Microsoft acquires cybersecurity firm RiskIQ

July 12 (UPI) -- Microsoft on Monday announced it has acquired cybersecurity firm RiskIQ to help customers better combat the threat of cyberattacks.

Microsoft said RiskIQ will allow its customers to address "the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks" as businesses become increasingly reliant on cloud services and remote work structures.

"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," Eric Doerr, Microsoft vice president of cloud security, wrote in a blog post.

"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."

RiskIQ's software aggregates threats identified throughout the entirety of a company's networks and helps businesses to understand and combat potential risks.

"We're joining Microsoft to extend and accelerate our reach and impact and are more committed than ever to executing our mission," RiskIQ CEO Elias Manousos said in a blog post. "We'll continue to work closely with our customers as we integrate RiskIQ's complementary data and solutions with Microsoft's Security portfolio to enable best-in-class solution attack surface visibility, threat detection and response."

The acquisition comes after a number of high-profile cyberattacks in recent months including a pair that shut down the Colonial Pipeline and processing facilities in Australia and the United States belonging to JBS, the world's largest beef supplier.

Last week, the ransomware gang REvil also demanded a payment of $70 million in bitcoin to release a decryptor tool after its attack on software provider Kaseya.