UK Cybersecurity Firm Darktrace Buys Cybersprint

Darktrace, a British cybersecurity company, has bought the Dutch firm Cybersprint in a deal valuing the latter company at €47.5 million ($53.7 million), UKTN reported Wednesday (Feb. 23).

Darktrace said it plans to integrate Cybersprint’s attack surface management tools with its own detection and response products.

The report said Cybersprint’s ethical hacking and real-time internet data insight will be used to expand Darktrace’s existing detect and respond products, saying it will accelerate its entry into the proactive artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity market.

The deal will likely close March 1.

Darktrace will also get a second European R&D center out of the deal. That will be used to support its U.K. software engineers.

Pieter Jansen, CEO of Cybersprint, said, “We believe attackers never sleep and operate without scope. When we began conversations with Darktrace, we felt an instant connection on vision, culture and technology.”

Meanwhile, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson said it was crucial to bring “inside-out and outside-in visibility” together and that having access to more external, real-time data along with Darktrace’s own AI capabilities “means that customers get a holistic view of prioritized cyber risks to harden the parts of their organization that are most vulnerable.”

Read more: Microsoft, Darktrace Partner For Cloud Cybersecurity

Last year, Darktrace partnered with Microsoft on a project to offer AI defense on the cloud to help protect personal information and intellectual property, PYMNTS wrote.

The companies said in a joint press release that the combined security system would provide self-learning AI that detects and autonomously responds to cyberthreats, covering several environments and products.

The partnership came at a time of heightened need for security, with more cyberattacks happening in the wake of the pandemic.

Clare Barclay, Microsoft U.K. CEO, said AI protection was an important need as the attacks became more sophisticated.

One example of this was with Antigena Email, which makes use of Darktrace’s autonomous response technology and will let users send and view threat alerts and investigation reports.