Identity Protection Firm Sontiq Acquires Breach Clarity

Framingham, Mass.-based identity protection firm Sontiq has acquired fraud prevention and detection technology company Breach Clarity, the two organizations announced on March 9. With the acquisition, Sontiq’s products – IdentityForce, Cyberscout and EZShield – will all have the proprietary capability for the solution BreachIQ, they said.

The formal acquisition announcement came after Sontiq and Breach Clarity revealed in November they had teamed up, infusing Breach Clarity’s product, which includes an algorithm-based and hyper-personalized Breach Clarity Score, into Sontiq’s cloud-based Intelligent Identity Security solutions EZShield and IdentityForce.

Breach Clarity Co-founder Jim Van Dyke will join Sontiq as SVP, digital financial wellness, and Breach Clarity Co-founder Al Pascual will join Sontiq as SVP, data breach solutions. The rest of the Breach Clarity team will join Sontiq as well as a result of the acquisition.

BreachIQ, which is powered by a patented, AI-driven algorithm, works by analyzing more than 1,300 data points to curate a proprietary breach score for users based on the severity and risks of a publicly reported data breach, the company said. It combines the potential impact from multiple breaches involving an individual’s personal information, and calculates the steps the individual has taken to mitigate additional breach exposure to produce their personalized risk score.

“Consumers’ sensitive personal information is exposed daily, and it is increasingly difficult for them to monitor who has their data and where it’s being leaked,” Van Dyke said. “With the integration of our artificial intelligence algorithm and risk expertise, Sontiq will provide clarity to millions of consumers around their individualized risk profile and the protective actions and steps likely to have the greatest impact. In combination with personalized advice and recovery with Sontiq’s white-glove resolution experts, consumers have never been in better hands. We are excited to work with Sontiq’s team to deliver additional, innovative solutions in the coming months.”

Sontiq President/CEO Brian Longe added, “It is becoming clear that consumers and the organizations that serve them desperately need clearer, more detailed information about the impact of data breaches to better safeguard their identities. Consider our physical health; we wouldn’t accept generic health advice from a doctor. The same expectation for personalized protection must go for our digital health. BreachIQ provides the kind of analysis individuals aren’t getting anywhere else, and have gone without for too long.”

This isn’t the first acquisition of 2021 for Sontiq. Earlier this year, it acquired Cyberscout, a provider of cyber products and services to the insurance market.

Sontiq noted that BreachIQ is on the market today for select Sontiq clients, with a wider rollout expected to occur in the second quarter. As the solutions become available to millions of Sontiq users, its universe of data and trend information will be broadened and yield a richer data set with more robust insights, it said.