The cybersecurity company LevelBlue has announced that it is acquiring the managed detection and response services company Trustwave. LevelBlue, which was formerly known as AT&T Cybersecurity, was just recently launched as a joint venture in May. This major acquisition of Trustwave comes shortly after LevelBlue announced its plans to buy Aon’s cybersecurity consulting business. These deals are part of a strategic plan to become the largest pure-play managed security services provider. This proposed acquisition of Chicago-based Trustwave will make LevelBlue one of the world’s largest pure-play managed security services provider (MSSP).
The Trustwave transaction will help LevelBlue sell its MDR services to the important United States government sector. The company’s recent certification in FedRAMP and StateRAMP for its MDR platform is unique in the industry. This deal represents a homecoming of sorts for LevelBlue’s current chairman and CEO, Bob McCullen. He was the chairman and also the CEO of Trustwave for more than a decade, from 2005 to 2015. His familiarity with Trustwave positioned LevelBlue advantageously to reengage with the company when a previous merger deal failed.
The integration brings together best-in-class incident response teams from Aon, Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, and also from LevelBlue. This unification would allow for greater threat visibility, faster malware analysis, and advanced threat-hunting techniques. Trustwave brings advanced database and email security services, which are areas where LevelBlue previously had no offering. Meanwhile, LevelBlue contributes a robust MSSP and transformation consulting practice to the newly combined business entity. The Aon Cyber team adds significant incident response leadership and important litigation support services for all their clients.
As a result of the acquisitions, Aon customers will gain services like remediation and MDR that were not offered. Customers of Trustwave, which has recently focused on MDR, gain access to new MSSP services and SASE solutions. LevelBlue’s existing customers will benefit from new email and database security services and enhanced MDR options. LevelBlue was predominantly a North America-centric company with smaller operations in the UK and also in Australia. Together, the newly merged entity will be able to significantly expand LevelBlue’s overall global reach and operational footprint.
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