KnowBe4, leading provider of security awareness and training solutions, announced it’s acquired competitor MediaPRO, a security and privacy training solutions company that builds customizable tools Fortune 1000 companies use to train their teams on compliance, security, and privacy.
KnowBe4 specializes in the human side of security by increasing awareness of ransomware and social engineering scams. KnowBe4 says more than 35,000 organizations worldwide use its security platform and by acquiring MediaPRO, KnowBe4 can offer its customers even more privacy and compliance training modules.
MediaPRO’s customers will gain access to the additional benefits of KnowBe4’s security awareness training and simulated phishing platform.
Social engineering scams, like CEO scams, USB seeding, or caller ID spoofing, remain a major security risk for businesses. There’s always a danger that a well-meaning employee could mistakenly be the gateway for hackers.
KnowBe4 is perhaps best-known for its association with legendary “black hat” hacker Kevin Mitnick, who became a renowned IT security consultant after serving prison time.
In his hacking days, when he targeted Motorola, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, and others, Mitnick didn’t use software-hacking tools to compromise computers. Instead, he used social engineering to gain passwords and codes. Mitnick is now KnowBe4’s “chief hacking officer.”
Both companies believe the acquisition will put them in stronger positions going forward.
“This acquisition presents KnowBe4 with a great opportunity to provide our customers with an abundance of engaging privacy and compliance training content that will benefit their organizations,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of KnowBe4.
MediaPRO CEO Mike Metzger said the company’s customizable offerings make a good compliment to KnowBe4’s platform.
“This customization ability teamed with MediaPRO’s deep library of privacy, security and compliance training content will broaden the choices for KnowBe4’s customers and provide a myriad more options for reaching their training and awareness goals,” Metzger said.
