Microsoft buys its third Israeli security company

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On Monday, Microsoft confirmed rumors that it would be purchasing its third Israeli security company.

The tech giant announced in a blog post that it had officially acquired Secure Islands Technologies, a data security firm. While Microsoft officials declined to say the exact amount,ZDNet reports that sources familiar with the deal said the price was around $77.5 million.

According to Microsoft, the company plans to merge Secure Islands’ technology into its existing Azure Rights Management Service to assure the companies Microsoft works with are up to code with compliance and protection requirements of clouds for on-premises and mobile data.

Secure Islands’ main product is IQProtector, which the security firm describes as a “policy-driven classification and protection solution.” IQProtector is able to collect unstructured data when it is created, and then classifies it based on its content and context. The software is already integrated into Microsoft's Rights Management Services technology for file and email protection.

And this is hardly Microsoft's first time buying a security startup based out of Israel. In September, Microsoft purchased Adallom – a cloud security vendor with its R&D efforts headquartered in Tel Aviv – whose technology monitors the software-as-a-service applications for Salesforce, Google, Amazon, Dropbox and Microsoft.

Microsoft also bought Aorato, another cloud security company, in 2014, which has since been rebranded as Advanced Threat Analytics and was founded in 2011 by Israeli Defense Forces veterans.