Accenture Bolsters New Security Practice With Acquisition of 130-Person Security Solution Provider

Accenture struck a deal today to acquire Melbourne, Australia-based security services company Redcore, continuing to build up its new security practice by expanding it’s capabilities around government defense and internet of things (IoT) technology.

’We are buying Redcore, which is a very good boutique [security solutions provider] in the marketplace," Kelly Bissell, global managing director for Accenture Security, told CRN. "What we are after is a really important capability that they have around their (Government) defense area in Australia, as well as an IoT technology that I want to be able to leverage throughout the entire globe."

He said the acquisition is being made, in large part, for Accenture to increase the work it does with the Australian Federal government. It will also help Accenture continue to build out its security capabilities in manufacturing, medical and automotive IoT as it continues to create an end-to-end IoT solution for clients in those industries.

[Related: Accenture Bulks Up New Security Unit By Scooping Up Israeli Firm]

According to Bissell, Redcore’s experience deploying large-scale cybersecurity solutions – which the company has done for major Australian banks and government agencies – will help Accenture expand its work with the Australian government.

’After this acquisition, I think we will have the largest security practice in Australia by a pretty big margin,’ he said.

That size, he said, will not only help Accenture win more business with the Australian government, but also allow the company to focus on developing end-to-end security solutions for manufacturing, medical and automotive companies that work with IoT.

Currently, companies focus on securing their headquarters IT, he said. But with a client like a medical building or an oil rig, security threats exist across all aspects of the business.

For that reason, he said, Accenture is taking the competencies and technologies that Redcore has built and using them to implement new solutions that can secure a client from the ground up.

’With Accenture’s extensive global security resources, its methodologies and its interdisciplinary security ecosystem of innovators from across the world, we will be able to rapidly advance Redcore’s capabilities and innovate leading-edge solutions for clients, as well as provide excellent opportunities and career paths for our employees,’ Joseph Failla, co-founder of Redcore, said in a prepared statement.

Following the acquisition, Bissell said Redcore will be incorporated into Accenture Security, with Redcore’s offices in India, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore merged into Accenture’s own operations in those countries, bolstering Accenture’s security ranks with an additional 130 professionals.

’We are going to take each of our special sauces and make an even better special sauce,’ he said.

The deal is scheduled to close in mid-November according to Accenture. Financial details were not disclosed.

The acquisition is Accenture’s second following the launch of its cybersecurity unit, Accenture Security, in mid-June and its sixth investment in the cybersecurity space in the past 12 months. Accenture announced that it had hired Bisselll to lead the new security business at the same time it announced the new cybersecurity unit.

In August 2015, Accenture acquired Arlington, Va.-based FusionX, a provider of threat modeling and risk advisory services. Four months later, it acquired Cimation, a Houston-based specialist in secure industrial control systems and the industrial Internet of Things.

Then, in February, the company bought a minority stake in Israeli cybersecurity company Team8, quickly following that investment with the purchase of a minority share in cybersecurity software solutions provider Endgame Inc., of Arlington, Va.

Finally, on June 20, the system integrator acquired Israeli cybersecurity company, Maglan, adding improved security breach simulations, vulnerability countermeasures, cyber forensics and defenses against malware to its toolbox. That announcement came the same day it announced the formation of Accenture Security.

Accenture expects the cybersecurity unit to bring in well over $1 billion in annual revenue. The company expects to do that by addressing industry-specific security vulnerabilities and growing Accenture's presence in such areas as mobile security, and in traditional governance, and risk and compliance (GRC) consulting.