Aikido Expands Its Cybersecurity Platform with Root Acquisition

In what could potentially improve software supply chain security, Aikido Security has bought out Root, a firm famous for its capability to patch vulnerabilities in open source software quickly. This will enable software developers to easily secure the open-source code that is used by their applications.

Most applications today run on open-source software. However, the same has become the target of many cyberattacks. Often, attackers take advantage of software vulnerabilities before they can be fixed. As reported by Aikido, almost a third of all disclosed software vulnerabilities get exploited on the same day that they are exposed, even vulnerabilities like Log4Shell, which was found in 2021.

Addressing a Long-Standing Challenge

When it comes to the discovery of any sort of vulnerabilities in their organization, many organizations find themselves in a quandary because they either need to upgrade their software, shift to a different one, or continue using the vulnerable one.

Root claims that Aikido makes it possible for you to overcome this issue since it will create patches for the software versions you are currently using. This means that you won’t have to go through upgrades or shift to some other software. There are hundreds of vulnerability patches created daily by Root.

As a part of this deal, Aikido will be introducing Aikido Libraries and Aikido Images where you can get patches on your libraries and container images that you can simply replace with the one you had before without doing much.

Faster Protection Against Emerging Threats

This acquisition comes amid a time where there is an acceleration in software development, as well as attacks, using artificial intelligence technology. The attackers can easily detect and use the vulnerabilities faster than ever.

It is the belief of Aikido that with Root’s automated patch generation, organizations will be able to counter faster than they could through any other method. This is because it would no longer take several weeks to roll out the upgrades but only patches to protect existing software versions.

Supporting the Open-Source Community

One of the essential aspects of the announcement includes Aikido’s intent to release critical security fixes to the community. Rather than being restrictive about critical security patches for paying customers, the plan at Aikido is to release these fixes back to the open-source community and allow everyone to take advantage of them in supported ecosystems.

The industry leaders found this strategy quite commendable. As per Adrian Estrada, who works as the CTO of NodeSource, and an OpenJS Board Director, the maintainers of the open-source community have an enormous amount of work when it comes to securing everything, and Aikido’s initiative of releasing security patches to the community would ease their load.

Aikido Continues Its Growth Strategy

Root’s acquisition is yet another move that represents the fast growth of Aikido Security. The company has been buying several cybersecurity startups lately as a means of expanding its platform and in the spring this year, it attained unicorn status after raising $60 million. With Root’s addition to its services, Aikido will be able to deliver a complete solution to protect applications, containers, and open source components with less time and effort.