Security Central: Microsoft Buys Cybersecurity Firm Hexadite, DocuSign and BT Go Phishing

Microsoft has been busy lately. The computing giant has made a series of acquisitions of Israeli software companies recently, and is reportedly about to do it again with cybersecurity startup Hexadite. On Wednesday, Israeli financial news website Calcalist reported that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Hexadite, which is headquartered in Boston, for $100 million.

According to CNBC, Hexadite specializes in investigating cyber-attacks and mitigating damage to systems by using machine learning (or AI). The company’s methods place emphasis more on identifying and addressing attacks swiftly as soon as they occur, rather than just preventing them. 

The deal, if it does indeed go through, would confirm that Israel is one of the hottest places right now for companies in terms of cybersecurity acquisitions, and highlights how security remains a huge focus in the world of technology – specifically enterprise IT. As businesses and providers alike search in earnest for ways to beef up their security and network protections, streamline tasks and masterfully handle the incredible amount of network traffic and data out there today, they’ll be clamoring for solutions like the ones Hexadite (and now, likely Microsoft) has to offer.

Our second story takes a look at a recent phishing scam aimed at eSignature technology company DocuSign and U.K. telecommunications firm BT. Over the past week, customers of DocuSign and BT were warned of hackers reportedly sending out phishing emails that looked legitimate, but actually contained malicious links. 

DocuSign reported last week that stolen customer email addresses were used to send out the fake/malicious emails on three separate days this month. According to a statement from DocuSign, “if a recipient clicks on the link in the phishing email, a Word Document will automatically be downloaded. In order to initialize the malware, the recipient will need to open the Word Document, and enable Microsoft Office Macros.” (As reported by Talkin’ Cloud).

In BT’s case, hackers took advantage of the WannaCry ransomware scare, preying on people’s fears during the mad scramble to protect their organizations. The phishing email that went out to BT customers certainly appeared as though it was sent by BT, with a convincing domain and branding. The emails were perfectly timed, too, because they “could easily catch out those who are concerned about the security of their data after the global [WannaCry ransomware] attack,” according to authorities.

Just another friendly reminder for providers to hammer home the importance of not clicking suspicious links, even if they looks legitimate, and to check the email header to identify the true source of the communication.

Our last story takes a look at the recent launch of Dome9’s Cloud Protection Partner Program. According to the press release, the company also signed a key partnership agreement with value-added distributor Westcon-Comstor to continue Dome9’s global expansion into the enterprise market.

This channel ecosystem was built to address the pressing needs of enterprise customers running workloads in public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Dome9 is mostly targeting AWS, Azure and GCP certified Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and resellers in North America, but also channel distributors in EMEA and ANZ, to join the partner program.

Jim Sortino, Dome9’s vice president of worldwide sales and operations, says that the customer base for public cloud services is shifting from early adopters and software developers who build and manage their own tools for security and analytics, to enterprises running mission-critical workloads.

“Enterprises are looking for managed services and platforms that they can use, especially in the security realm,” said Sortino. “This will create a massive business opportunity around providing enterprise-class managed services on top of one or more public cloud services catering to our customers.”

The huge uptick in public cloud adoption is certainly opening a lot of doors in terms of providers delivering this type of enterprise-class security solution to businesses. Definitely an opportunity to keep on radars. 

The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of Penton Media or The VAR Guy editorial staff.