$5.4 will make Google Cloud more secure, said the company.
Google announced this week plans to acquire cybersecurity firm Mandiant in an all-cash transaction valued at the announcement at $5.4 billion. Following the acquisition, Google said Mandiant will become part of Google Cloud.
Mandiant (née FireEye) may not be a household name, but the company has played a prominent role in high-profile cybersecurity issues since it was created in 2004. Mandiant helped Equifax after its cybersecurity crisis in 2017. More recently, T-Mobile used the company following its “humbling” 2021 data breach.
But the cybersecurity firm is probably best publicly known for its help in identifying the infamous SolarWinds hack in 2020. The supply chain attack, allegedly the work of Russian hackers, affected a Texas-based developer of IT management software. The payload infected “government, consulting, technology, telecom and extractive entities in North America,” said Mandiant at the time.
Google sees enhancing security in Google Cloud as essential to address customer needs after increasing cybersecurity challenges. This acquisition will help them get there, according to Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud.
“Organizations around the world are facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as the sophistication and severity of attacks that were previously used to target major governments are now being used to target companies in every industry,” said Kurian.
Kurian’s company sees Mandiant as part of an end-to-end security stack for Google Cloud customers that includes zero-trust networking, virus and malware interdiction, analytics and cybersecurity consulting.
Part of an end-to-end cloud security suite
“Mandiant brings real-time and in-depth threat intelligence gained on the frontlines of cybersecurity with the largest organizations in the world. Combined with Google Cloud’s cloud-native security offerings, the acquisition will help enterprises globally stay protected at every stage of the security lifecycle,” said Google in a statement.
Mandiant has long offered its clients advisory services and threat detection and related intelligence. As more businesses move to the cloud, Mandiant has pivoted with a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering called Mandiant Advantage. Mandiant Advantage is an extended detection and response (XDR) solution which provides automated defense, security validation and managed detection and response capabilities. Google will help Mandiant Advantage reach a greater scale than ever before, according to Kevin Mandia, CEO, Mandiant.
“Together, we will deliver our expertise and intelligence at scale via the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform, as part of the Google Cloud security portfolio. These efforts will help organizations to effectively, efficiently and continuously manage and configure their complex mix of security products,” said Mandia.
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