The jostling for space in the attack surface management space intensified this week with Michigan startup Censys banking a new $35 million funding round to fuel growth and expansion.
The $35 million cash infusion brings the total raised by Censys to $53 million and signals a continued rush by investors to bet on technology to help organizations automate the finding and fixing of serious security problems.
Censys, based in Ann Arbor, competes with the likes of Randori, Bishop Fox, NCC Group, CyCognito and a wave of new startups hawking tools to help defenders with Internet-wide scans for exposed corporate assets.
The latest funding round was led by Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of chipmaking giant Intel Corp. Previous investors Google Ventures, Decibel and Greylock Partners also participated in the round.
In tandem with the funding news, Censys announced the appointment of former LogMeIn chief executive Brad Brooks as its new CEO.
Brooks, who previously served in management roles at DocuSign, Juniper Networks and Microsoft, will take the leadership reins from Lorne Groe, who served as interim CEO and will return to his role of CFO and COO.
Censys said Brooks will help lead the company into its next growth phase and speed up a product roadmap to provide more asset discovery and self-service capabilities for enterprises and government agencies.
Censys counts prominent organizations like Google, NATO, the Swiss Armed Forces, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security among its customer base.
The attack surface management category has grown in importance to solve problems with vulnerability and patch management, especially for software and other assets that are exposed to the internet.
Related: CyCognito Snags $100M Investment for Attack Surface Management
Related: Microsoft to Acquire Threat Intelligence Vendor RiskIQ
Related: Bit Discovery Banks $4 Million for Attack Surface Management Tech
Related: The Rise of Continuous Attack Surface Management

Ryan Naraine is Editor-at-Large at SecurityWeek and host of the popular Security Conversations podcast series. He is a security community engagement expert who has built programs at major global brands, including Intel Corp., Bishop Fox and GReAT. Ryan is a founding-director of the Security Tinkerers non-profit, an advisor to early-stage entrepreneurs, and a regular speaker at security conferences around the world.
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