Quirky ICT security company Fox-IT seems to be disappearing, director has already announced his departure

After a dramatic year in which NCC Group saw more than half of its stock market value lost, the British owner has decided, according to insiders, to split up the Dutch Fox-IT. Fox Crypto, the business unit that deals with the protection of state secrets, will be sold. The same probably applies to DetAct, which banks can use to detect financial fraud. The rest of the Dutch company will be integrated into NCC Group, sources say against it de Volkskrant. The Dutch management will probably disappear in the long term, just like the name of the company.

The current director of Fox-IT, Inge Bryan, announced her departure at a staff meeting on Thursday. She will stay on until October to find a new owner for Fox Crypto. Bryan could not be reached for comment. Fox-IT’s website, announcing Bryan’s departure, states that NCC will transform into “one global company.”

Struggle for survival

The disappearance of Fox-IT in its current form is the result of years of struggle for survival. The idiosyncratic Fox-IT, founded in the late 1990s by Ronald Prins and Menno van der Marel, has grown over the past twenty years into a leading cybersecurity company, with customers all over the world. Mainly event responseoffering support after a hack, was an asset of the company.

Fox-IT investigated high-profile hacks, such as the British-American infiltration of Proximus in Belgium, the Russian hack of the Dutch police and, more recently, the attacks with hostage software at Maastricht University, industrial group VDL and football association KNVB. The company also successfully delivered monitoring to customers and sold proprietary technology to protect trade secrets. Fox-IT’s strong reputation attracted the best technical talent for many years. In 2015, the company was acquired by the listed British NCC for 135 million euros.

Corporate culture clashes

This led to clashes about corporate culture and differences of opinion about course. “Actually, it was a total mismatch,” says a former executive. NCC Group from Manchester is more of a consultancy company, while Fox-IT is a technology company with long-term government contracts. These provide certainty, but are not the most commercially attractive option for a listed owner who is committed to maximum growth. For a long time Fox-IT, responsible for approximately 20 percent of NCC’s worldwide turnover, retained its own status within NCC Group.

In 2020, three board members tried to sell Fox-IT to a Dutch investor, fearing that the company would end up in foreign hands. NCC Group subsequently dismissed the three directors. Afterwards, the company seemed to be entering calmer waters. Contacts with the Dutch government were intensified with director Inge Bryan, who previously worked for the police and intelligence service AIVD. There was also more focus on event response and due to the many ransomware attacks, this was a profitable strategy.

But tensions remained in the background. These were reinforced by the poor economic climate – mainly in the United States – which forced NCC Group to cut costs and issued a profit warning in March. In a year’s time, NCC’s stock market value fell by 57 percent. Fox-IT did have a good year – and grew faster than NCC – but is paying the price for the parent company’s poor results. An insider: “Sacrifices must be made for the fair.” This means that everything that does not fit with the core activities of NCC Group will be sold.