The Next Chapter of Behavioral Threat Assessment for Ontic and SIGMA
Our mission at Ontic is to keep people safe and make organizations stronger. We wake up every day thinking about new ways to help security teams be more efficient and effective in doing their important work. A little over two years ago, we acquired SIGMA Threat Management Associates with the goal of bringing more process and methodology rigor to how threat assessments are done in corporate settings.
SIGMA is comprised of a group of leading experts in behavioral threat assessment and threat management. They provide threat assessment and violence prevention services to businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, military units, law enforcement, and security professionals. Dr. Marisa Randazzo, PhD, and CEO and Co-Founder of SIGMA, started the company in 2010 after spending a decade with the U.S. Secret Service as their chief research psychologist. She worked closely with law enforcement to train them on how to investigate threats and, most importantly, how to intervene when someone was planning violence — stopping that violence before harm could occur.
Over the last two years, we have worked to raise the profile of Threat Assessment and Management (TAM) methodologies, like the work SIGMA does, within the corporate world. The response has been strong. Many of our clients today use the TAM module we have built directly in the Ontic Platform to support programmatic assessments. This March, we had over 100 corporate clients attend our TAM training on-site at Summit, our annual client conference. More and more businesses are recognizing the need for TAM as a key part of their workplace violence and insider risk programs. We are committed to growing awareness and adoption of TAM best practices within the corporate market.
We also recognize that the broader adoption of TAM methodologies benefits many types of organizations. Since its inception, SIGMA has had a strong focus on training and support for schools – K-12 and secondary education. The leading software vendor for this education market is a company called Raptor Technologies. Today, Raptor Technologies announced that they will be acquiring SIGMA Threat Management Associates from Ontic. Raptor’s plan to expand the awareness and adoption of SIGMA methodologies across the education sector is impressive. You can read a bit more about this in today’s press release. We congratulate Marisa and the SIGMA team on this next exciting chapter.
What does this mean for Ontic corporate clients present and future? Simply put, full speed ahead. We are committed to bringing TAM methodologies and software to corporate security teams. Ontic will continue to innovate around our TAM software module that streamlines and standardizes how teams conduct assessments. Our TAM services team will continue to provide the strategic advice our corporate clients need and value. We will continue to work closely with our clients to identify new ways of scaling TAM skills within their organizations.
At a broader market level, we look forward to working with the Raptor and SIGMA teams to champion improved threat assessment and management. We all share a higher purpose – keeping people safe. Today’s news represents a step forward for the industry. More organizations using TAM means more safety for businesses, schools, organizations, and communities.
