Deloitte Australia acquires Hacktive

Deloitte Australia is purchasing four-year-old cyber security risk advisory firm Hacktive for an undisclosed sum.

Hacktive was founded in 2018 by prominent infosec specialists Chris Gatford and Keith Hazelwood, to provide vulnerability assessment, pen testing, MSSP services, and incident readiness and response.

Its 10 staff handle customers in financial services, health, utilities, retail, and the public sector.

After the acquisition, Deloitte said, Gatford will become a risk advisory partner and Hazelwood a risk advisory principal, working for Deloitte risk advisory managing partner Steve Jansz.

“The incoming team from Hacktive will elevate our current cyber practice, bolster our ability to provide managed cyber security services, and expand capability within our cyber intelligence centre,” Jansz said.

Ian Blatchford, Deloitte’s cyber leader, said the Hacktive team “will complement our existing capabilities, including our global network of cyber intelligence centres that have been helping clients understand and address their cyber threats for some years now.”

The Hacktive team is expected to formally join Deloitte on October 11.

Before Hacktive, Gatford founded HackLabs in 2009, which in 2013 combined with Pure Hacking, Certitude, Securus Global, Tesserent Australia and Rivium to become Pure Security.

Deloitte Australia was yesterday called in by Optus to conduct a post-incident review following a large-scale data breach at the telco.