Darktrace keeps growth vow with swoop for Cado
The St John’s Innovation Park company has revealed the proposed acquisition of Cado Security, a UK-based cyber investigation and response solution provider for the hybrid and multi-cloud world.
Cado delivers broad support across multi-cloud, container, serverless, SaaS, and on-premises environments, eliminating blind spots in incident response. The acquisition is subject to receipt of regulatory approval and is expected to complete in February. No price has been mentioned.
A leader in cloud data capture and forensics, Cado examines the intricacies of nearly any system, capturing a snapshot of data stored on the device and then conducting forensic investigations to uncover signs of compromise or threats.
Darktrace intends to accelerate the growth of Cado’s existing products through investment while also combining Cado’s forensic investigation technology with Darktrace’s existing ActiveAI Security Platform™, enhancing data collection across multiple cloud environments to better defend customers’ operations.
This richer data set can also enable significant augmentation to Darktrace’s Cyber AI Analyst™ which investigates alerts, streamlines investigations and prioritizes incidents, reducing workload and alert fatigue for customers’ cyber teams.
Cado was founded by James Campbell, CEO, and Chris Doman, CTO. Prior to founding Cado, James served as a Director at PwC building the Cyber Incident Response service. James’s background also includes a career in intelligence, previously leading Australia’s National Incident Response capability as the Assistant Director of Operations at the Australian Signals Directorate.
Chris is well known for building the popular threat intelligence portal ThreatCrowd, which then merged into the AlienVault Open Threat Exchange, and was subsequently acquired by AT&T. James, Chris, and the Cado team will be employed within Darktrace on completion.
The proposed acquisition represents Darktrace’s continued investment in its cloud capabilities, following the successful launch of Darktrace / CLOUD™ for AWS in October 2023 and its expansion to Microsoft Azure in October 2024.
Cloud security is becoming increasingly crucial in supporting customers’ cyber resilience in an AI age as companies migrate their data to cloud platforms as well as relying on cloud-based SaaS services for essential business operations.
Darktrace’s threat research identifies cloud and SaaS platforms as a common entry point for cybercriminals to attempt access to customers’ networks.
This, together with research from the 2024 Darktrace State of AI Cybersecurity report where security leaders identified cloud security as the top area where defensive AI could have the greatest impact, highlights the need for cloud-native AI-powered cybersecurity solutions.
The deal follows Darktrace’s acquisition by Thoma Bravo in October 2024 and highlights both companies’ commitment to accelerating Darktrace's growth through the development of AI-augmented cyber solutions for its customers. This includes through the expansion of Darktrace’s research and development capabilities to continue to drive product innovation for an evolving cyber threat landscape.
Cado’s R & D teams in London and Bristol will work alongside Darktrace’s established R & D centres in Cambridge UK and The Hague, Netherlands to drive further innovation in Darktrace’s Cloud Detection and Response capabilities.
Darktrace CEO, Jill Popelka says: “At Darktrace, we have a clear and ambitious strategy: to develop best-in-class cybersecurity solutions for our customers that keep them safe through continuous innovation.
“The addition of Cado’s deep expertise in cloud-based data collection and forensics will enhance our ability to protect customers, ensuring they can operate securely and confidently across all areas of their business.
“Together, Darktrace and Cado will help customers quickly and effectively prevent and deter cyber threats, maintaining resilience in a fast-evolving threat landscape.”