CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Inc. was founded in 2011 by George Kurtz, Dmitry Alperovich and Greg Marston. Deals with cybersecurity.

Performance indicators

2018: Revenue - $250 million; losses - $140 million

According to the results of the financial year, which ended on January 31, 2019, the net loss of CrowdStrike amounted to $140 million, an increase of $5 million relative to the monetary losses of a year ago. The company's revenue during this time increased from $119 million to $250 million.

History

2021

Acquisition of SecureCircle

CrowdStrike announced the acquisition of SecureCircle, a data protection company. This became known on November 1, 2021. More details here.

Acquisition of Humio startup

Vendor of information security tools, the company CrowdStrike on February 18, 2021 announced the acquisition of the British startup Humio, whose flagship product is a platform for analyzing event logs in cloud environments. More details here.

2019

Trump - Zelensky: IB company of a native of Russia hides the server of democrats in Ukraine

On October 21, 2019, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz expressed surprise that the name of the company was mentioned in a conversation between US and Ukrainian Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky.

It's a surprise to me. In our understanding, I think we are just invited all the time for expert work, "he said during a Tech Live conference organized by The Wall Street Journal.

Kurtz made this statement after the US presidential administration released a transcript of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky at the end of September 2019, during which the American leader asked his Ukrainian counterpart to check the CrowdStrike, one of the founders of which is Dmitry Alperovich, a native of Russia.

Meeting of Vladimir Zelensky and Donald Trump

I would like you to do me one favor, because recently our country has experienced a lot, and Ukraine has valuable information in this regard. I would like to ask you to find out what happened in the situation with CrowdStrike. I think you have wealthy people, "Trump said in a conversation with Zelensky, after which the impeachment proceedings against the US president were launched.

Trump did not explain how Ukraine can check the American IS company. Earlier, a certain informant sent a complaint to congressmen in which he claimed that Trump mentioned the role of CrowdStrike in investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

Then the US Democratic National Committee signed a contract with CrowdStrike, under the terms of which the company was supposed to investigate how hackers hacked the organization's security system and handed over to Wikileaks stolen emails to the organization, as well as data on the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

Even  before the  US presidential election , CrowdStrike was a contractor for the Democrats  - providing the party's Internet security. After serious leaks in the CrowdStrike, they began to talk  about a certain "Russian trace." The company  said that   the Russian authorities were allegedly behind the hack. According  to experts, these  hackers  are "the source of the greatest Internet threat  ever discovered."

Then the hacker Guccifer 2.0, who took  responsibility  for hacking the servers of the Democratic National Committee, called such a characteristic a compliment.  On his blog, Guccifer 2.0  wrote:

I am very pleased that  the company  appreciated my  work so highly. But    it was actually simpler than simple.

 In this regard, many expressed the opinion that  the company CrowdStrike tried to justify its failure by the intervention of powerful forces.

In a conversation with Zelensky, Trump said that, according to him, the server of the National Democratic Committee, with which CrowdStrike worked during the investigation, ended up in Ukraine. It is assumed that Trump wanted to ask Zelensky to find them and transfer them to the American authorities.

In that situation, a lot of things happened. I think you surround yourself with the same people. I would like you or your people to call the US Attorney General, and you find out the smallest details, "Trump said.

Trump, in a conversation with Zelensky, which led to a political scandal in the United States, not only asked to check the actions of his possible rival in the elections, but also mentioned the company CrowdStrike, known for investigations into Russian hackers

George Kurtz at Tech Live said that the conspiracy theory in which Ukraine allegedly was behind the hacking of computer systems of the US Democratic National Committee was "refuted" by both the company and American intelligence. The report CrowdStrike concluded that Russian hackers were behind the cyber attack.

You know, I'm not a politician. I am a security guard, and we are just focused on the security of our customers, "Kurtz said, adding that the question why Trump mentioned CrowdStrike should be forwarded to the president himself.[1]

Exit to the exchange: shares growth by 97%, capitalization - $11.41 billion

June 12, 2019 CrowdStrike entered the exchange. Trading in shares was open from $63.5, which is 97% more than the IPO price ($67). By the close of Nasdaq, the value of securities amounted to $58, and market capitalization - $11.41 billion. For comparison, in June 2018, investors valued the company at $3 billion when they invested $200 million in it.

According to Bloomberg, CrowdStrike raised $612 million, which made this IPO in the information security market the fourth largest of all time. Only Avast, Gemalto and Sophos earned more on the listing.

IB company CrowdStrike entered the exchange and almost caught up with Symantec in value

CrowdStrike almost caught up with Symantec, which entered the exchange in 1989 and then raised $16.5 million. By June 12, 2019, Symantec's market capitalization was measured at $11.86 billion.

Thanks to a successful IPO, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz became a billionaire. He owns only about 10% of the company - although part of his shares are pledged for the loan, according to documents provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to Forbes magazine, after deducting pledged shares, the fortune of 48-year-old Kurtz is a little more than $1 billion.

After the successful listing of Crowdstrike, Kurtz said that the company's technologies against the  background of other security solutions stand out using cloud technologies.

There was no Salesforce in the security sector.   And we think that we chose the right approach  and created an architecture worthy of becoming such a fourth pillar of cloud computing, "he said.[2]

2017

For 2017, it monitors cyber threats in more than 170 countries. One of the main products of the CrowdStrike at this time is the Falcon platform, which provides cloud-based information protection. According to the company, its customers are three of the ten largest global companies in terms of revenue, five of the ten leading financial institutions in the world, as well as three of the ten largest energy companies.

Since 2011, CrowdStrike has attracted more than $150 million in investments. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. The general director is George Kurtz, the chief engineer is Dmitry Alperovich.

2015: Revenue - $27.3 million

Revenue for 2015 - $27.3 million.

2014: CrowdStrike accused Russia of large-scale espionage

In early 2014, CrowdStrike accused Russia of large-scale espionage in Western and Asian companies. CrowdStrike said it had evidence of Russian government-sponsored espionage in U.S., European and Asian energy and medical companies and government agencies. The goal of Russia is to strengthen economic positions in the main industries, said CrowdStrike Technical Director Dmitry Alperovich^[3].

A group of Russian hackers, whose activities CrowdStrike monitored for two years - in 2012-2013, is allegedly called Energetic Bear. According to the company, hackers implemented the introduction of malware through popular document readers, such as Adobe Reader. The company believed that the group's activities were carried out in the interests of some Russian structures, possibly with the support of Russian government organizations, as indicated by technical indicators, as well as analysis of espionage objects and stolen data. So, according to CrowdStrike, all the targets of Energetic Bear group attacks were outside the Russian Federation: most of them (about 25%) in the United States, more than 25% in the EU countries, about 12% in Japan, etc., in only 23 countries.

The CrowdStrike annual cyber threat report also mentions hackers from China and Iran and the Syrian Electronic Army. Earlier, CrowdStrike accused the Chinese authorities of espionage in 2005, but China actively rejected the accusations.

Notes