Accenture [ACN] has acquired Maglan, a privately-held Israeli cybersecurity company, and will use its capabilities for a future cyber fusion center, the company said Monday.
Maglan focuses on offensive cyber simulation, vulnerability countermeasures, cyber forensics and malware defenses, and IT security research and development with a focus on threat intelligence. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel and founded in 1998, Maglan has operated penetration tests for several organizations in Europe and has clients in the financial services, telecommunications, and automotive industries.
Accenture highlighted this acquisition provides the company with “a team of highly skilled cybersecurity professionals, who honed their skills fighting cyber crime and confronting cyber espionage around the globe,” the company said in a statement.
Accenture plans to leverage Israel as a cybersecurity innovation hub in the future to provide clients with cross-industry cyber defense consulting. Maglan’s specialized tools and methodologies will also augment Accenture’s range of security services and defensive countermeasures, the company said.
Maglan is set to “form the core of a future Accenture Cyber Fusion Center in Israel and support Accenture around the globe,” the company said. These fusion centers aim to provide clients with one-stop access to a fusion of inter-disciplinary including innovation and incubation, strategic consulting and transformation, and managed delivery of a range of cybersecurity services.
Accenture already has three such fusion centers, in Manila, Philippines; Prague, Czech Republic, and most recently in Bangalore, India.
“Tackling the security problem from the perspective of the hacker is the name of the game. That’s why we are actively pioneering fundamentally differentiated approaches to cyber attack simulation, threat modeling, cyber investigations and security risk advisory services. With this acquisition, we are now able to further tailor services to our clients’ ever-changing security needs,” Omar Abbosh, chief strategy officer of Accenture, said in a statement.
“Whether due to spear phishing, malware or ransomware or a combination, the sophistication in attack vectors and cyber espionage is increasing. For nearly two decades, we have built robust security R&D capabilities and helped organizations across a broad range of industries adopt active cyber intelligent-driven approaches to address the rapidly evolving threat landscape and defensive mechanism,” Shai Blitzblau, Maglan president and co-founder of Maglan, said.
“We are excited to join forces with Accenture worldwide, and to work with its cyber team here in Israel and across its network of Cyber Fusion Centers,” Blitzblau added.
Accenture also highlighted this Maglan acquisition is the fifth investment the company has made in cybersecurity companies in the last year. Other investments include the acquisition of FusionX (Defense Daily, Aug. 6, 2015), the acquisition of Cimation, a minority investment in Endgame Inc., and a minority investment in Team8.
The financial terms of the Maglan acquisition were not publicly disclosed.