EY Canada acquires digital identity specialist IDMSense

EY Canada last month acquired IDMSense, a Mississauga, Ontario-based boutique cybersecurity consulting firm.

Founded in 2017, IDMSense supports clients in the areas of cloud-based identity and access management (IAM), secrets management, and privileged access management (PAM). IAM refers to technologies that ensure the right people in the enterprise have access to the appropriate digital resources, while PAM is concerned with securely managing the accounts of privileged users with elevated permissions – which are high-value targets for cybercrime.

IDMSense works with clients in a range of industries across North America, providing secure digital identity solutions and integration support.

The IDMSense acquisition will strengthen EY Canada’s cybersecurity practice. The Mississauga firm will join EY Global's approximately 6,000 cybersecurity professionals in 150 countries.

"Organizations are introducing more users, more data and, as a result, more cybersecurity risk to their businesses every day as digital acceleration advances," says Linda Williams, EY Canada’s managing partner for consulting. "Digital Identity solutions are foundational to any information security program, allowing organizations to manage and control access to data. We're excited to welcome top talent into EY to help protect what matters most to our clients."

An effective IAM/PAM strategy can help companies mitigate the increased threat of cyberattacks since the pandemic pushed many businesses to remote work. According to a recent EY survey, 66% of Canadian businesses are experiencing more attack attempts.

"We're proud of the advanced service capability that we've built and now, together with local and global EY networks of skilled cybersecurity practitioners, we look forward to bringing entirely new possibilities to clients," Omer Arshed, IDMSense managing director, said.

The acquisition builds on EY Canada’s purchase of cybersecurity firm ElevatedPrompt Solutions in September 2019. The Vancouver-based firm specialized in managed detection and response.

EY earlier this year launched a data breach crisis response offering in collaboration with Norton Rose Fulbright and Provident Communications.