NEW YORK: Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has acquired Morphus, a privately held Brazil-based cyber defense, risk management and cyber threat intelligence services provider, expanding its practice capabilities in Brazil and Latin America. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 2003, Morphus is headquartered in Fortaleza, which is in the Ceará region in northeastern Brazil, with offices in Recife, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago, Chile. Morphus’s end-to-end portfolio includes red and blue team services; governance, risk and compliance services; enterprise risk management; cyber strategy; threat intelligence; and managed security services (MSS).

According to Accenture’s recent Cyber Threat Intelligence research, Brazil is one of the top victims of infostealer malware – a malicious software designed to steal victim information such as passwords.

“Together with the capabilities and experienced leadership of Morphus, we will work as one team to help organizations build a cyber resilient business and better secure their digital core, their technology and supply chains,” said Paolo Dal Cin, who leads Accenture Security globally.

“The acquisition brings more than 230 highly skilled professionals, making Accenture one of the largest cybersecurity professional services providers in Brazil. Our clients are always looking for the best solutions to strengthen their cyber defenses, and the addition of Morphus expands our global research workforce and network of talented, innovative security professionals.”

The acquisition expands Accenture’s portfolio and marks the launch of a Cyber Industry practice in Latin America led by seasoned former CISOs from Morphus. The new offerings also expand Accenture’s position in Growth Markets in Morphus’s primary industry groups: communications media and technology, financial services, energy, retail and aviation.

Rawlison Brito, CEO of Morphus, said: “We believe that security and science go hand-in-hand. With Accenture, we can continue our cyber threat research and expand our advanced studies of cybersecurity by collaborating with security research experts on a global scale. We are excited to join Accenture to offer our thought leadership and better serve our clients by providing market-leading services and stronger cyber defense protection in Latin America.”

With a strong footprint in Brazil and Chile, the acquisition brings to Accenture Morphus Labs, a research facility in Fortaleza dedicated to cybersecurity studies, vulnerability and threat analysis and MSS. This will add a new Cyber Fusion Center in Fortaleza to Accenture’s existing global network, which includes Morphus’s cybersecurity R&D capabilities.

Andre Fleury, Accenture Security lead for Latin America, said: “The cybersecurity team at Morphus will accelerate the growth of our Cyber Industry practice in the region, nearly doubling our security footprint in Brazil. The acquisition complements our global Security practice and will enable us to help our clients embed security by design and enhance the offerings we provide across a wide variety of industries in Latin America.”

Last year, Accenture was recognized as a leader in strategic security services and MSS in Brazil by ISG.

Since 2015, Accenture Security has made 16 acquisitions. Following its January 2020 acquisition of Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business, Accenture became one of the leading global providers of MSS. Accenture further strengthened its cyber defense and MSS capabilities through the acquisition of Brazil-based Real Protect, and European cyber companies Sentor and Openminded in 2021.