Deloitte acquires Sydney cyber consultancy Hacktive

Deloitte has bolstered its managed security services with the acquisition of Sydney-based cyber consultancy Hacktive.

Hacktive’s 10-person team specialises in vulnerability assessment, penetration testing and incident readiness and response. The company will join The Big Four’s professional services firm.  

Among them are Hacktive’s founders Chris Gatford and Keith Hazelwood who launched the firm in 2018 to service clients in the financial services, health, utilities, retail and public sectors.  Gatford will become a Deloitte risk advisory partner, and Hazelwood a risk advisory principal.

Gatford, commenting on the acquisition and his new appointment in a release said: “cyber risks are global and evolving faster than organisations can react.”

“Hacktive focuses on helping clients understand the security vulnerabilities of their networks, applications, premises and people and delivering the right solutions.”

“Keith and I have built our business over a relatively short period of time on understanding the market and employing a team of highly experienced cyber professionals. We’re aligned with Deloitte, its strong client service focus and its workplace culture, and looking forward to taking our offerings to another level.”

Deloitte risk advisory managing partner Steve Jansz added, “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. We’re excited to be bringing them to our RiskAdvisory practice and to Deloitte.”

“We are seeing strong demand from our clients across the spectrum of end-to-end cyber capabilities, helping to implement robust cyber strategies and solutions to achieve organisational outcomes, build resilience, and reduce potential vulnerabilities.”

Deloitte's acquisition of Hacktive follows the firm launching its own threat-hunting software-as-a-service platform last week to bolster its security offering.

Deloitte’s Managed Extended Detection and Response platform uses technology from Amazon Web Services, CrowdStrike, Google Cloud Chronicle, ServiceNow, Splunk, Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler.