Microsoft has signed an agreement to acquire cybersecurity firm Hexadite. The Israeli based company was founded in 2014 and specializes in delivering automatic incident investigation and remediation solutions. In May, Israeli financial news website Calcalist said Microsoft would pay $100 million for Hexadite. Neither of the companies has revealed terms of the deal.
Microsoft says Hexadite’s technology will help commercial Windows 10 customers detect, investigate and respond to advanced attacks on their networks with Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (WDATP). Hexadite also confirmed that its cybersecurity technology will be used by users as part of Microsoft’s security portfolio. With Hexadite, WDATP will include endpoint security automated remediation, while continuing the incredible growth in activations of WDATP, which now protects almost 2 million devices.
Hexadite headquarters are based in Boston, with a team of researchers in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Following the close of the deal and after a period of integration, Hexadite will be fully absorbed into Microsoft as part of the Windows and Devices Group.
Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows and Devices Group, Microsoft said in a blog post,
Our vision is to deliver a new generation of security capabilities that helps our customers protect, detect and respond to the constantly evolving and ever-changing cyberthreat landscape. Hexadite’s technology and talent will augment our existing capabilities and enable our ability to add new tools and services to Microsoft’s robust enterprise security offerings.
Last month, WannaCry ransomware attack seemingly based on leaked NSA hacking tools affected more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries. According to a data from Kaspersky Lab, about 98 percent of the computers affected by the ransomware were running some version of Windows 7, with less than one in a thousand running Windows XP.