Deloitte cyber practice aims for growth with Root9B deal

The purchase of threat hunting specialist Root9B expands the scope of the cyber practice at Deloitte & Touche LLP, which aims to triple the size of its security business over the next three to five years.

Deloitte on Jan. 25 disclosed it has acquired substantially all the assets of Root9B, a company based in Colorado Springs, Colo., that offers managed services around threat hunting, threat detection and response. The transaction isn't the first for Deloitte in managed security services. The company in 2013 acquired Vigilant, a consulting and managed services firm focused on security monitoring and cyberthreat intelligence.

Acquisitions are part of Deloitte's plan to rapidly grow its U.S. cyber and strategic risk practice, which employs more than 5,000 professionals. The company will be "much more heavily doubling down" on inorganic growth, said Deborah Golden, Deloitte's risk & financial advisory cyber and strategic risk leader and principal.

In the meantime, Deloitte's cyber practice will be working over the next two months to integrate Root9B's threat hunting tools and services into its Detect and Respond offering. Root9B will contribute its threat hunting platform, threat hunting training, and credential risk assessment and analytics capabilities. The latter identifies weak credentials that adversaries are more likely to exploit.

Deloitte will offer its threat hunting training curriculum to clients as well as use the training internally. Golden noted the training will prove important for upskilling and cross-skilling resources.

Root9B's offerings let Deloitte provide a broader suite of services, which also includes cyberthreat intelligence, 24/7 threat monitoring and cyber reconnaissance, among other services. The end-to-end portfolio "will help clients move away from eyes-on-glass monitoring to more active engagement," Golden said.