Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Niara, a provider of User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) software, for an undisclosed sum.

Sunnyvale, California-based Niara offers a security that platform blends diverse data sources, analytics and forensics to help discover compromised users, provide insight into malicious insiders, enable threat hunting efforts, and efficiently prioritize alerts for investigation.

Niara has raised roughly $30 million in funding, including a $20 million Series B round in April 2015. The company has been operating out of stealth mode for less than two years.

This past summer Niara launched a new UEBA tool designed to detect existing and unknown ransomware.

Gartner defines the UEBA as follows:  "User and Entity Behavior Analytics offers profiling and anomaly detection based on a range of analytics approaches, usually using a combination of basic analytics methods and advanced analytics… Examples of these activities include unusual access to systems and data by trusted insiders or third parties, and breaches by external attackers evading preventative security controls."

According to HPE, Niara will operate within HPE’s Aruba unit to enhance the company's ClearPass network security portfolio. 

“Adding Niara to the HPE Aruba ClearPass portfolio advances HPE's Intelligent Edge strategy for transforming workplace and operational experiences within the fast-growing wired and wireless network infrastructure market for traditional and IoT devices," HPE explained. 

After a security incident is discovered by Niara’s platform, HPE says, a ClearPass network access policy can be triggered to automatically isolate or disconnect a user or device from the network to prevent access to sensitive data.

"Integrating Niara's advanced behavioral analytics with ClearPass is a natural extension that will now deliver network-wide, real time visibility and predictive assessment of potential risks inside the enterprise, said Sriram Ramachandran, CEO and co-founder of Niara. 

Earlier this week, Exabeam launched a new security intelligence platform that leverages UEBA to challenge traditional SIEM solutions. Another player in the UEBA space is E8 Security, which raised $12 million in a Series B funding round led by Strategic Cyber Ventures in October 2016.

Related: Niara Brings UEBA to Ransomware Detection

For more than 10 years, Mike Lennon has been closely monitoring and analyzing trends in the enterprise IT security space and the threat landscape. In his role at SecurityWeek he oversees the editorial direction of the publication and manages several leading security conferences.

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