Today, HUMAN and PerimeterX announced a market-changing merger. The two companies are coming together to safeguard media and enterprise customers from sophisticated bot attacks, fraud and account abuse. The respective CEOs, Tamer Hassan and Omri Iluz, sat down to share their personal perspectives on what this means to the market and to them.
When did discussions between the two companies start?
Tamer: It started back in Q4 2021. We were introduced by investors to have a conversation, and the relationship built from there. We quickly realized that our company culture, technology and the customers we serve are very complimentary and that we should be allies.
Omri: When Tamer and I first met last year, we immediately hit it off. We share the same vision and values and it was inspiring to see how the companies match and can support each other’s growth.
Why each other? Why does this make sense for your business, shareholders, employees and customers?
Omri: Coming together makes sense because we share a common vision and together we can deliver even greater value to our customers and shareholders. Bringing the two companies together allows us to combine modern defense with comprehensive account protection capabilities and to provide a richer set of products for customers and career experiences for employees as we work to turn the tables against cyber attackers.
Tamer: By combining the expertise of our mission-focused teams, our complementary technology, and industry-leading products, we have accelerated the capabilities of our Human Defense Platform and are in a dominant position to protect our customers by disrupting the economics of cybercrime through modern defense (unparalleled internet visibility, network effect and disruptions). By increasing the cost to attackers and lowering the cost of collective defense, we are set on a clear path to become a company of consequence.
What excites each of you most about this transaction? What do each of you like best about the other company? How will the other company help you address key gaps?
Tamer: If you look at our respective placement in The Forrester Wave™: Bot Management Q2 2022, it’s undeniable that together we are the dominant leaders in the market in both current product and strategy. Our products compliment each other, making our collective offerings on the Human Defense Platform stronger and more effective for our combined customers. I’m excited about bringing these two great teams together to solve one of the most important and fundamental problems facing every enterprise today.
Omri: For me it has always been - what more can we do for our customers? We take pride in being the main partner for our customers for everything related to application security and anti fraud. By joining forces with HUMAN, we are creating an unstoppable force with significant resources behind it to expand our product portfolio and reach, which ultimately will help our customers focus on their business, leaving the risks, cybersecurity and anti-fraud to us.
Put yourself in the shoes of one of your customers or prospects. What do you want them to know?
Omri: I want our customers and prospects to know that this is good news for them. They will get the same proactive, best-in-class service they’ve been used to, and have access to a larger portfolio of solutions. They will also benefit from the insights and techniques we gain - across an even larger network - to continue to improve our attack detection and mitigation techniques.
Tamer: The merger enables HUMAN to protect against more bot, fraud and account abuse use cases, enabling us to better protect our customers across the entire digital ecosystem, including advertising, marketing, e-commerce and cybersecurity. The more we detect cybercriminal activity across the 15 trillion digital interactions we verify each week across more use cases, and the more signal and visibility we have across the internet, the better we can safeguard everyone. A detection event for one is a protection event for all.
Reflect on the past…what are some seminal moments that are key to how you built your business?
Tamer: HUMAN has been protecting the digital experiences we hold closest to us for a decade. Founded by Ash Kalb, Dan Kaminsky, Michael Tiffany and myself, HUMAN’s purpose has always been to protect the integrity of the internet by disrupting the economics of cybercrime. From our humble beginnings in the back of a sci-fi bookstore, HUMAN has grown into a global leader in protecting our customers from sophisticated bot attacks and fraud. Seminal moments for me have been protecting some of the biggest companies on the planet and the disruptions we led with our customers, partners and, in some cases, law enforcement to takedown cybercriminal organizations include: PARETO, 3ve and Methbot. Finally, developing our strategy of modern defense to put us in a position to win against cybercriminals through collective protection is, to me, the most important development in the cybersecurity industry. The only way we will solve this massive problem is by working together, and we have proven that that can be done, swiftly and effectively.
Omri: There are three seminal moments that stand out. First, realizing that the architecture of web apps was changing to become a collection of building blocks and given this change, realizing the opportunity for a more modern, cloud-native approach to solve the problem - the whole reason we started PerimeterX. The second was signing one of the largest retailers in the world as a customer for Bot Defender - it was exciting, but also the beginning of some very hard and smart work to continue to advance the product to meet their needs, and to innovate additional solutions as we saw the cyber landscape change. The third is the hiring of so many talented people - early-, mid- and experienced people across functions - who bought into our vision and helped us build a great company. We couldn’t be where we are today without the contributions of so many people, and I’m both proud and humbled by them.
Give us a glimpse into the future. What does your crystal ball say?
Omri: The cyber-landscape continues to change as threats evolve and attackers become more clever and sophisticated. Bringing together the modern defense capabilities of HUMAN with the comprehensive account protection capabilities of PerimeterX to disrupt the economics of cybercrime and to help our customers turn the tables against their digital attackers, is an ongoing challenge. I’m excited about what we’ll be able to do together to provide a portfolio of solutions that provides even greater value to customers.
Tamer: Malicious bots have become increasingly sophisticated and are one of this decade’s most foremost cyber threats. They are used in over three quarters of security and fraud incidents that happen online, not just for manipulating popularity and sentiment, but also for stealing sensitive data, breaking into online accounts, purchasing limited-availability goods and resources, Committing fraudulent financial transactions, and much more. Looking forward, they have the potential to be even more damaging as the lines between the digital world and the physical world continue to blur. New spaces and platforms, including music streaming, connected TV (CTV), gaming, cryptocurrency, NFTs, the metaverse, web3 and beyond present new opportunities for incentivization and monetization opportunities that are always wrought with fraud. This is where we come in. As we work together, our Human Defense Platform fueled by modern defense will increase the cost to adversaries–no matter what their nefarious activity looks like and reduce the cost of collective defense, putting us in a position to win.
