Microsoft acquires Cybersecurity Company RiskIQ as Ransomware threats grow

Microsoft confirmed on Monday the future purchase of San Francisco-based cybersecurity company RiskIQ to tighten up its security siege due to latest cybersecurity breaches, following the shift to remote working policies.

This proceeds the tech giant’s extended efforts to secure its customers and employees data against the recent exposure to cyberthreats.

The cybersecurity vendor will weaponize Microsoft with management tools and threat intelligence against a comprehensive range of cyberattacks across the tech titans cloud services.

RiskIQ’s cloud-based software exposes security issues and potential cyber breaches within networks. Its userbase consists of some of the world’s biggest tech companies, such as Facebook, American Express, BMW, and many more.

From its part, the tech giant has not issued an official and detailed proposal confirming the purchase of its site, and how it will incorporate RiskIQ’s software into its private security offerings.

Since Microsoft has been implementing additional security features, chances are it will utilize the software across Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Azure Defender, and ultimately Microsoft Azure Sentinel.

This comes as another attempt from the multinational company to widen its security horizon.

Last month, Microsoft purchased ReFirm Labs in an additional pursuit to protect devices at an elevated level, decreasing the broad security gap for attackers to exploit.

ReFirm is an emerging company in the risk-relief tech universe that has been adopted by more than 50,000 organizations worldwide, with decades of experience in hacking prevention and securing devices. The cybersecurity company’s main aim is to safeguard IoT-powered devices for an undisclosed amount.

As stated on Microsoft’s blog, implanting RiskIQ’s technology into their devices’ core will give its userbase the opportunity to create a more inclusive approach into universal threats exposing their business to unnecessary vulnerabilities.

“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. With more than a decade of experience scanning and analyzing the internet, RiskIQ can help enterprises identify and remediate vulnerable assets before an attacker can capitalize on them,” according to Eric Doerr, Vice President of cloud security at Microsoft.

Microsoft’s latest acquisition is one the software giant’s many attempts to progressively grow and enhance its security tools amid its intense battle with ransomware attacks.