Raytheon expanded its cyber-security offerings for the federal government and Pentagon by acquiring analysis and forensics vendor Pikewerks.
Defense contractor Raytheon has acquired security vendor
Pikewerks to expand its cyber-security capabilities for its government
customers.
The Pikewerks acquisition will allow Raytheon to help its
customers in the intelligence community, Department of Defense and other
commercial organizations defend against cyber-threats, the defense contractor
said Dec. 5. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Raytheon said the
acquisition was not expected to "materially" impact Raytheon's sales
or earnings per share in the fourth quarter of 2011 or first quarter 2012.
Pikewerks would give Raytheon products focused on insider
threat protection, software protection and forensics. Raytheon will use the technology to expand its
cyber-security analysis and investigation capabilities.
"Developers at Pikewerks are experts who have taken
technology from concept to deployment, and we are excited to welcome them as
members of our innovative Raytheon team," said Lynn Dugle, president of
Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business.
Pikewerks founder and president Sandy Ring and CEO Michael
Ring are expected to stay on board with Raytheon following the acquisition.
Electronic Armor is an anti-exploitation software tool that protects
executables, shared libraries and scripts from being accessed by unauthorized
users. It thwarts attempts to reverse engineer software files and performs signature
detection. Second Look is a Linux tool that captures and forensically preserves
the contents of the computer's memory. With Second Look, administrators gain a
live forensics view of the affected system that is uninfluenced by any malware
that may be installed.
Pikewerks also has "one of the industry's largest
repositories of kernel-level engineering talent" for the Linux operating
system, according to Raytheon. It also received funding from United States
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work on the agency's Dark Droid
project, which aims to improve security in the Android mobile operating system.
Pikewerks, based in Madison, Al., is no stranger to
government contracts as it already serves the federal government, research
organizations and other critical industry partners. It recently announced
contracts with the United States Army and Air Force. The U.S. Army contract is
for extending GalaSec, Pikewerks' distributed security and trust system, into a
field-ready product that can provide the military with a secure communications
channel for transmitting sensitive information.
Pikewerks will develop cyber-defenses for weapon systems
used by the Air Force. Pikewerks also has a two-year contract to develop
anti-exploitation techniques capable protecting security industrial control
systems and supervisory control and data acquisition networks.
Raytheon has been beefing up its cyber-security portfolio
through acquisitions in the past five years. The Houston Associates deal in
2006 provided Raytheon with the ability to understand network operations on a
global scale, the company said on its Website. In 2008, Raytheon acquired SI
Government Solutions, a provider of proprietary software security systems to
the U.S. intelligence community, which "teaches us how to attack,"
according to Raytheon.
The Oakley Systems deal from 2007, with technology used for
combating insider threats and advanced persistent threats, "is showing us
how to defend." The Telemus Solutions acquisition in 2008 brought a
"total security architecture," according to the company.
Last year, Raytheon acquired Trusted Computer Solutions, a
company with a comprehensive portfolio of cross-domain, operating system and
network security products focused on data extraction and analysis as well as information
assurance services.
Also last year, Raytheon paid $490 million for Applied
Signal Technology, which provided military and intelligence agencies with
equipment to locate and analyze electronic signals and cyber-security systems
to protect computer networks. It also paid $334 million for BBN Technologies in
2009 to acquire cyber-security research and development capabilities.
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