave to enable deeper attack surface visibility into cloud and container environments.

The Reston, Va.-based threat intelligence vendor said its acquisition of Austin, Texas-based AlphaWave will help organizations better understand their cyber risk as well as how to reduce it with proactive detection and mitigations. AlphaWave’s technology will enhance LookingGlass’ threat intelligence by providing the adversary’s perspective as well as customized models of the adversary’s capabilities.

“AlphaWave’s cloud-native foundation enables them to clearly understand the nuances of managing one’s attack surface across the cloud and containers,” LookingGlass CEO Gilman Louie said in a statement. “This expertise is only going to become more critical as the private sector and government continue to undergo digital transformations and move to cloud-first strategies.”

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Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and LookingGlass executives weren’t immediately available for additional comment. AlphaWave was founded in 2019, employs four people, and hasn’t raised any outside funding, according to LinkedIn and Crunchbase.

“Teaming up with LookingGlass will enable AlphaWave to leverage expansive intelligence platforms, providing robust context to our customers and the environments we help them secure,” AlphaWave COO Mark St. John said. “Combining our attack surface discovery with the LookingGlass Suite will benefit organizations looking to understand how they can better defend their digital assets on an ongoing basis.”

LookingGlass said its existing cyber risk and attack surface management capabilities have been in use across U.S. federal and state governments since 2009. The company said its platform synthesizes vast amounts of global internet data with threat actor capabilities and motivations to provide a robust threat modeling environment.

As a result, LookingGlass said its customers can quickly process, prioritize, and operationalize threat intelligence and indicators of compromise. AlphaWave customers will benefit from LookingGlass’ deep and broad threat intelligence capabilities and repositories, which will allow them to add strategic value for customers as they face increasing cyber threats and attacks, according to the company.

This is LookingGlass’ first acquisition since December 2015, when the company acquired threat intelligence management platform Cyveillance for a reported $35 million and raised $50 million in Series C funding. The company subsequently sold the Cyveillance business to digital risk protection vendor ZeroFox in October 2020.

Also in October 2020, LookingGlass named Louie as its next CEO. Louie had served on the company’s board since 2012 and was executive chairman at the time of his CEO appointment. Louie previously served as president and CEO of In-Q-Tel - a venture capital firm serving the U.S. intelligence community - from 1999 to 2006.