NEW YORK — Uptime Institute completed its acquisition of LEET Security S.L. LEET Security provides an independent cybersecurity risk evaluation methodology and rating system that has been designed to specifically identify, characterize, and rate cybersecurity risk within any services utilizing digital infrastructure for any aspect of service delivery.

All organizations and their ICT service partners are under increasing pressure to secure their digital infrastructure in response to the complex and ever-evolving cyber risk threat landscape. The LEET Cyber Security rating system directly addresses the issue by giving clients the ability to easily understand the nature and severity of these risks. The clients can then take the appropriate steps to mitigate these risks and improve their organization’s security posture on a continuous basis therefore hardening their organization against cyber threats. This includes identifying systemic weaknesses and specific exposures and then building compensating security controls across both the internal and external “attack surface” that may exist in any digital services they use, whether this service is provisioned in-house or delivered via a third-party service provider.

LEET’s Cyber Security service offers a rigorous and transparent approach built on a comprehensive framework of controls derived from the most widely, globally adopted cyber standards and frameworks including National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), International Standards Organization (ISO-27001), and Esquema Nacional de Seguridad/National Security Framework (ENS) among others. LEET’s proven and constantly evolving rating system provides customers and internal users confidence that the digital services that they rely upon are assessed and monitored on a continuous basis.

“LEET Security has built a unique and differentiated solution that meets a critical need that all organizations have — the ability to thoroughly detect, investigate, and mitigate cyber security threats,” said Martin McCarthy, chief executive officer, Uptime Institute. “Traditional risk management methodologies take an outside-in approach or inside-out approach, which doesn’t always account for how ‘bad actors’ might exploit potential attack surfaces. LEET Security delivers both perspectives across the entire landscape of an organization’s external and internal cybersecurity vulnerabilities to provide deep visibility and insight into the exposed threat surfaces and allows that organization to improve their cybersecurity posture. The addition of LEET’s cyber ratings service offering to Uptime Institute’s portfolio of services will provide unparalleled value to customers by building upon the physical and operational security elements already covered by Uptime in our various assessments and certifications.” 

“We are excited to be able to join Uptime Institute, the undisputed global digital infrastructure authority,” said Antonio Ramos, chief executive officer and founder LEET Security. “Over the past decade, LEET Security S.L. has developed a unique and comprehensive cybersecurity rating system.  We will now have many more opportunities for growth through geographic expansion and development of new service offerings as part of Uptime. We look forward to this next phase of globalization of our firm. I want to personally thank all our clients, staff, and investors who have supported us over this journey since 2010, in our delivery of unique value, and in bringing ongoing innovation to the critical area of cybersecurity.” 

"The LEET Security acquisition builds on Uptime’s leadership position in the worldwide digital infrastructure market,” said Bob Haswell, founding partner, Dominus Capital. “LEET enhances the core value delivered by Uptime’s existing offerings by incorporating a differentiated cybersecurity service in response to customer and market demands. We are excited about the scale of opportunities ahead for both companies," 

LEET Security represents Uptime’s second M&A transaction completed this month. It follows two weeks after Uptime’s acquisition of CNet Training LTD. Uptime continues to identify and assess potential add-on acquisitions to broaden its service portfolio and to more completely execute on its mission to help all data center owners, operators, and tenants provide and access the resilient, available, sustainable, and secure digital infrastructure required for mission critical business applications and services.