Rapid7 Buys Network Traffic And Security Monitoring Vendor NetFort

Rapid7 has purchased NetFort to improve its ability to detect attacks, investigate incidents and gain more visibility into devices that pose a risk to organizations.

The Boston-based cybersecurity company said its acquisition of Galway, Ireland-based NetFort will allow for the consolidation of even more data and analytics into Rapid7's Insight Cloud platform. NetFort provides end-to-end network monitoring, traffic visibility and analytics capabilities across cloud, virtual and physical networks, according to the company.

"We were immediately impressed by NetFort's technology and the deep network protocol expertise inherent across the team," Lee Weiner, Rapid7's chief product officer, said in a statement. "By bringing NetFort's network data and analytics to our own platform, we enhance security analysts' capabilities to unearth risk, detect attacks, and investigate incidents more effectively."

[Related: Rapid7 Buys Web Application Security Startup tCell To Thwart Attacks]

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, and Rapid7's stock remains unchanged at $51.19 in pre-market trading Tuesday. The acquisition of NetFort isn't expected to have a material impact on the company's revenue or non-GAAP net income in the 2019 calendar year, according to the company. Rapid7 executives weren't immediately available for additional comment.

NetFort was founded in 2002, employs 14 people, and counts the U.S. Navy, London School of Economics, Tyco U.S., BT, and the Red Bull F1 team among its base of customers, according to LinkedIn. The company's flagship product is LANGuardian, which provides powerful, deep-packet inspection technology so that businesses have comprehensive visibility across their networks.

"Rapid7 will help us apply our network data insights across their cloud-based platform to improve the security posture of our customers," NetFort CEO John Brosnan said in a statement.

NetFort provides channel partners with training and collateral to help them market and sell LANGuardian, as well as technical assistance via their support team, the company's website stated. Solution provider partners of NetFort include Core Technologies in the U.S., Scalar Decisions in Canada, Loop1 Systems in North America, and Insight in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

From a technology partner perspective, NetFort's website said the company works with McAfee as well as Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.

This is Rapid7's sixth acquisition since being founded in 2000, and third purchase since becoming listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in July 2015. Since going public, Rapid7 has purchased machine data search vendor Logentries for $68 million in October 2015 and security orchestration and automation platform Komand for $50 million in July 2017.

And in October 2018, Rapid7 purchased web application security vendor tCell to help its customers better assess, monitor and protect against application-based attacks.