The new home of Assured Enterprises. Courtesy photo.Malicious hacking is getting more common — and more devastating — for businesses than ever before. After high-profile attacks, Target is still recovering from the theft of its customers’ credit card data, and employees at Sony Pictures now have a different approach to email.
As these attacks become more sophisticated, many companies now need the kind of protection once reserved for sovereign states and intelligence agencies.
Assured Enterprises is going all in on that bet.
The Washington, D.C.-based cybersecurity company just moved its Virginia headquarters to Austin so it can pivot its products to corporate clients.
“In our minds, there really is no shift,” chairman and CEO Stephen Soble said. “We have a holistic cybersecurity approach. That means we’re looking at the world of assessments and cyber services that our customers need.”
If the changes to the company’s software will be subtle, the impact on their culture won’t. In the next year, the company plans to hire 150 new employees in software engineering, sales, marketing, development, and operations.
The new, 28,000 square-foot office in the Ladera Bend complex is the former home of Spiceworks.
Assured Enterprises will maintain a significant presence in the greater Washington, D.C. area as the company continues to provide cybersecurity solutions to the federal government and defense contracting market.
The company’s signature product, AssuredScanDKV (Detect Known Vulnerabilities), searches workstations at the binary level. That means the software sniffs below the code to identify vulnerabilities in applications, sometimes before a company even purchases and installs them.
Soble said about 80 percent of successful corporate hacks come through a known vulnerability. He wouldn’t say who they’re working with now (“If we identify our clients, we’re part of the problem”), but looking ahead, he said Assured Enterprises aims to address the other 20 percent.
“We have a whole other product line coming in the assessment area,” he said. “That’s Triple Helix, which allows us to go beyond known vulnerabilities and know what the risk levels and factors are.”
Soble concedes it’s impossible to eliminate all the risks.
“In order to just stay current with your cybersecurity, you need to have some sophisticated services on a regular basis,” he said. “We’ll be building that capability in Austin over time.”
