Austin-Based HID Global Buys Utah Company

AUSTIN, TX — HID Global, an Austin-based manufacturer of secure identity products, announced its acquisition of Salt Lake City-based HydrantID, a network and IoT security management and automation services company.

A worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions, HID Global confirmed in a press release it bought HydrantID, a provider of management and automation services to secure enterprise organizations’ data, IT systems, networks, and Internet of Things (IoT). Specializing in public key infrastructure (PKI) as a service, HydrantID has issued more than three million PKI credentials and secured in excess of 125,000 domains — a mix HID Global categorized as "a perfect complement to HID’s IdenTrust business, which is the world’s leading digital certification authority."

HydrantID provides PKI-as-a-service solutions that address the critical security needs of networks and IoT system for enterprise, government, financial and other information security-conscious customers, officials described. "The majority of these IoT systems are expected to be online by the year 2020 and use IP-based protocols requiring PKI-based authentication to secure the identities of machines on a network and IoT data," HID Global officials added.

Another motivation for the purchase was a trend of increased vulnerability across the web landscape: "In addition, increased security and bot attacks against enterprise networks and remote devices, as well as regulatory changes and compliance issues, are creating new risks for small, medium and large enterprise organizations. PKI-based authentication security helps reduce the risks significantly," officials said in a press advisory.

HID Global President and CEO Stefan Widing expounded: “We are evolving HID’s Identity and Access Management business to provide one-stop solutions for PKI services across the enterprise,” said “With the acquisition of HydrantID, we are now able to offer enterprise customers a broader range of options, plus the flexibility and scalability of PKI-as-a-service to improve information security.”

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, HydrantID offers industry-leading and proven certificate authority services that secure IoT systems, enterprise networks, publicly trusted SSL website certificates and client certificates for ecommerce. Utilizing hybrid-cloud trust architecture delivered from a state-of-the-art data center and scalable cloud platform, HydrantID’s solution helps its customers reduce operating complexities while extending the use of certificate-based authentication and encryption across their organization.

Officials explained that a key benefit of HydrantID is its ability to automate certificate lifecycle events and distribution using industry-standard protocols and “out-of-the-box” integration with common enterprise network software and platforms. The combination of HydrantID and HID IdenTrust certificate authority services will strengthen HID’s Identity and Access Management solution portfolio to solve customer’s digital security challenges. The joint solution portfolio will allow customers to deploy scalable certificate-based authentication and encryption for protection of complex enterprise data and IoT devices.

HydrantID will join HID IdenTrust, under HID’s Identity and Access Management business led by Brad Jarvis, Vice President and Managing Director.

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The acquisition comes at a time when global demand for PKI solutions is expected to increase in the years to come, MSSP Alert noted in its report. According to the site, the global PKI solutions market is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 21.1 percent between 2018 and 2023, Market Research Future reported. This market could be worth nearly $2 billion by 2023, according to the report.

News of the acquisition comes just over a week since HID Global announced its IdenTrust™ digital certificates are now certified members of the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) program, the world’s largest trust service for electronic documents. AATL certification allows millions of users to create digital signatures that are automatically identified as being trusted whenever the document is signed with Adobe® Acrobat® DC, Acrobat Reader® DC or Adobe Sign.

“We are very pleased to be part of Adobe’s trust initiative for its ubiquitous Adobe Document Cloud solutions that are used to process more than six billion electronic and digital signature transactions each year,” Jarvis said at the time. “When authors sign their Adobe documents with IdenTrust certificates, they can now provide recipients who open those documents using Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader the confidence that the signatures can be trusted without requiring any specialized software or custom configuration.”

HID Global has its corporate offices at 611 Center Ridge Dr.

About HydrantID

HydrantID provides encryption and advanced authentication services to help companies secure data and systems, and e-commerce transactions. HydrantID focuses on helping companies achieve industry best practices related to authentication and encryption, while reducing operating complexity and costs. HydrantID’s cloud-based, SaaS platform allows organizations to obtain advanced authentication and encryption services on-demand, in real time. An industry-leading fixed-price subscription model eliminates financial and operational barriers that start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike face in creating strong security practices.

About HID Global

"HID Global powers the trusted identities of the world’s people, places and things," officials wrote in describing their offerings. "We make it possible for people to transact safely, work productively and travel freely. Our trusted identity solutions give people convenient access to physical and digital places and connect things that can be identified, verified and tracked digitally. Millions of people around the world use HID products and services to navigate their everyday lives, and over 2 billion things are connected through HID technology. We work with governments, educational institutions, hospitals, financial institutions, industrial businesses and some of the most innovative companies on the planet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, HID Global has over 3,000 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries. HID Global® is an ASSA ABLOY Group brand."

For more information, visit www.hidglobal.com.