Emerging Threats
Threat Intelligence Overview | Proofpoint.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
$40.0m Valuation: $40.0m | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Emerging Threats was a cybersecurity firm specializing in threat intelligence, founded by Matt Jonkman in 2003. The company established itself as a key provider of both commercial and open-source threat data. In March 2015, the next-generation security and compliance company, Proofpoint, Inc., acquired Emerging Threats for approximately $40 million in cash and stock, integrating its team and technologies. At the time of the acquisition, Ken Gramley was the CEO of Emerging Threats and subsequently became the vice president of Emerging Threats for Proofpoint.
The company's business model revolved around providing subscription-based threat intelligence services. Its core offerings were designed for integration with existing network security appliances like Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) and Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW). The primary commercial product was the ETPro Ruleset, a frequently updated set of rules for detecting and blocking advanced cyber threats. This ruleset covered over 40 categories, including malware command and control, botnets, exploits, and vulnerabilities. Alongside the commercial ETPro Ruleset, Emerging Threats sponsored and maintained the ETOpen Ruleset, a widely used open-source alternative for organizations worldwide.
Emerging Threats utilized an automated collection and analysis system, complemented by a team of expert researchers, to process millions of malware samples and global threat indicators daily. This process generated actionable intelligence that helped clients detect, block, and remediate cyberattacks. The flagship IQRisk Suite included the ETPro Ruleset for malware communication detection, IQRisk Rep List for categorized threat intelligence, and IQRisk Query, which allowed access to a historical database of threat activity via a portal or API. This comprehensive approach provided customers with an end-to-end view of the cyberattack kill chain, enhancing their ability to respond to inbound attacks and identify previously undetected malware within their systems.
Keywords: threat intelligence, cybersecurity, IDS ruleset, IPS ruleset, malware detection, network security, ETOpen, ETPro, Proofpoint, threat research, botnet detection, intrusion detection system, intrusion prevention system, cyber threat intelligence, malware analysis, command and control, vulnerability detection, open source security, network defense, threat hunting