Tech giant Microsoft on Monday confirmed that it will acquire cybersecurity company RiskIQ in a move that expands Microsoft's growing security business. Bloomberg News on Sunday had reported Microsoft would acquire the San Francisco-based company for more than $500 million in cash.

The move comes after Microsoft acquired security startup ReFirm Labs in June and CyberX in June 2020. In January, Microsoft said its security revenue was up 40% in just the past 12 months, bringing in more than $10 billion.

“Today, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire RiskIQ, representing the next stage of our journey that's been more than a decade in the making. We couldn't be more excited to join forces to enable the global community to defend against the rising tide of cyberattacks," RiskIQ said on its website.

Founded in 2009, RiskIQ has more than 200 employees, according to LinkedIn. Battery Ventures and MassMutual Ventures are both investors of the start-up.

The deal is expected to boost Microsoft and RiskIQ abilities to expand and tackle the expansion of ransomware. RiskIQ will likely take over the many types of security tools offered by Microsoft.

"Today, Microsoft is announcing that we have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire RiskIQ, a leader in global threat intelligence and attack surface management, to help our shared customers build a more comprehensive view of the global threats to their businesses, better understand vulnerable internet-facing assets, and build world-class threat intelligence," Microsoft's Vice President of Cloud Security Eric Doerr said in a company blog post.

Microsoft already uses the system for its Microsoft Azure cloud, Amazon Web service cloud, and many other cloud set-ups. Doerr confirmed in the announcement that it also works with on-premises infrastructure.

RiskIQ built technology intended to keep up with the speed of growing cybersecurity concerns.

"We built RiskIQ's technology to address this new frontier and help customers see their attack surfaces and leverage threat intelligence from a global, outside-in perspective. By understanding the deep digital relationships in their unique attack surface and how it connects with the worldwide attack surface, organizations could know how they were most vulnerable and take swift and decisive actions against threats," the company said in a statement.

Ransomware attacks have become a growing threat, particularly after Russia-linked REvil used a sophisticated hack against SolarWinds that breached Microsoft, federal government agencies and other groups.