Accenture Shells Out $4.18B on Three Companies in Cybersecurity Push

Accenture shells out $4.18B on three companies in big industrial cybersecurity push

Accenture announced Thursday it would acquire a majority stake in industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos for $3.25 billion and purchase two smaller security companies outright, essentially making a $4.18 billion bet that defending the IT networks of power grids, pipelines, factories and critical infrastructure sectors will become one of the defining challenges of the AI era.

The deals — which also include two Austin, Texas-based companies, runZero and NetRise — represent a significant strategic pivot for Accenture toward operational technology (OT) security, a segment of the cybersecurity market that has long been underfunded relative to traditional IT defenses. The announcement comes as the consulting giant faces pressure on its core business from the same AI tools reshaping the threat environment it is now moving to address.

Law Firms Adopt AI Tools at Unheard-Of Pace as Enthusiasm Grows

More than three years after the generative AI boom began changing workplaces, legal-specific tools powered by artificial intelligence are now as commonplace as other software that’s long been a mainstay of an attorney’s tool box.

All 40 law firms with at least 500 attorneys that detailed a breakdown of their tech usage to Bloomberg Law’s Leading Law Firms survey said they used legal-specific AI tools in 2025. The results reflect a slight increase from a year ago, cementing the use of AI-powered legal tools alongside established technologies and signaling an appetite by many lawyers not to get left behind.

Data are self-reported in the Leading Law Firms survey, which the firms then in turn can benchmark themselves on technology and innovation, talent, growth, and financial strength. Firms were able to select which questions they answered.

The strong use of AI is being driven by high attorney enthusiasm for the technology, firms said.

AI Drafting Board Minutes? Hold Up, Wait a Minute. It’s Complicated

Key Points

• Using artificial intelligence tools to record or transcribe board meetings, or generate minutes, can create detailed records of confidential discussions that could create problems if they have to be turned over in litigation.

• In addition to the issues with minutes, other uses of AI by directors can pose legal problems. For instance, communications between directors and AI tools are generally not protected by attorney-client privilege, and AI-assisted materials may not qualify for work product protection — meaning candid exchanges with a chatbot, as well as AI-generated drafts, may be discoverable in litigation.

• AI-generated materials should be treated like any other records and should be preserved when litigation becomes likely.

InfoComm 2026: What Law Firms Can Teach the AV Industry

When Nyere Hollingsworth describes InfoComm as “summer camp,” he means it as a compliment. For the Managing Director of Endpoints and Workplace Experience Technologies at law firm Winston Taylor, the annual AV industry gathering in Las Vegas is a chance to reconnect with peers, absorb new ideas, and take stock of where the industry is heading.

But beneath the enthusiasm lies a serious message – one he delivered from the stage this year.

Hollingsworth spoke at a session exploring cybersecurity practices that AV professionals and end users alike need to take seriously.

“It has to be intentional,” he told UC Today.

For a law firm like Winston Taylor – whose clients include some of the world’s largest corporations and most powerful individuals – the stakes are particularly high.

CISO Diaries: Jason Stradley on Turning Cybersecurity into a Business Decision

One of the biggest shifts in cybersecurity over the past decade has been the evolution of the CISO from technical expert to business strategist. Few people have witnessed and helped drive that transformation more closely than Jason Stradley.

A four-time CISO, published author, and longtime security executive, Stradley has built a career around helping organizations mature their security programs without sacrificing business agility. Whether leading enterprise transformations or advising executives and boards, his philosophy remains remarkably consistent: cybersecurity exists to help organizations take risks safely, not eliminate risk altogether.

That perspective makes Stradley a natural fit for CISO Diaries, a series that explores how today’s security leaders think beyond the technology. Drawing on decades of experience across multiple industries, he shares why accountability matters more than tools, how CISOs can earn influence by speaking the language of business, and why the future of security will be driven by data, identity, and informed decision-making rather than an endless race to deploy more technology.

Business Email Compromise: Reducing Risk and Litigation Exposure

Business email compromise (“BEC”) attacks are one of the most significant cyber threats facing companies today, and the latest federal data show that the problem is intensifying. In its 2025 Internet Crime Report, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (“IC3”) reported that BEC alone accounted for 24,768 complaints and $3.047 billion in reported losses and was second only to investment fraud among cyber-enabled fraud categories by loss.

Phishing and spoofing remained the most frequently reported crime type, with 191,561 complaints, and IC3’s new AI-related descriptor captured 22,364 complaints and $893 million in losses, reflecting the growing role of generative AI and impersonation tooling in social-engineering attacks.

Insurance and incident-response data reinforce the same point. Coalition’s 2025 Cyber Claims Report found that BEC and funds transfer fraud accounted for 60% of total claims in 2024 and that nearly 30% of BEC incidents escalated to funds transfer fraud.