Rapid7 Acquires Open Source Monitoring Platform Velociraptor

Rapid7 has announced the acquisition of open source software technology and community Velociraptor.

The move will enable Rapid7 to enhance its incident response capabilities by leveraging Velociraptor’s open source platform, which is used for endpoint monitoring, digital forensics and incident response.

Velociraptor was developed to help digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) professionals to discover and monitor malicious activities. The platform’s community style also allows DFIR pros to share their insights with one another. It’s also unique in allowing custom detections, collections and analyses capabilities to be written in queries, rather than code. This enables the queries to be shared easily, helping teams hunt for threats quickly.

In making the purchase, Rapid7 emphasized its support for open-source software. Richard Perkett, senior vice president of detection and response at Rapid7, commented: “Rapid7 has a long track record of supporting open-source projects that began when we acquired Metasploit in 2009 and that commitment and support continues today.

“We strongly believe that partnership with the open source community is one of the most important ways to move the security industry forward and make the digital world a safer place for everyone. We look forward to bringing our expertise in growing and nurturing open-source communities to Velociraptor, while also enhancing our monitoring, digital forensics, and incident response capabilities for customers.”

Velociraptor founder, Mike Cohen, who will also join Rapid7, said: “This is an exciting time for Velociraptor and the DFIR community. Velociraptor will greatly benefit from the investment, experience, and resources Rapid7 can bring to this community and I look forward to leading Velociraptor through this next phase of its evolution.”

The deal is the latest in a number of recent acquisitions by Rapid7 at it looks to expand its security and analytics capabilities. Earlier this year it announced the purchase of Kubernetes security provider Alcide.IO, and last year acquired cloud security company DivvyCloud.