More UK security firms included on latest Cybersecurity 500 list
Britain's representation in February started with Swivel Secure in 197th place, with BAE Systems, Avecto, Boldon James, Mega AS, Protectimus, Sophos, Digital Shadows, BT, Acunetix, and Burp for company lower down.
These names are still on the list in March but have been joined by new entrants Silobreaker, Digital Shadows, Smoothwall, Acuity, Darktrace, Portswigger, Wandera, SentryBay, Citicus, Clearswift, and CenterTools.
One might argue about CenterTools (which has a German HQ and a Cambridge centre) but the growing representation of UK cybersecurity is good news.
The Cybersecurity 500 isn't intended to be a definitive ranking but aims to reflect the 'buzz' around firms in terms of attention which always carries some risks in terms of which names get on the list and which don't. Funding rounds help startups feature on the list although all of the UK names are mostly established firms with the possible exception of Darktrace.
Although no firm pays simply to be included, the company behind the list admits that it is possible to buy a position near the top on a yearly basis. Cybersecurity Ventures made clear to Techworld that firms must still meet certain criteria to achieve this higher position so only certain firms can boost their position.
The top ten are FireEye, Lancope, AlienVault, Norse, Easy Solutions, AVG, RSA, IBM, Veracode and BT, in that order. It's not revealed which firms might have paid to get that top location so we'll assume BT's rise is coincidental.
Steve Morgan on Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that even more UK security firms would appear on the list in the next two quarters.
"In addition, the Cybersecurity 500 now lists 110 companies (22 percent of the companies) with non-US headquarters, which is substantially larger than Q1," he said, underlining the increasingly global nature of the security industry.
"We have been conducting research of cybersecurity companies in the UK, and more broadly Europe and the rest of the world for the past year plus, and the efforts of our research are now starting to show in our published works."