Microsoft Corp. has acquired Israeli security firm Hexadite Ltd., a company that offers automated incident response solutions to cyberattacks.

The price of the acquisition was not officially disclosed, but TechCrunch, citing sources, said the deal was sealed for a neat $100 million.

Founded in 2014, Hexadite claims to be changing the way cyberincident response is done, with an automated incident response solution that enables organizations to investigate every cyberalert they receive and close out incidents quickly.

While those claims sound like countless others in the cybersecurity market, where Hexadite gets interesting, and where Microsoft’s interest lies, is that it uses artificial intelligence to identify cyberattacks when they happen.

For Microsoft, the technology used by Hexadite will be seen by countless millions as it will be rolled out as part of the tech giant’s Windows operating system. “The acquisition will build on the successful work Microsoft is already doing to help commercial Windows 10 customers detect, investigate and respond to advanced attacks on their networks with Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection,” Microsoft said in a statement. “WDATP continues to prove its value in detecting high-profile security cases such as zero-day attacks, ransomware and other advanced cyberthreats.”

The company added that the addition of artificial intelligence-based automatic investigation and remediation capabilities to its WDATP product will mean cyberattack response and remediation will be “faster and more effective.”

Hexadite had raised $21 million over three rounds, making the reported $100 million acquisition price a nice payday. Investors in the company included Hewlett Packard Ventures, HP Tech Ventures, TenEleven Ventures and YL Ventures.

Image: 111692634@N04/Flickr