Microsoft has confirmed that it has acquired Israeli cyber security company Hexadite. The deal was first publicised just over two weeks ago by financial news website Calcalist. Microsoft is believed to have paid around $100m for the company.
Hexadite developed a product called AIRS (Automated Incident Response Solution) that connects to other security detection systems and uses artificial intelligence to investigate and mitigate threats.
Its customers include Internet of Things specialist company Telit and AI communications company Nuance as well as at least ten other companies.
It claims that its software can reduce the time it takes to respond to a security threat by 95 per cent.
The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with a research and developmental arm in Israel, and has raised $10.5m in two rounds of equity funding from four investors: YL Ventures, TenEleven Ventures, Mosche Lichtman, and Hewlett Packard Ventures.
The team is led by its three founders: Eran Barak, who is CEO, Barak Klinghofer who is chief product officer, and Idan Levin, the company’s chief technology officer.
Barak told TechCrunch last year that the company wanted to use the funding from the likes of Hewlett Packard Ventures to increase its overall employee base of 20.
This would include doubling its sales team in the US from five to 10, and adding more engineering expertise to the R&D team in Israel. He also suggested the company would open up a UK sales office.
After the latest round of funding of $8m, Barak suggested the funding should carry him for 18 months to two years before he would need more.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Hexadite comes following a string of bad news for the company in terms of security. It’s operating system software has been found to have been exploited by the US National Security Agency, and has been at the centre of a global ransomware scare.
It’s latest Windows 10 Enterprise operating system, meanwhile, has been accused of ignored group policy privacy settings, making it unsuitable for many security-focused applications.