SAN FRANCISCO — NTT Security, the cybersecurity arm of Japanese telecommunications giant NTT, signed an agreement to buy application security provider WhiteHat Security for an undisclosed amount. After the acquisition closes, WhiteHat Security will operate as an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Security.

“As an industry, we’ve realized very lately that the application is what matters. They run our finances, our military, our defense systems, our personal and social life, and yet they are horribly protected,” said WhiteHat Security Chief Strategy Officer Joseph Feiman in an interview at this week's RSA Conference.

“NTT Security is focused on protecting IT infrastructure, and with more applications running on that IT infrastructure that need to be secured, WhiteHat fills a very important gap in their portfolio,” added Setu Kulkarni, WhiteHat’s vice president of strategy and business development.

WhiteHat’s cloud-based platform addressed this problem using a DevSecOps model. It continuously scans and identifies vulnerabilities in companies’ websites, web applications, and entire source code, and provides vulnerability descriptions and remediation advice.

Founded in 2001 by former Yahoo security officer Jeremiah Grossman, the Santa Clara, California-based company has raised $50.6 million to date.

Acquiring WhiteHat will extend NTT Security’s portfolio to protect customers’ IT infrastructure as well as their business-critical applications, said NTT Security CEO Katsumi Nakata in a statement. “By bringing WhiteHat Security into our portfolio we are now well positioned to deliver on our vision of securing a smart and connected society by providing comprehensive security solutions for enterprises undergoing digital transformation,” he said.

From WhiteHat’s perspective, the acquisition will give it access to a global market. “As a startup we come up with great innovations but we need a launch pad to launch our technology globally,” Feiman said, citing NTT’s network spread across six continents in 195 countries, in addition to its 10 security operations centers and seven research divisions. “We are getting access to the world now.”