Microsoft to Acquire Hexadite

Hailing from Israel, Hexadite specializes in automated incident response, addressing the often lengthy gap between detection and remediation when security mishaps occur.

To further expand upon what the company already provides, Microsoft has announced its intentions to acquire Hexadite, a company that offers agentless, automatic incident investigation and remediation solutions.

Although Microsoft said it wasn't disclosing terms of the agreement, a previous report said the tech giant paid $100 million for the Boston-based firm. Regardless of price, this is the latest in a growing line of security acquisitions by Microsoft, which previously included Aorato, Adollom, and Secure Islands.

Once the deal is finalized, Hexadite will be absorbed into the Windows and Devices Group, headed by Microsoft executive vice president Terry Myerson. The company raised an $8 million round of funding past year from Hewlett Packard Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, and YL Ventures, which was in addition to $2 million in seed funding it garnered previously.

Microsoft said the acquisition will build on the work it is already doing with Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (WDATP) to help commercial Windows 10 customers detect, investigate and respond to high-profile security issues including zero-day attacks and ransomware.

Those capabilities include automatic investigation and remediation, powered, in part, by artificial intelligence. Hexadite's technology and talent, he added, will augment Microsoft's existing capabilities and enable them to add new tools and services to their enterprise security offerings. The company claims that its technology helps to increase productivity while reducing costs for businesses. WDATP already protects nearly 2 million devices.

Faced with an increasingly complex threat landscape, IT companies are snapping up security vendors that can help their customers avoid becoming the victims of a hack or breach.