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Trustwave Holdings

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Trustwave Holdings, Inc.
Trustwave
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
Founded1995; 29 years ago (1995)
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Eric Harmon, CEO[1]
RevenueUS $216 million [2] (2014)
Number of employees
1,600+ [3]
Parent
  • Independent (1995–2015)
  • Singtel (2015–24)
  • The Chertoff Group (2024–present)
Websitewww.trustwave.com

Trustwave is an American[4] cybersecurity subsidiary of The Chertoff Group. It focuses on providing managed detection and response (MDR), managed security services (MSS), database security, and email security to organizations around the globe.

With customers in 96 countries, it has its international headquarters in downtown Chicago[5] and regional offices in London, São Paulo, and Sydney. The company also operates Security Operations Centers in Chicago, Denver, Manila, Minneapolis, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Warsaw, and Waterloo, Ontario.[6]

As of 2015, the company was a standalone business unit[7] cybersecurity independent subsidiary and brand of multinational telecommunications company Singtel.[8] In January 2024, it was announced that The Chertoff Group had completed its acquisition of the firm for $205 million.[9]

History

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In April 2011, Trustwave Holdings filed for its IPO,[10] though it never completed the process. In May 2014, Trustwave withdrew its application,[11] citing unfavorable market conditions. Trustwave's website says the company has more than 1,600 employees.[3]

In February 2014, Trustwave SVP Phillip. J. Smith offered expert testimony related to data breaches and malware as part of a Congressional hearing for The House Committee on Energy and Commerce. In his prepared testimony, he presented observations based on the company's experience investigating thousands of data breaches, ongoing malware and security research and other forms of threat intelligence.[12]

On April 8, 2015 (SGT), Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trustwave Holdings, Inc. for a fee of $810 million—Singtel with a 98% stake in the company leaving 2% with Trustwave's CEO and President.[2][13] According to media reports and Singtel filings on the Singapore Exchange, the enterprise value of Trustwave at the time of the deal was $850 million.[14]

In October 2021, Trustwave sold its PCI compliance business to cybersecurity firm Sysnet for $80 million.[15] The sale gave Trustwave the ability to invest more in its core capabilities of managed detection and response (MDR) and managed security services (MSS), according to research firm IDC.[16]

Significant Discoveries

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In 2013 and again in 2014 Trustwave SpiderLabs did an analysis of primary Pony botnet controllers. The results of the analysis found that the botnets had gathered more than two million passwords and credentials for accounts on ADP payroll, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and more,[17] and over US $220,000 in crypto-currency like Bitcoin.[18]

In June 2020, Trustwave SpiderLabs discovered a new malware family, which they named GoldenSpy, embedded in tax payment software that a Chinese bank requires corporations to install to conduct business operations in China.[19] Trustwave said it was uncertain whether the malware was embedded in all of the tax software or if it was deployed against specific targets. The FBI sent a subsequent warning about this malware threat to companies in healthcare, chemical, and finance industries.[20]

Leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trustwave SpiderLabs found a hacker selling info on 186 million U.S. voters during its Dark Web and cybercriminal forum research.[21] Trustwave turned this information over to the FBI.[22]

In February 2021, Trustwave SpiderLabs discovered two "severe" vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Orion. One of the flaws could’ve allowed a hacker to gain complete remote control of a targeted SolarWinds system. Patches were released January 25 and customers of SolarWinds were urged to patch immediately.[23]

Criticism

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Trustwave operates an X.509 certificate authority ("CA") which is used as the top level of trust by many web browsers, operating systems, and other applications (a "trusted root CA").[citation needed] In 2011, Trustwave sold a certificate for a subordinate CA which allowed a customer to present SSL certificates identifying as arbitrary entities, in a similar mechanism to a "Man in the Middle Attack". This type of action is similar to the practice of running an SSL proxy on a corporate network, though in this case a public subordinate CA (valid anywhere) was used instead of an internal corporate-generated domain CA (valid only for machines that accept it as part of organizational policy), making the risk of abuse much higher.

In March 2014, Trustwave was named in a lawsuit filed by Trustmark National Bank and Green Bank N.A. The lawsuit alleges that Trustwave failed to provide the promised level of security to Target, and for failing to meet industry security standards.[24][25] In April 2014, a notice of dismissal was filed by both plaintiffs, effectively withdrawing their earlier allegations.[26][27]

References

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  1. ^ "Trustwave Leadership".
  2. ^ a b Aravindan, Aradhana (7 April 2015). "Singtel buying U.S. cyber security firm Trustwave for $810 million". Reuters. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Trustwave: Our Story". Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Singtel acquires Trustwave in $810M security services deal". ZDNet.
  5. ^ "Company Overview of TrustWave Holdings, Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Trustwave security firm opens first Canadian security operations centre in Kitchener-Waterloo". Global News. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  7. ^ "Trustwave: Our History".
  8. ^ "TRUSTWAVE PTE. LTD. (200616191R) - Singapore Business Directory". SGPBusiness.com. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  9. ^ "Chertoff Group Affiliate Completes Trustwave Acquisition". Dark Reading. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  10. ^ Lennon, Mike (22 April 2011). "Trustwave Files for IPO, Reveals Finances". SecurityWeek. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  11. ^ "Trustwave pulls filing for initial public offering". Reuters. 2 May 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
  12. ^ "Protecting Consumer Information: Can Data Breaches Be Prevented?" United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 5 February 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  13. ^ "Singtel to Acquire Trustwave to Bolster Global Cyber Security Capabilities". Trustwave. 7 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  14. ^ Shu, Catherine (7 April 2015). "Singtel Acquires Chicago-based Cybersecurity Firm Trustwave For $810M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  15. ^ Novinson, Michael (2021-10-24). "Trustwave Sells PCI Compliance Business To Sysnet For $80M". CRN. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  16. ^ "IDC Report | A Strategic Move to Make Trustwave Laser-focused in its Core Offerings". Trustwave. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  17. ^ "Two million stolen Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, ADP passwords found on Pony Botnet server". ZDNet. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  18. ^ "'Pony' botnet steals bitcoins, digital currencies: Trustwave". Reuters. 24 February 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  19. ^ "The Golden Tax Department and the Emergence of GoldenSpy Malware". Trustwave. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  20. ^ "FBI warns US companies about Chinese tax software embedded with hidden malware: Report". FOXBusiness. 2020-07-24. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  21. ^ "Massive US Voters and Consumers Databases Circulate Among Hackers". Trustwave. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  22. ^ "Cybersecurity company finds hacker selling info on 186 million U.S. voters". NBC News. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  23. ^ Brewster, Thomas. "'Severe' SolarWinds Vulnerabilities Allow Hackers To Take Over Servers". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  24. ^ Schwartz, Mathew J. (26 March 2014). "Target, PCI Auditor Trustwave Sued By Banks". Darkreading. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  25. ^ Heun, David (25 March 2014). "Banks Sue Security Vendor Trustwave After Target Data Breach". American Banker. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  26. ^ Kirk, Jeremy (1 April 2014). "Banks withdraw data breach claim against Target". Computerworld. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  27. ^ "Security firm Trustwave says Target data breach claims baseless". Reuters. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
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