Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 37 Deals Announced in October 2026

SecurityWeek tracked 37 cybersecurity merger and acquisition (M&A) deals announced in October 2026.

For a look at last year's activity, see SecurityWeek's 2025 Cybersecurity M&A Report, which covers more than 420 deals.

Here are some of the most important cybersecurity M&A deals announced in October 2026:

Absolute Security acquires FirmGuard

Endpoint security and cyber resilience firm Absolute Security has acquired FirmGuard, the UEFI BIOS firmware security and management business of Phoenix Technologies. Absolute will integrate FirmGuard with its firmware-embedded Absolute Persistence technology, adding below-the-OS management, continuous firmware integrity monitoring and patching, and compliance enforcement.

Aikido Security acquires OutKept and Cyberly

Belgian application security unicorn Aikido Security has acquired OutKept and Cyberly and used the two startups to launch Noon, a workforce security business. OutKept is based in Belgium and provides phishing simulations and security awareness training. Poland's Cyberly develops AI-powered attack simulations and tools for tracking employee AI usage. Both deals closed in September but weren't made public until October.

Anthropic to acquire Opaque Systems

AI company Anthropic has agreed to acquire Opaque Systems, a confidential AI company that grew out of research at UC Berkeley. Anthropic has described the deal as licensing Opaque's technology and hiring some of its engineers, reportedly including CEO Aaron Fulkerson and CTO Rishabh Poddar. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

Canadian AI developer Cohere has signed a letter of intent to acquire AISLE, a startup whose autonomous AI systems find and help patch vulnerabilities in critical software. AISLE's roughly 50 employees will join Cohere, which is setting up a cybersecurity unit called Cohere Cyber. AISLE CEO Ondřej Vlček, the former CEO of Avast, will become its senior vice president.

Hex-Rays, the Belgian company behind the IDA Pro reverse engineering tool, has agreed to acquire HexAI, an Israeli startup founded in 2025. HexAI's AI agents analyze source code and binaries to uncover vulnerabilities, malware and backdoors. The deal is reportedly worth $30 million to $35 million. Hex-Rays plans to grow HexAI's Israeli operations and build new AI-powered research tools.

Quantum computing company IonQ has agreed to acquire zero trust security firm Elisity in an all-stock deal worth up to $1.3 billion, including up to $150 million in performance-based earnouts. IonQ will combine its post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution technology with Elisity's IdentityGraph platform, which enforces least-privilege access for users, devices, workloads and AI agents. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Thoma Bravo-owned Proofpoint has agreed to acquire data security company Varonis for roughly $6.3 billion in cash. Together, the companies want to offer a single platform for discovering and protecting sensitive data, controlling access to it, and preventing data loss as organizations adopt AI.

Other cybersecurity M&A deals announced in October 2026:

Acture Solutions acquires Digital BackOffice

Bregal Milestone acquires Majority Stake in Nethive

Bytes Technology Group to acquire CyberOne

EC-Council acquires Cyber Insurance Academy

Forte Technologies acquires Business Cyber Security Solutions

GCubed acquires RightDirection Technology Solutions

Macnica to acquire Majority Stake in CyberSec IT Consulting

Maximus to acquire Agile Defense

Protectt.ai acquires Majority Stake in AIShield

SAIC acquires Information Security Corporation

Sequrio acquires Althammer & Kill, DATATREE and Nextwork

SGS acquires Majority Stake in Prescient Security

V-Key acquires Majority Stake in CloudsineAI

Vista Equity Partners to acquire HID's PKI Business

Xopero Software acquires Vigil Guard

Related: Cybersecurity M&A Roundup: 39 Deals Announced in September 2026