RSA Security

Overview

RSA Security is the American cybersecurity company behind SecurID authentication tokens — not the UK insurer RSA, and not any other entity that happens to share the “RSA” name. This profile covers only the cybersecurity company. Founded in 1982 as RSA Data Security to commercialize the RSA public-key cryptosystem of Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (phys.org), the company secured its foundational technology with US Patent 4,405,829, granted in 1983 (IPWatchdog). Its defining crisis came in 2011, when attackers stole data related to its SecurID tokens in a March breach — a compromise that later cascaded into a linked hack of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and to which RSA responded by offering to replace customers’ tokens (Al Jazeera). And its corporate history has a remarkable symmetry: RSA was bought for about $2.1 billion in 2006, and sold again for $2.075 billion fourteen years later (TechTarget).

The cryptographers’ company

RSA Data Security was founded in 1982 to commercialize the RSA public-key cryptosystem — the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman algorithm (phys.org). The company wrapped its core intellectual property in US Patent 4,405,829, which covered the RSA cryptosystem and was granted in 1983 (IPWatchdog). That technology underpinned the SecurID business — the hardware and software authentication tokens that became the company’s signature product, the data behind which attackers would later target (Al Jazeera).

The SecurID breach

In March 2011, RSA suffered a breach in which attackers stole data related to its SecurID tokens (Al Jazeera). The compromise became one of the most consequential corporate hacks of the era when a subsequent hack of Lockheed Martin in May 2011 was linked to the RSA breach (Al Jazeera). RSA responded by offering to replace customers’ tokens (Al Jazeera). The episode was unusual and damaging: the theft was not of customer records but of data underlying the company’s core authentication product — the very thing RSA sold as trust.

Sold twice for the same price

EMC acquired RSA in 2006 for about $2.1 billion (TechTarget). Fourteen years later, Dell sold RSA Security to a private-equity consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG) for $2.075 billion, a deal announced in February 2020 (TechTarget). The consortium also included the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and AlpInvest Partners, and The Wall Street Journal first reported the sale (TechTarget). Clearlake Capital later joined STG as another private-equity investor in the company (MSSP Alert). The transaction closed on September 1, 2020, according to a legal deal listing by Torys — a tier-3 source used here for corroboration only (Torys).

The near-identical price tags — roughly $2.1 billion in, $2.075 billion out, fourteen years apart — make RSA one of the rare technology companies to change hands at effectively the same valuation across two private-equity-era deals.

What this profile does not claim

• This is RSA Security, the cybersecurity company behind SecurID — not the UK insurer RSA, nor any other entity named RSA. The disambiguation is stated explicitly because the name collision is a real source of confusion.
• It does not state current product details or revenue figures beyond those cited here.
• The September 1, 2020 closing date rests on a tier-3 legal-deal listing (Torys) used for corroboration only.
• It does not explain how ownership passed from EMC to Dell between the 2006 acquisition and the 2020 sale — only the two verified transactions are stated.