Lumifi’s acquisition this week of fellow MSSP Critical Insight is the latest purchase in the company’s strategy to build out its managed detection and response (MDR) capabilities the began to ramp two years ago and promises to continue for at least another two.
The deal to buy Critical Insight, one of MSSP Alert’s MSSP 250 companies, was Lumifi’s third acquisition in 13 months and the fourth since the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company bought Datashield, which provided cyber resilience services, from ADT for $30 million.
It’s part of an aggressive acquisition strategy that the company laid out last year and CEO Michael Malone reiterated this week.
The strategy “is fueled by our ShieldVision technology, which enables us to integrate various NDR [network detection and response], EDR [endpoint detection and response], and SIEM [security information and event management] platforms, allowing seamless expansion of our services,” Malone said. “By acquiring companies with complementary technologies, we're rapidly growing our customer base, revenue, and security offerings.”
The goal is to continue the momentum through 2026 by purchasing three companies a year, which he said will “solidify Lumifi as a leader in the cybersecurity space.”
Growing in an Expanding Market
Malone is looking to boost Lumifi’s position in a fast-growing MDR market that is being driven by increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats, the ongoing adoption of cloud computing by organizations, and a skills gap that is making it difficult for companies to find and keep cybersecurity talent. Fortune Business Insights analysts expect the global MDR market to grow from $1.89 billion this year to $8.59 billion by 2032.
For Lumifi, the Critical Insight acquisition will expand the company’s cybersecurity and incident response in the healthcare space, which is among the top targets of threat groups, given the amount of sensitive data it holds, the wide use of connected devices, and the reputation for having weak cybersecurity in place. It also brings more than 200 customers to Lumifi and grows its workforce to 125 people.
“This strategic move strengthens our position in managed detection and response, particularly for healthcare organizations that require specialized expertise in HIPAA compliance and protection of electronic health records,” Malone said. “By combining our strengths, we're now better equipped to provide rapid threat containment and streamline compliance processes.”
Riding the ShieldVision Platform
The move boosts not only Lumifi’s ShieldVision platform and MDR capabilities but also its managed security operations center services. It comes with a host of services, from MDR and vulnerability scanning to incident preparedness, gap analysis and risk assessment, regulatory compliance, and ransomware response.
Through ShieldVision, Lumifi looks to give security teams repeatable processes throughout their security operations. The platform includes such capabilities as threat detection and response, automation and orchestration, endpoint security and log integration, and interaction with Lumifi’s SOC teams for continuous threat monitoring and response.
There also customizable dashboards, data ingestion methods, and the ability to draw information from throughout the security technology stack.
Protecting Critical Infrastructure
Healthcare is listed among the 16 industry sectors the federal government considers critical infrastructure, which is high on the Biden Administration’s list of areas that need protecting from cyberthreats. MSSPs play a vital role in this, according to Lumifi CTO David Norlin.
“As a nation, we have more critical industry ‘surface area’ to protect than we have qualified cybersecurity professionals to do the protecting,” Norlin told MSSP Alert. “One of the chief benefits of MSSPs is that you can concentrate skills and achieve economies of scale. Instead of organizations attempting to build the expertise and monitoring processes themselves, they can rely on an organization that has specialized in this work, and can now bring that expertise to bear.”
In addition, MSSPs often specialize in a particular industry vertical or have seen a broad variety customer circumstances, which equips them to come with ready ideas and solutions, he said.
“This can save critical time when organizations are in need of solutions quickly, potentially eliminating the need for costly consulting processes and wasting business cycles when MSSPs have solutions ready out of the box,” Norlin said.
Lumifi’s customers can now access Critical Insight’s professional services, with the integration of the company’s operations and services into Lumifi's infrastructure expected to be complete by the end of th year.
