CompTIA, the non-profit trade organization for channel businesses that was founded in 1982 – 42 years ago, has sold a portion of itself to private equity. This morning CompTIA, which offers cybersecurity trustmark certifications to businesses based on the NIST cybersecurity framework, said that H.I.G. Capital and Thoma Bravo would acquire the CompTIA brand, the certification and training businesses and the products of CompTIA.
Following the transaction, CompTIA will operate as a for-profit company under H.I.G. and Thoma Bravo’s ownership. The existing member-based non-provit organization will be separated from CompTIA and continue its mission of services to the IT industry.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2025 and is subject to customary regulatory approval, CompTIA said in a statement. Macquarie Capital, Ropes & Gray LLP, and Polsinelli LLP are serving as advisors to H.I.G. and Thoma Bravo. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to CompTIA and Husch Blackwell LLP is serving as legal advisor.
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Today’s MSSP Update
Large-scale spear-phishing campaign - CISA has received multiple reports of a large-scale spear-phishing campaign targeting organizations in several sectors, including government and IT. The foreign threat actor, often posing as a trusted entity, is sending spear-phishing emails containing malicious remote desktop protocol files to targeted organizations to connect to and access files stored on the target’s network. Once access has been gained, the threat actor may pursue additional activity, such as deploying malicious code to achieve persistent access to the target’s network.
2. New threat campaign - Securonix is reporting a new campaign dubbed “CRON#TRAP” that starts with a phishing lure that leads victims to download a massive zip file with a malicious .lnk shortcut. When executed, the malicious file initiates a custom Linux environment emulated through legitimate software QEMU (quick emulator), but the emulated Linux instance comes pre-configured with a backdoor that connects to an attacker-controlled Command & Control Server. This allows the attacker to maintain persistence, manage additional payloads and/or exfiltrate data…and remain undetected.
3. Phishing prevention gets AI help - Bolster, a provider of multi-channel phishing protection has released Bolster AI Security for Email, which automates the analysis and mitigation of cyber threats reported through customer abuse mailboxes.
4. XDR report - Stellar Cyber has been named a Representative Vendor in the 2024 Gartner Market Guide for Extended Detection and Response (XDR).
5. Election security – As the U.S. heads to election day tomorrow, CISA director Jen Easterly has said in public statements over the last week that U.S. elections have “never been more secure.” Her comments included reassurances about why – voting systems are not connected to the internet and 97% of voters are in jurisdictions that use paper records that voters can verify themselves, including in all seven “battleground” states. (Source: SCWorld)
