Australia's largest independent information security consultancy, Stratsec, will be acquired by British defence contractor and arms manufacturer BAE Systems.
The company operates defence-accredited facilities here in Australia, runs common criteria certification labs and employs around 60 consultants nationwide. Risky.Biz understands the announcement of the sale is imminent.
The company has been aggressively hiring new consultants all over the country since merging with a smaller infosec outfit, SIFT, in May this year.
That deal that valued SIFT at A$3.5m and the new, merged company at A$15-$20m. The BAE deal is thought to value Stratsec at the upper end of that range.
The proposed acquisition seems a sensible fit for all involved. Military contractors are increasingly ramping up their information security capabilities as government fears of "cyber war" grow to fever pitch.
And when there's a buck to be made out of war of any kind you can bet your ass there's a military contracting firm scuttling around under a nearby rock, ready and willing to take advantage.
Still, ethically speaking I'm fairly confident selling penetration tests at extortionate, military-grade prices beats manufacturing cluster bombs and using creative accounting to shift billions in profits off your books to evade tax... so who am I to complain about this wonderful new direction our industry is heading in?
What do you think? Care to comment?
