Microsoft to acquire data protection firm Secure Islands

Microsoft announced Monday that it has made a deal to acquire Secure Islands, an Israeli company that focuses on protecting companies' data. Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal. The acquisition will help Microsoft level up its Azure Rights Management Service, which lets companies protect files individually and in bulk with tools that ensure they aren't opened or modified by people who are unauthorized to do so. Secure Islands's services include data classification technology that automatically detects the creation of new files from a variety of sources and then applies a protection policy to it. 

In addition, Secure Islands already has experience with Microsoft's on-premises-based Active Directory Rights Management Service through its consulting business, which would seem to make it a natural fit for working with Microsoft's cloud-based rights management service. 

Secure Islands will continue selling its products to new customers and providing services to its existing customers while the acquisition makes its way through regulatory approvals. Microsoft said in a statement that Secure Islands will continue to provide support to existing customers going forward, though didn't provide specifics about what that would look like.