Cybersecurity: Adaptive Shield Partners with Protos Networks to Secure the SaaS Market in the United Kingdom

Against a backdrop of ever-increasing cyber threats targeting SaaS platforms, this partnership addresses the growing demand for robust security solutions in the United Kingdom. It will enable businesses to safely adopt SaaS applications while benefiting from enhanced local support. By combining their expertise, Adaptive Shield and Protos Networks aim to support the evolution of the UK SaaS market while minimizing the risk of security breaches.

This expansion comes as the UK economy faces a surge in digital risks. According to reports from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), more than 60% of the country’s businesses have reported a breach or attack linked to a third party or a cloud application over the past twelve months. The widespread adoption of collaboration tools (Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack) without centralized governance has created an unprecedented attack surface that cybercriminals are actively exploiting.

A response to the growing threats posed by SaaS applications

Maor Bin, CEO and co-founder of Adaptive Shield, expressed his enthusiasm about this collaboration: “We are delighted to announce this important milestone in our mission to provide a powerful SaaS security solution throughout the United Kingdom. By partnering with Protos Networks, a company recognized for its expertise and commitment to excellence, we are confident that this partnership will deliver significant value to businesses.”

The main challenge of this collaboration is to reduce the threats posed by SaaS platform configuration errors, which are a major source of vulnerability for businesses.

The Invisible Danger of Configuration Errors (SSPM)

The SaaS security ecosystem has evolved around a key technology segment: SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management). Contrary to popular belief, major security breaches rarely result from a hack of the software vendor’s servers, but rather from poor configuration management by the end-user company. Real-world examples illustrate how common these operational risks are:

• File-sharing leaks: An employee changes the permissions for a confidential folder on Google Drive or SharePoint, making it accessible via a "public link" that can be indexed by search engines and accessed by external attackers.
• Bypassing Strong Authentication: When integrating a new business application, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled by default for regular users but disabled by default for "administrator" or service accounts, creating an ideal entry point for brute-force attacks.
• Excessive privileges granted to third-party applications: Users connect external modules or extensions to their enterprise environments (such as productivity plugins connected to Salesforce or Slack). These third-party applications are granted global read/write permissions, allowing them to exfiltrate sensitive data without oversight from security teams.

Protos Networks' Operational Capabilities

To mitigate these risks, Adaptive Shield leverages the network of Protos Networks, a leading managed security service provider (MSSP) in the United Kingdom. Certified under Cyber Essentials Plus and a trusted partner of the UK’s public infrastructure, Protos Networks provides technical integration capabilities and 24/7 continuous monitoring.

Engineers at Protos Networks integrate Adaptive Shield’s alert feeds directly into their security operations center (SOC). This partnership enables the company to offer automated remediation to UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) andmid-market companies: as soon as a misconfiguration or suspicious behavior is detected on a SaaS platform, the system instantly applies a fix or isolates the compromised account, without requiring internal human intervention.

Leadership Recognized Amid Competition

Adaptive Shield, the solution of choice for major companies—including several Fortune 500 firms—continues to stand out with its award-winning solutions, including the “Gartner Cool Vendor” award and the “Global Infosec Awards 2024,” which confirm its leadership in the field of SaaS security.

This leading position enables the company to outperform its competitors in the European and British markets (such as AppOmni and Obsidian Security). The platform’s strength lies in the breadth of its integration catalog, which can simultaneously support more than 150 different SaaS applications, whereas its rivals are often limited to the office software giants alone.

This ability to unify security governance is complemented by an active policy of global partnerships. In addition to Protos Networks, Adaptive Shield has entered into major strategic agreements with global leaders in technology distribution and providers of identity management solutions such as Okta and CrowdStrike, thereby facilitatingcross-selling and strengthening the recurring nature of its revenue—a financial metric particularly sought after by private equity firms.

-----

Advertising communication. Please refer to the FIA prospectus and key investor information documents before making any final investment decision. Private equity involves a risk of capital loss and a liquidity risk. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.  

‍