In the list of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions Microsoft has made in recent years, a $500 million purchase of cloud security firm RiskIQ may seem insignificant. However, this is a deal that is no less important than the LinkedIn, Nuance, ZeniMax, of GitHub headline grabbing acquisitions.
Microsoft has decided to purchase the cybersecurity company, which is used by 30% of Fortune 500 organizations. With over 6,000 global customers, RiskIQ provides cloud security for giants such as Facebook, BMW, and even the US Postal Service.
In a blog post to confirm the deal, Microsoft's cloud security VP Eric Doerr points out the deal will allow customers to “build a more comprehensive view of the global threats to their businesses, better understand vulnerable internet-facing assets, and build world-class threat intelligence.”
Microsoft is one of the leaders in cybersecurity and provides numerous tools to customers. As arguably the most popular enterprise software vendor, Microsoft products are the most targeted by threat actors. Security is now a major part of Microsoft's revenue stream, topping $10 billion in 2020 alone.
To shore up its own security offerings, Microsoft has been snapping up security firms recently. Among those purchase was IoT security startup CyberX and IoT firmware security provider ReFirm Labs.
“As organizations pursue this digital transformation and embrace the concept of Zero Trust, their applications, infrastructure, and even IoT applications are increasingly running across multiple clouds and hybrid cloud environments,” Doerr adds.
“Effectively the internet is becoming their new network, and it's increasingly critical to understand the full scope of their assets to reduce their attack surface. RiskIQ helps customers discover and assess the security of their entire enterprise attack surface—in the Microsoft cloud, AWS, other clouds, on-premises, and from their supply chain.”
Joining Microsoft
RiskIQ's Threat Intelligence and Attack Surface products will now become part of Microsoft Security alongside Microsoft Azure Defender, Microsoft 365 Defender, and Microsoft Azure Sentinel.
In a separate blog post, RiskIQ co-founder and CEO Elias Manousos says the goal is to continue to grow the brand within Microsoft.
“We'll continue to support, nurture, and grow this community with Microsoft. We'll also continue to grow and work with the valued members of our Interlock Partner Program. We're joining Microsoft to extend and accelerate our reach and impact and are more committed than ever to executing our mission,” Manousos says.
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