SaaS-focused Obsidian Security expands into Australia

Obsidian Security, has announced its expansion in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, including Australia.

The company was founded in 2017 by former Telstra chief information security officer Glenn Chisholm and computer scientist Matt Wolff in Newport Beach, California.

It has received Series A and B funding, including Series C capital in 2022 to the tune of US$90 million.

"Australian businesses are often at the forefront of cyber security due to their strong focus on protecting users and data," " chief product officer Chishold said.

"With more business-critical information migrating to SaaS every day, these applications have become the new frontline for cyber threats, he added.

"However, the implicit trust many organisations have in their SaaS providers to configure the applications for them often leaves sensitive data unknowingly exposed," Chisholm said.

"Unawareness of the shared responsibility model can leave SaaS applications unsecured, posing a huge risk to businesses', as well as individuals', data," he said.

As part of the expansion, Obsidian has appointed Tom Tokic as regional executive APJ and Andrew Latham as senior sales engineer APJ, based in Canberra and Sydney respectively.

Tokic and Latham, who joined Obsidian with over 20 years of cyber security experience most recently from Crowdstrike, have been actively investing in the Australian market.

They have launched a local partner program with foundation partners CyberCX, Baidam, and The Missing Link.

Following rapid business growth in Australia and New Zealand, the local team is expanding, with Obsidian currently recruiting an account executive and a partner account manager.

Obsidian's move aims to enhance support for many of the regions enterprises already relying on the company to protect their critical cloud-based applications.

The company said SaaS attacks such as this year's breach at Ticketek have increased in frequency.

Furthermore, regulations like the United States Security Of Critical Infrastructure Act impose stricter mandates for securing critical IT systems, making it more urgent for enterprises to address this security blind spot.

The company shields SaaS applications from identity threats, third- and fourth-party integrations and data movement risks, and automates SaaS security posture management and compliance.