Sophos has acquired Refactr, a company that develops and markets a versatile DevSecOps automation platform that bridges the gap between DevOps and cybersecurity.
Based in Bellevue, Washington, Refactr was launched in 2017 and is privately held.
As DevOps and security teams continue to adopt ‘IT-as-Code’ approaches to managing their environments, Refactr’s ability to automate any of these processes enables teams to scale.
For example, according to the firm, with Refactr’s platform, DevOps teams can augment existing continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows, and cybersecurity teams can leverage the platform’s visual drag and drop builder.
Sophos is optimising Refactr’s DevSecOps automation platform to add Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) capabilities to its Managed Threat Response (MTR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions.
The SOAR capabilities will also help automate the firm’s Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which underpins all of Sophos’ product solutions, services, threat intelligence, and data lake.
Joe Levy, chief technology officer, Sophos, said, “First-generation SOAR solutions have moved our industry forward in significant ways, but we’re now witnessing an evolution where more and more businesses are becoming software companies, and our security solutions need to evolve in parallel.
“As we’ve seen in recent supply-chain incidents, attackers are increasingly targeting software development pipelines, and defenders need the ability to shift further left of attackers. The industry needs SOAR to mature into more capable and generalisable DevSecOps solutions, and Sophos’ acquisition of Refactr will help us lead the way.”
According to Levy, with Refactr, Sophos will fast track the integration of such advanced SOAR capabilities into its Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, the basis for the firm’s XDR product and MTR service.
He added, “We will provide a full spectrum of automated playbooks for our customers and partners, from drag-and-drop to fully programmable, along with broad integrations with third-party solutions through our technology alliances program to work with today’s diverse IT environments.”
Michael Fraser, CEO and co-founder, Refactr, said, “Our mission is to enable DevSecOps to become the modern approach to automation, where cybersecurity use cases like SOAR, XDR, compliance, cloud security, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) become building blocks for DevSecOps solutions. We are already seeing success in providing organisations our emerging technology, including the Center for Internet Security and the US Air Force.
“We are proud of what we accomplished at Refactr, and excited for the next part of our journey with Sophos to help create a more secure world through DevSecOps.”
Refactr’s entire team of developers and engineers have joined Sophos. In addition to the continued offering of the Refactr platform, Sophos plans to begin offering SOAR options by early 2022.
