November 15, 2021
McLean, VA – Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) announced today it has completed a transaction to transfer all assets related to SnapAttack™, a cloud-based software solution that brings together actionable threat intelligence and hacker tradecraft to proactively detect and defend against cyber threats, to a new cyber threat hunting and detection company (www.snapattack.com). Financial terms were not disclosed.
The entity includes a dedicated technical team and the SnapAttack product, a unique technical solution that enables community collaboration around threat intelligence, attack emulation, and detection analytics to help organizations identify potential vulnerabilities and risks, and strengthen systems before threat actors attempt similar techniques to their IT infrastructure.
“Spinning out products like SnapAttack is one example of how we incubate internally and scale externally―an approach that allows us to focus on our strength of developing leading technology, then carefully identifying the best opportunities in the market for its long-term growth,” said Susan Penfield, chief innovation officer at Booz Allen and head of the firm’s Strategic Innovation Group. “In doing so, we empower Booz Allen’s innovators to create and scale leading-edge products and obtain an equity stake in the products they help build.”
SnapAttack was developed and launched publicly by Booz Allen DarkLabs―an elite team of security researchers, threat hunters, penetration testers, reverse engineers, network analysts, and data scientists, dedicated to stopping cyber attacks before they occur—based on years of experience in commercial and nation-state-level cyber operations in cyber defense (blue teaming), data analytics, threat hunting, and cyber offense (red teaming). As one of the world’s largest cybersecurity solution providers, Booz Allen’s technical talent develops products like SnapAttack by leveraging advanced and emerging technologies alongside decades of working with clients to defeat advanced cyber threats.
The SnapAttack product development team will continue to be led by Chief Technology Officer Fred Frey and Chief Product Officer Tim Nary, SnapAttack’s original developers, both of whom began their careers at Booz Allen and exemplify how innovators at Booz Allen can grow and scale cutting-edge technology within the firm and beyond. Under their leadership, SnapAttack will continue to focus on keeping government and commercial clients ahead of advanced cyber threats.
Booz Allen is maintaining a significant minority stake in the new company as well as a strategic partnership agreement to continue collaboration, further enhancing and complementing the firm’s robust threat detection management capabilities. Booz Allen will be the primary channel partner for SnapAttack to its federal client base, and this collaboration will provide clients with scalable, enhanced access to SnapAttack along with continued access to the firm's best-in-class capabilities, technology, and services. Additional investors include Volition Capital and Strategic Cyber Ventures.
“SnapAttack addresses a critical requirement for organizations that need to move quickly, collaborate, and get continuously better at detecting and defending against sophisticated cyber threats,” said Patrick Gorman, executive vice president and a leader in Booz Allen’s cybersecurity business. “SnapAttack will now have even more opportunity to scale at the pace of clients, address urgent threat detection needs, and access a broader ecosystem of innovators and capital investment to help it grow as the industry standard in proactive security and hacker tradecraft.”
