Absolute Software Corp. - Experts & Thought Leaders

Absolute Security, a pioneer in Autonomous Cyber Resilience, has acquired Phoenix Technologies’ FirmGuard, a UEFI BIOS firmware security, management, and networking service. FirmGuard extends Absolute Persistence®, the patented firmware-embedded technology behind the Autonomous Cyber Resilience Platform. This acquisition adds deeper visibility, integrity verification, posture management, continuous patching, and compliance enforcement for endpoints, AI workstations, and autonomous agents. Together, they will provide the firmware foundation AI-driven enterprises need to defend against threats, reduce risk, prevent agents from going rogue, and minimise disruption. AI-driven enterprises “AI-driven threats and fragility are disrupting enterprises from the cloud to the endpoint. Full resilience requires visibility, control, security, and recovery capabilities in the device hardware — a unique and exclusive location only Absolute occupies,” said Christy Wyatt, President & CEO, Absolute Security. “For more than 30 years, we have led the market in helping customers withstand cyberattacks and IT failures and recover from operational breakdowns. Our strengthened platform will help security and risk leaders confidently accelerate and protect AI initiatives against threats, complexity, and downtime.” Advanced AI workstations Research shows that firmware and hardware attacks are rising, and 80 percent of IT and security decision makers say AI will accelerate exploitation2. Yet 60 percent delay firmware updates, and more than half report firmware FOMU (Fear of Making Updates)3. Because firmware boots before the OS, it is essential for management and recovery, and a prime target for attackers, who can use it to evade security tools and persist undetected. Firmware security is now a strategic imperative for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). Enterprise CISOs can quickly activate Absolute across endpoint fleets and advanced AI workstations. Through exclusive partnerships with top OEMs Dell, HP, and Lenovo, Absolute is embedded in the firmware of 600 million endpoint devices. This gives customers an unbreakable connection to the firmware to manage and secure devices and applications and restore them to an operational state at boot, even when the OS is corrupted or crashing. Absolute’s AI focus has also led to trusted collaborations with NVIDIA and HP, extending these capabilities to advanced AI workstations and autonomous agents. Data-wipe options Absolute will integrate its deep firmware and UEFI capabilities to deliver a consolidated, best-in-class solution for integrity, security, resilience, and full device control, from the moment devices power on. In the first phase, customers can expect: broader below-the-OS management, continuous firmware integrity and patching, expanded data-wipe options, one firmware-to-cloud console. “We built FirmGuard to make firmware protection simple and secure. Absolute has proven its firmware-embedded platform can do this at enterprise scale,” said Gerard Moore, President & CEO, FirmGuard. “With FirmGuard integrated into Absolute, customers can remain confident their AI devices will stay secure, compliant, and running, so when something goes wrong, downtime will not become a business loss.” Boston Meridian Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to FirmGuard through the completion of the acquisition.

Downtime costs reach $19 million per hour on average when endpoint devices become inoperable, according to Absolute Security’s latest research. This level of loss is especially alarming when considering that 88% reported that autonomous recovery capabilities would enable a measurable reduction in the cost of downtime incidents, while only 4% described their organisations as “broadly autonomous.” Absolute Security, an Autonomous Cyber Resilience pioneer, publishes the third volume in its State of Enterprise Cyber Resilience research series: Autonomous Cyber Resilience in the Era of AI. The report features results from a survey conducted by Censuswide that includes 1,000 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) based in the United States (500) and the United Kingdom (500). Leveraging AI and agentic tools “Downtime is the real cost of a breach, it often exceeds every other related cost and is capable of permanently damaging a business,” said Christy Wyatt, President & CEO, Absolute Security. “With threat actors now leveraging AI and agentic tools to launch attacks and spot vulnerabilities at rates previously unimaginable, security and risk leaders are faced with either continuing to fall victim to costly disruptions or deploying solutions that operate with the same speed and efficiency as those being used against them.” Revealed in the report are additional findings that highlight the state of autonomous security and recovery solutions in use and the trust challenges and barriers causing organisations to lag cybercriminals. This research suggests that closing that gap will require cyber resilience capable of detecting, responding to, and recovering from disruptions at the same speed as the attacks themselves. Among several top takeaways:  AI-accelerated vulnerability exploitation Forty-one percent of organisations experienced AI-accelerated vulnerability exploitation in the past 12 months, with 58% of leaders in agreement that AI-assisted attackers are weaponising vulnerabilities faster than patching processes can address them. For production-system autonomy, trust ranks as the top-cited barrier (38%), ahead of integration complexity (33%) and budget (18%). When asked whether Anthropic Mythos and similar tools presented too much risk for their organisations to consider using, 43% agreed, while 32% disagreed and 25% had no opinion. Further underscoring these concerns, 41% agreed the tools should be blocked within their organisations until more is known about how they work, while 30% disagreed and 29% had no opinion. Production-system autonomy "Trust in autonomous solutions remains among the top barriers standing between enterprises and the recovery speed they need to minimise downtime. This research will help security leaders see the risk they're up against and give them the confidence needed to cross the bridge to autonomous recovery," continued Wyatt. To discover more about how Absolute Security stops downtime, meet the Cyber Resilience experts at Black Hat 2026, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, booth 5526.

Absolute Security, an enterprise cyber resilience pioneer, launches on the Pax8 Marketplace, the global AI and cloud marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to deliver endpoint cyber resilience solutions. This collaboration with Pax8 enables managed service providers (MSPs) to seamlessly access, deploy, and manage Absolute Security cyber resilience solutions directly within the Pax8 ecosystem. This enables MSPs to provide customers with AI-powered endpoint device security, compliance, and operational resilience. Integrity of critical applications “Downtime has emerged as a new and costly threat that our own research shows is driving hundreds of billions in losses annually. MSPs are under increasing pressure to now deliver security, compliance, and true operational resilience for their customers,” said Cherlyn Chin, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Absolute Security. “By working with Pax8, we’re making it easier for partners to embed resilience directly into their service offerings, ensuring critical security tools remain intact, devices stay recoverable, and downtime can be stopped before it leads to unmanageable losses.” The relationship with Pax8 makes it easy for partners to grow their service offerings and businesses by delivering self-healing endpoint security applications, visibility, control, and remote, single-click recovery capabilities. With Absolute Security’s ability to maintain the integrity of critical applications, including RMM, EDR, VPN, and identity tools, MSPs can minimize downtime and reduce costly service disruptions for their customers. Firmware-embedded approach “As Pax8 aims to empower MSPs with innovative solutions that deliver value to SMBs, we’re excited to welcome Absolute Security to the Pax8 Marketplace,” said Oguo Atuanya, CVP of Vendor Experience for Pax8. “Absolute Security brings a unique, firmware-embedded approach to endpoint resilience that complements the modern MSP stack. By bringing their value proposition to our Marketplace, we’re enabling our partners to strengthen their security offerings, reduce operational risk, and confidently support their customers in an increasingly complex threat landscape.” The solution is available to Pax8 partners globally, providing streamlined procurement, simplified billing, and faster time to value.