Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) firm, Demisto, was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in March as Palo Alto aims to strengthen its commitment to security. Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, made the announcement, stating "[w]ith the combination of Demisto and our existing threat prevention and response capabilities, we will be well-positioned to unlock the biggest challenges facing teams in security operations centers today.” He went on to say, "We are excited to welcome Demisto to Palo Alto Networks. While Demisto products will continue to be available to customers and partners, the integration of Demisto into Cortex will bring stronger automation and artificial intelligence capabilities to our platform, delivering greater protection across all environments."
Founded in 2015, Demisto was designed to automate and standardize incident response processes across products and teams for faster and more efficient remediation. In the acquisition, Palo Alto paid approximately $560 million (in cash and stock). "We have dedicated ourselves to the challenge of automation because we believe that relying on people alone to combat threats will fail against the scale of today's attacks," said Slavik Markovich, Demisto CEO.
Our Take
Demisto offers an effective product that will be welcome to Palo Alto’s growing security suite. Along with intuitive workflows, continuous learning, and end-to-end incident management, Demisto offers a scalable solution with playbooks ranging in levels of automation, designed to allow for various combinations of automation and manual response. Achieving a realistic balance will be a key goal as too much reliance on automation can lead to problems such as over-response and missed opportunities for learning. It is a strong acquisition for Palo Alto that, if managed properly, will lead to continued innovation in the security incident response space.
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