NINJIO has acquired SafeStack, a developer security and application security training platform, expanding its human risk management offering beyond employee awareness programs and phishing simulations. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
SafeStack currently powers NINJIO Secure Code, NINJIO’s training solution for secure software development. The acquisition brings SafeStack’s technology, course library and application security expertise directly into the NINJIO platform.
The combined offering will enable organizations to provide cybersecurity awareness training to their broader workforce while also teaching developers, security professionals and engineering teams how to identify and prevent vulnerabilities during the software development process.
NINJIO said the acquisition reflects the growing need for companies to address human-related cybersecurity risks across the entire organization rather than focusing only on employees who receive phishing emails or interact with sensitive information.
Software developers also play a significant role in an organization’s security posture because mistakes made during design, coding, testing or deployment can introduce vulnerabilities that attackers may exploit.
By integrating SafeStack’s secure coding education, NINJIO intends to help customers reduce risk both through safer employee behavior and more secure software development practices.
The transaction expands NINJIO’s platform deeper into the software development lifecycle. Customers will be able to combine workforce security awareness, simulated phishing, personalized coaching and developer education within a more unified human risk management strategy.
SafeStack provides role-based training for software developers, security teams, application security professionals and engineering organizations. Its courses are designed to make secure development practices practical and relevant to each participant’s responsibilities.
Instead of treating application security as a separate compliance exercise, SafeStack aims to integrate security knowledge into the daily workflows used by development teams.
The platform helps organizations train developers to recognize common security weaknesses, understand how vulnerabilities are introduced and apply safer coding practices before software reaches production.
This approach can reduce the cost and complexity associated with identifying security flaws later in the development cycle. Vulnerabilities discovered after a product has launched may require emergency patches, customer notifications, incident-response work and regulatory reviews.
Addressing security issues earlier can help development teams avoid rework while improving the reliability of the applications and services they build.
The acquisition builds on an established partnership between the companies. Because SafeStack already provides the underlying technology for NINJIO Secure Code, NINJIO expects the integration to be more direct than a combination involving two previously unrelated products.
NINJIO said existing products will continue to be supported while the companies complete the broader integration of their platforms and capabilities.
Customers will gain access to a more connected system for delivering employee awareness training, developer education and application security guidance.
Cybersecurity teams may also benefit from consolidated reporting and program management. Instead of operating separate training programs for general employees and technical teams, organizations can develop a broader view of how human behavior affects security across departments.
NINJIO’s existing platform focuses on reducing cybersecurity risk through personalized coaching, security awareness content, adaptive testing and simulated phishing exercises.
The company uses behavioral science to help employees recognize social engineering techniques and improve their responses to suspicious messages or requests.
Its technology creates what NINJIO calls an Emotional Susceptibility Profile for each user. The profile is designed to identify the social engineering approaches to which an individual may be particularly vulnerable.
NINJIO can then provide more personalized coaching and testing based on those risks rather than delivering the same training to every employee.
The addition of SafeStack extends that personalization and role-based approach into software development and application security.
Developers face a different category of cyber risk than employees targeted by phishing attacks. They may need to understand secure authentication, access controls, data handling, software dependencies and the ways attackers exploit flaws in applications.
Security teams and application security professionals may require additional instruction on reviewing code, establishing development standards, and embedding security checks into software delivery pipelines.
SafeStack’s training is designed to address these different responsibilities while helping technical and security teams work together more effectively.
The acquisition comes as organizations increasingly rely on software developed internally and through third-party components. Modern applications may incorporate open-source libraries, cloud services, APIs and AI-generated code, creating a larger and more complex potential attack surface.
Development teams are also under pressure to release software quickly. Without appropriate training and processes, faster development cycles can increase the likelihood that security problems will reach production.
Generative AI coding tools may further accelerate software creation while introducing new questions about code quality, verification and accountability.
NINJIO believes organizations need to combine technology controls with continuous education for the people designing, building and maintaining software.
The company’s expanded platform will help customers manage human cyber risk across both non-technical employees and the teams responsible for creating critical applications and infrastructure.
SafeStack was founded by CEO Laura Bell Main, who developed the company around the goal of helping developers and security teams collaborate to build safer software.
The company serves customers internationally, including enterprise organizations seeking to strengthen application security and meet regulatory or compliance requirements.
SafeStack’s approach distinguishes between security and broader software safety. Security focuses on protecting systems from known threats, while safety also involves preparing applications and organizations for risks that may not yet be fully understood.
The company embeds application security education into development workflows so that secure practices become a routine part of building software rather than an additional task performed at the end of a project.
NINJIO expects SafeStack’s expertise to support the continued expansion of NINJIO Secure Code and the development of additional capabilities for technical teams.
The acquisition will also provide SafeStack with access to NINJIO’s broader customer base, distribution capabilities and human risk management platform.
Together, the companies aim to offer organizations a more complete approach to reducing cybersecurity exposure across workforce behavior, software development and application security.
KEY QUOTES:
“SafeStack has already been an important part of the NINJIO story as the engine behind NINJIO Secure Code. This acquisition allows us to go deeper and move faster. Together, we can offer organizations a more complete solution: security awareness for the workforce and secure code training for the teams building the technology they rely on every day.”
Gary Noke, CEO of NINJIO
“SafeStack was built to help developers and security teams work together to create safer software. Through our partnership with NINJIO, we saw firsthand how powerful it could be to combine developer security training with broader human risk management. Joining NINJIO gives us the opportunity to bring that vision to more organizations globally and help make secure development a natural part of how teams build.”
Laura Bell Main, Founder and CEO of SafeStack
